Bulls need to 'get back' to defense in Game 3

Now, it's not entirely clear if Tom Thibodeau is a music connoisseur or if he simply dons headphones and listens to the sound of basketballs bouncing when he wants to relax.

But his theme for the Bulls heading into Friday's Game 3 at Philadelphia has a lot in common with a certain Beatles song off the "Let It Be" album: Get back.

The Bulls let the 76ers shoot 59 percent from the field in Tuesday's 109-92 loss at the United Center. That's the team's worst defensive performance in the two years Thibodeau has been head coach, and blame is being pegged on Philadelphia's 25 fastbreak points.

"You get easy baskets early in a game, you're going to get confidence," Thibodeau said following Thursday's practice at the United Center. "A team gets confidence, they're much harder to shut down."

The Bulls had just 8 turnovers in Game 2, which means there is more to the fastbreak problem than simply coughing up the ball and watching it go the other way.

"It's floor balance," Thibodeau said. "The thing is, they fly. They leak out. They're small, they're quick, and when they have Thaddeus Young on the floor, it's like having another small out there.

"So you can't have just one guy back (on defense) and you can't have two guys back. On the raise of the shot, you have to have the discipline to be back. Not on your way back, but be back."

Thibodeau didn't offer any complaints about the offense. In the first two games of this series, the Bulls have averaged 97.5 points and shot 48.1 percent from the field, which should be good enough to win most of the time.

Obviously, they can't give up 59 percent shooting again or lose the rebound battle. In Game 2, the Bulls were on the short end of both overall rebounds (38-32) and second-chance points (10-9).

"Defense and rebounding, that's the whole key," Thibodeau said. "You've got to be able to count on those things."

This series was supposed to be fairly routine for the Bulls, as the No. 1 seed playing against No. 8. Now that Derrick Rose is awaiting knee surgery, it figures to be a dogfight.

Keep in mind, when the Bulls were thumped in Philadelphia 98-82 on Feb. 1, the Bulls had an 18-6 record, and the Sixers were closing fast at 16-6 and looked like they might challenge for one of the top two spots in the East.

Their reputation dropped due to a midseason slump.

"As this series goes on, the X's and the O's, the adjustment, the tape you watch and everything - it comes down to the will to get where you're supposed to get, the will to get that rebound, the will to get that 50-50 ball," Sixers coach Doug Collins told reporters in Philadelphia.

"I like where our guys are. They're very confident. (The Bulls) know their advantage is to try to mash us. Their guys are bigger and stronger inside. We have to try to meet that."

How much it will help the Sixers to be playing at home remains to be seen. They haven't played a game at the Wells Fargo Center since April 17 and haven't won there since March 31.

"We played terrible at home," Luol Deng said. "That game is gone. Now it's another game, another opportunity to go out there and try to win. We've got a lot of guys on this team that are fighters. We're going to fight our way out of it."

mmcgraw@dailyherald.com