The Bulls end a disappointing 2008 at home versus the Orlando Magic on December 31. The United Center will be a great comfort, as the Bulls have been on the road their four prior games. They will be trying to start 2009 on a high note and hopefully jumpstart a winning streak that finally pushes them beyond mediocrity. As for the Magic, they are trying to escape the snow-filled Windy City with a win and return home to beaches and sand castles.

Both teams match up well against one another on paper. Each team averages about 100 points a game, shoots about 37 percent from the three-point line, turns the ball over about 14 times a game while averaging about 19 assists, and collects about 40 rebounds a game. But, if Chicago wishes to make the Magic disappear and come away with a win, then they must follow these five vital keys of the game.

Rebounding

Sure, this is something fundamental that is stressed during each game, but for the Bulls to win, their “bigs” need to come up big. Drew Gooden is having a fine year, averaging a shade below 10 rebounds a game. That’s fine and dandy, but when you’re going against the premier center in the entire league (a perch he’ll hold with little resistance for many, many years to come), Dwight Howard, you have to make sure you box him out and try to hold him below his 14 boards a game (which is among the league leaders).

If Gooden gets into early foul trouble, then things could get a little scary for the Bulls, as he is the only player on the team averaging more than six rebounds a game. If Gooden leaves the court, you’ll see Howard licking his chops, because he knows that basically any carom that bounces off the rim will be his for the taking.

Besides Howard, the Magic have a few other tall players in Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu (both 6’10”) who cause a lot of rebounding mismatches. Since they’re both above-average shooters as well, they usually require the attention of a quicker, smaller defender to stay with them.

The Bulls can still pull out the “W”, however, because they have some big guys who can bang and get some rebounds as well. It would make coach Vinny Del Negro’s life a lot less worrisome if the team did keep pace with the Magic.

Guard Tempo

The strong play of phenomenal first year guard Derrick Rose will dictate the Bulls’ offense. He is the team’s catalyst, and his energy electrifies his teammates. Rose had one of his finest all-around games in the Bulls’ win against the Nets on Monday. He recorded a career-high 13 assists and added 21 points as well.

Rose’s backcourt partner, Ben Gordon, also is on a roll of late. After taking over as the Bulls all-time leader in three-pointers, Gordon continued his success beyond the arc with five more treys.

With that tandem dropping dimes and treys with consistency, the Magic will have all kinds of trouble stopping just one of them, let alone both.

Momentum

After losing the previous three road games, the Bulls finally won a game away from the United Center when they beat the Nets by 13 at their place. By defeating the Nets, the Bulls ended a 13-game losing streak at New Jersey that started in April of 2001.

The Magic, however, enter the game on a low-note as they were defeated at Detroit by six points. This put an end to their recent seven-game win streak.

The “momentum factor” won’t play a major role in the game, seeing as both teams are only on a one-game winning/losing streak, but like I mentioned earlier, ending 2008 on a high should bring a positive vibe in the locker room once 2009 hits.

Free Throws

Every coach throughout all the ranks of basketball stresses the so-called easiest shot in the game: The free throw. They emphasize it because that simple one-point basket often determines the outcome of the game.

As a team, the Bulls are top five in the league when it comes to free throw percentage. The Magic, on the other hand, are . . . how do I put this lightly? Horribly, awfully bad! In fact, Orlando is the worst free throw shooting team in the NBA.

This statistic is quite deceiving, however. While Howard’s struggle at the charity stripe (more on this later) considerably lowers the team’s percentage, other major contributors to the team have high marks. Setting aside Howard, the next top five scorers for the Magic all have a free throw shooting percentage above 84 percent.

With all that being said, the Bulls must be aware of the personnel on the floor at all times when they’re on defense. If the subs are in the game giving some of the starters a rest, the Bulls can afford to be more aggressive and go after the ball, because if they get called for fouls, the odds will be in their favor that Orlando will struggle from the line. Also, if the game is tight during crunch time, Chicago can exchange possessions by fouling the weaker-shooting players for Orlando.

Dwight Howard

I know I’m not going too far out on a limb in saying that Howard will make an impact on the game. He influences every aspect of the game on defense and offense just as former all-star centers Shaquille O’Neal and Hakeem Olajuwon did years ago. With the exception at times of Yao Ming and a resurgent Shaq, Howard is leaps and bounds the best center in the NBA. No offense to Gooden, but he’s going to labor all game trying to contain the Magic’s franchise player.

So how do Gooden and the rest of the Bulls try to slow down Howard’s all-around game? After all, he is averaging a team-high 21 points and is among the NBA’s best in rebounding and blocks per game. No only that, but he’s very efficient offensively. His 57 percent field goal percentage is incredible as well.

In order to gain an advantage when Howard is on the court, the Bulls might have to conduct the “hack-a-Shaq” (well, in this case it would be the hack-a-Howard) tactic, just as Gregg Popovich of the Spurs did recently against Shaq in last year’s playoffs.

While I mentioned earlier that five of the top six scorers on Orlando shoot 84 percent from the line, Howard is the lone one who doesn’t. Because he shoots so many free throws during the year, Howard is the outlier causing the free throw skew. At just about 57 percent, his free throw percentage is basically the same as his regular shooting percentage!

Sure, the fouling scheme can be considered kind of cowardly, but if a team has a liability on the court, then it will be exploited by their opponent.

This huge deficiency sometimes leaves Howard on the bench during the end of close games. Many times coaches will substitute poor free throw-shooting players in and out for defense and offense during critical times of the game.

For all the great things Howard does on the court, the Bulls can take advantage of this hindrance. Again, this is why a single player can, in fact, directly influence the game, and that is why Dwight Howard is a major key to the game. As the big man goes, so do the Magic.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (Registered users only)

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment