Chicago Bulls vs Detroit Pistons Game 3 Preview and Prediction

Written by Alleks

Thursday, 10 May 2007

vs

Chicago Bulls vs Detroit Pistons (0-2)

Game 3 prediction

96 - 94

Press clippings

Pistons overrebound Bulls

The Bulls were a plus-35 on the boards against the Pistons in the regular season, averaging 17 second-chance points in four games. In the first two playoff games, the Pistons are a plus-29 with 33 second-chance points.

"As much as we can, we have to take pressure off our bigs," Hamilton said. "With bigs helping so much, we have to box out their man. We weren't doing that earlier in the season."

The other factor has been the Bulls' insistence on fronting the post and playing more zone. They are playing in front of Rasheed Wallace and Chris Webber, which puts the Pistons in better offensive rebounding position.

Antonio McDyess status

Antonio McDyess was at practice Tuesday, though part of his attention was in Mississippi with his ailing grandmother.

Saunders said there were no plans for McDyess to return to Mississippi, but that obviously could change at any time.

"Playing at home, they will have more of a comfort level," Pistons coach Flip Saunders said. "They will play better. But it's a mind-set. And our mind-set has been all year that we play better on the road. We seem to thrive on that type of environment."

Pistons are better than usual in this series

The Pistons are converting 48.6 percent (18-for-37) from three-point range in the series -- 14 percent higher than their regular-season percentage.

''I don't want to say they're playing over their heads because they're a great team, but their numbers are higher than usual,'' Gordon said. ''We have to be more aggressive defensively and make them miss those shots. We can't have them out there getting confidence early.''

Chicago home court factor

Have you forgotten what the Bulls' record was in games played at the United Center? It was 31-10.

No team from the Eastern Conference had a better record at home than the Bulls. No team in the entire NBA other than the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks won more home games than the Bulls.

I did pick Detroit to win this series in six games, true. But I fully expected each team to sweep at home through Game 4, which still could be the case.

By Barry Rozner (Daily Herald Sports Columnist)
With the Pistons playing very hungry, and knowing the sterile United Center offers limited homecourt advantage, it leaves the Bulls with limited traditional options for climbing back into the series.

So it’s time for something radical:

Start 6-foot-9 Tyrus Thomas in place of P.J. Brown, spread the floor, put Ben Gordon and Thomas on the same side, and run the pick-and-roll until the cows break curfew.

Let Gordon fire and have Thomas go to the bucket with a vengeance, instead of sitting back and getting roughed up and pushed around.

Have Thomas drive the lane, dunk, pick up fouls, and introduce mayhem to this series.

Run Luol Deng off double screens on the other side, and spread the Pistons’ defense, creating some isolations, and someone’s got to be open. Otherwise, their help defense will continue to crush the Bulls’ offense.

The Bulls have got to give the Pistons a different look at some point, right, or are they just going to sit back and get waxed?

Skiles said he met individually with every player Tuesday morning to take a measure of their confidence level and attitude heading into the next two home games. He described the players as “upbeat.”

“This is how (the Bulls) grow. You move up and play better talent. Don’t discount (the positive effect of) the Bulls winning that series against Miami. When you are coaching in a game like this, you try to find something you can carry into the next game. Scott Skiles is getting (Tyrus Thomas) a lot of minutes. I think this is a great move by Scott Skiles.

Experts analysis

Former Bulls coach Doug Collins, game analyst for TNT:

“All of these (Detroit) guys are skilled basketball players. They can pass, they can move without the ball.

“I think it would be very difficult, unless something dramatic happens, for Chicago to win four of the next five in this series.”

Charles Barkley, TNT studio commentator:

“The Bulls can’t beat them, they can’t stop Rip Hamilton or Chauncey Billups, but the real problem they have is guarding Chris Webber.

“(Webber) can make the outside shot, so Ben Wallace has to stay close to him. So when (the Pistons) initiate their offense, it keeps Ben Wallace away from the basket. Wallace is not going to get hustle points, and they can’t match up with Chris Webber and they can’t match up with the two-guards.”

Betonbasket analysis

Playoffs and regular season are different leagues and playoff Pistons are completely different from reg. season Pistons. That's for sure. I see this team playing seriuosly today because they don't want to repeat last year mistake when they were too much confident and relaxed in playoffs. But I still can't outline who are the Bulls? They beat Heat in first round and public really loved them and now they are coming to their home where they were playing very strong this year (31-10). That's the only thing which scares me to pick Pistons today. Pistons defense is stronger over predictable Bulls offense with Deng, Gordon or Hinrich shooting a ball from the long distance. While in defense Bulls have problems because Pistons can stretch their defense and score 3-pointers without big pressure on them. That was a factor not only in this series for Pistons but against Magic they also scored many 3 pointers, so I don't think that Pistons are playing better than they can. They simply started to play at their level in playoffs - that's my point of view on the way Pistons playing right now.

I think that today we will see much more agressive Bulls offense and they will finaly start to score points and will up their shooting percentage which was very low in Detroit (33% comparing to 45.5% in reg. season). This should help to score around 94-98 points and if they will be able to defend against Pistons well they will win this game if no they will lose it by something like 94-98. But if we are talking about spread betting I would choose Detroit handicap because I see only 2 outcomes of this game close Chicago win or Pistons will steal one game from Chicago today. Also don't forget that Detroit Pistons are 21-9 ATS in the last 30 meetings against Chicago Bulls.