For Bulls, playing a Game 5 might be a blessing
The Bulls have another chance to finish this first-round series in Monday's Game 5. We asked Bulls analyst Will Perdue for some thoughts on the upcoming game and Saturday's loss at Milwaukee.
Q. Looking back at the Bulls' final possession of Game 4, should they have given the ball to Jimmy Butler instead of Derrick Rose? Butler scored 33 points, after all.
A. I still think Derrick should have had the ball. But I would have put Jimmy on the right side of the floor instead of Kirk Hinrich. Kirk was the one who was down in the corner.
If you go back and look at the play - we went over it a couple of times on the postgame show - Derrick attacked the right side like he normally does and three defenders came at him. That's when he crossed over, went right to left. Khris Middleton came from the back side and picked his pocket. That was actually Jimmy's man who came and got it.
Usually, you try to stay at the level of the ball or below so the guy with the ball can see you. But when Jimmy's man went to double, he actually ran toward Derrick, instead of running parallel to the sideline, which I thought was odd. I would have run the play and put Jimmy on the same side as the ball, because Kirk hadn't played the whole game. He came in for defensive purposes.
Q. True, one side effect of the Bulls not calling timeout before that play is they had their defensive lineup on the floor. Kirk, Taj Gibson and Joakim Noah had just checked in for Pau Gasol, Mike Dunleavy and Nikola Mirotic.
A. I would have liked to see them force the Bucks to double with Jimmy's man so you can put the ball in his hands at the end. I have no problem with giving it to Derrick. The last thing you expect is a turnover, but he's had a problem with turnovers in this series. If the Bulls had 27 turnovers on Saturday, they probably win the game. But they had 28.
To me, a lot of their turnovers are just careless, trying to thread the needle too much, trying to make the spectacular play instead of the fundamental play. It's just not necessary.
Q. Obviously the Bulls have a nice cushion after building a 3-0 lead in this series. What do you see as being important for Game 5?
A. One of the things Tom Thibodeau has talked about the whole time is continuity. They just haven't had the luxury of having their full lineup available. They had the starting unit together for 21 games. Over an 82-game season, that's not very many.
So at the end of the day, this Game 5 might be a blessing in disguise. It gives them another game of Derrick on the floor with his teammates and a chance to work on their deficiencies. If they win this game, the earliest they'll start the next round is Saturday, so they'd still have four days off.
We talked about how they might not have that full sense of urgency in Game 4 because they were up 3-0. But now you don't want to go to a Game 6, because that would be Thursday.
Now you're causing a problem, because you don't know what's going on with Taj - eight minutes in the fourth quarter, no points, 1 rebound. Jo is just struggling; I think his knee is bothering him.
This team needs rest. It also needs game reps, so maybe it will help to play another game. But they've got to win this one because they need rest.
• Will Perdue is an analyst for Comcast SportsNet's Bulls pregame and postgame shows. A four-time champion (3 Bulls titles, 1 Spurs), he played 13 seasons in the NBA. Follow him on Twitter@Will_Perdue32.