Bulls Close-Out Hawks In Six 93-73..
Bring On The Heat & The Eastern Conference Finals
by Mark Rotor
Chicago cruised to a 93-73 blow-out victory defeating the Hawks in
Atlanta 4-2 in their best of seven series to clinch a birth in the NBA
Eastern Conference Finals. For the first time since the end of the
Jordan era 1998, the Chicago Bulls advanced to the Conference Finals
this time led by the 2010-11 NBA MVP Derrick Rose. In 1998, Jordan’s
Championship team faced the Indiana pacers led by Reggie Miller and won
in a seven game, hard fought series. This time Chicago takes on the
NBA’s “Super Team” the Miami Heat with their All-Star contingent of
2010 free-agents Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh.
A big night for
Carlos Boozer who had a clutch break-out playoff performance
scoring 23 points to lead the Bulls. He shot an impressive 10 of 6 and
collected 10 rebounds. Boozers said with regards to his toe injury, “It
just gets a little better every day.” Boozer took full advantage
of multiple screen-rolls opportunities involving Derrick Rose to sting
the Hawks. Bulls Head Coach Thibodeau said, “He doing a lot better.
Offensively, you can see he got his bounce back.” Teammate Derrick Rose
said, “It’s Huge, he (Boozer) made some plays when guys played off him.
He really shot the ball. It’s good for his confidence going to the next
game.”
NBA 2011
Playoffs Atlanta Hawks Vs Chicago Bulls Game 6 Highlights 5/12/11
From the first tip-off Chicago
dominated the game. Early they grabbed a 10 points lead and held it
till half-time 45-35. By the end of the 3rd quarter Chicago’s stifling
defense, outstanding rebounding allowed the Bulls multiple fast break
opportunities. They expand their lead to 70-55 margin in the 3rd and
won the game by a comfortable 20 point margin. “Against a solid
defensive team you have to commit to moving the basketball said, Head
Coach Larry Drew. “At times we did it, at times we didn’t. When you try
to manufacture points for your self, their defense would not let us
stay on one side of the floor. We did not respond to it tonight.”
Rose
acted as a facilitator delivering assist (12) and scored 19 points
including a two-handed power slam in the third quarter to punctuate
Chicago dominance. ‘We are happy, the fans our happy and we want to
keep on going,” Rose said. “We made every thing tough on them by
playing with a lot of pace. To make the game easy I had to attack.”
Chicago
now focuses on the Miami Heat who handled the former World Champion
Boston Celtics in their best of seven series in a impressive 5 games.
During the regular season Chicago beat Miami in all three games
including the March 6th battle in Miami 87-86. Since then, the 2nd seed
Heat have improved their team defense and now the “big three” appear to
be confident and effective their roles as play maker (Wade), scorer
(James) and rebounded/shooter (Bosh). The highly talented power trio
and their team now appear to be back on track improving their
performance in the playoffs and will likely be Chicago’s most difficult
foe in their quest for a championship. “It's gonna be a great
match up and I look forward to it,” Boozer Said. "It's gonna be fun,
they are a great team, its gonna be a tough." said Rose.
