The Chicago Bulls are facing a critical situation in their NBA Eastern Conference playoffs first round series with second seeded Boston Celtics as they prepare to play Game-4 of the best of 7-games series. After stealing Game-1 and home court advantage, the Bulls fell in Game-2 in a hard fought battle. Surprisingly, Chicago was pounded at United Center losing 107-86 in Game-3. Sunday afternoon, the Bulls can do one of two things. They can win Game-4 to even the series or lose only to fly off to Boston and face elimination in Game-5. Chicago has been very good at home so it will be interesting to see what shows up today.
NBA Playoffs oddsmakers list the Bulls as 3-chalk favorites on the SBGglobal.com betting board with a 200 total. Chicago is a -155 favorite on the SBG Global moneyline while Celtics backers are getting +135 moneyline odds.
On Thursday in Game-3, the Bulls lacked poise and rushed shots. Rookie of the year Derrick Rose struggled against aggressive double teams the past two games scoring 10 in Game-2 and nine in Game 3, while committing seven turnovers. All this a contrast to his brilliant play in the series opener. Ben Gordon also struggled going from 42 points to 15 on Thursday.
Bulls center Joakim Noah said it's on the big men to make the Celtics pay. That means crisper passes, not necessarily more scoring from him, Tyrus Thomas and Brad Miller. The Bulls need to swing the ball and find openings when the guards are doubled.
"Our bigs are good passers,'' Noah said. "We can make plays. I don't think we did a great job of that (in Game 3).''
That they didn't was a surprise, given the way the Bulls played down the stretch. The Bulls hit the 100-point mark in 13 of the final 17 regular-season games, scoring at least 91 each time, after a 107-79 loss at Orlando on March 11. It was more of the same in the first two games of this series before the Celtics finally clamped down.
Today's game can be seen on ABC at 1 p.m. ET.
