You probably know what happened by now, but let's just recount those final seconds. The Bulls had just battled back from six down to tie the score at 90, setting up Derrick Rose to take the last shot. Rose tried to drive the lane himself, but was met by a wall of Bucks and stripped by Khris Middleton. After a timeout and with 1.3 seconds left, Jerryd Bayless successfully cut away from Rose, took the inbound pass from Jared Dudley and made an easy layup at the buzzer.
Rose was quick to take the blame for the loss after the game, which wasn't unwarranted. After all, the last of his game-high eight turnovers cost the Bulls a chance to escape from a bad game. Plus, his defense off the ball at the end was as bad as could be in that or any situation. For one night, Rose chose to be crucified for all the right reasons.
But it wouldn't be fair to put the blame squarely on Rose. Every Bull in the rotation except Kirk Hinrich, who played only 38 seconds, had at least one turnover. The team gave up 12 offensive rebounds, leading to way too many second chances for Milwaukee. The nightmare that was the final seconds could have been avoided if the Bulls could have rebounded and taken care of the ball when they had it.
Tom Thibodeau did nothing to deflect criticism of riding his main guys too much. Only two of his five bench players went at least 20 minutes and the other three played less than nine each. For comparison, the four Bucks who came off the bench saw the floor between 23 and 29 minutes apiece. If Gar Forman and John Paxson choose to rid themselves of their head coach after this year, they'll use this game among others to support their reasoning.
Game 4 was the game every problem the Bulls have had this series came to the forefront. Don't let those earlier three wins fool you. Many times, they've had an inordinate number of turnovers, been beaten on the boards and simply let the Bucks hang around longer than they should. It's the latest example of the Bulls not respecting the quality of their opponent and paying the price for it.
Don't worry too much about the Bulls closing out Milwaukee. Ultimately, they're still the better team and two of the next possible three games are scheduled to be at the United Center. It would take a total collapse for them to make the wrong kind of history. It's the next round we should be worried about.
The inevitable second-round matchup with the Cleveland Cavaliers is less than a week away. Since LeBron James returned from an injury in January, no team in the NBA has been better. If the Bulls want to live beyond the conference semifinals, they must quickly correct the aforementioned issues, even if it's coming so late in the campaign. Otherwise, they might be swept right out of the playoffs.
Teams superior in both talent and chemistry will carve up turnover-prone opponents like a Thanksgiving turkey. We saw it happen quite a few times during the regular season. It gets worse in the playoffs, when everybody is playing at their very best. Whether turnovers are a reflection of the players or something related to the coach, nobody cares when they want to win a championship as much as you do.
To be fair, the Bulls have taken the Cavaliers more seriously than they have against most other teams throughout this season. Perhaps somehow, they'll play smarter on a mission that they can truly hang with the best player in the NBA. James' teams are 3-0 against the Bulls in the playoffs, so that's quite a chip on the team's shoulders. The goal of bringing James down has been there for a long time.
But even if the Bulls can somehow get out of that round, the path beyond is no better. Atlanta and just about any remaining playoff team in the West play at a level just as high, if not higher than Cleveland. It's a shame that we have to talk about this when this supposed to be the year the Bulls finally a realistic shot at a championship. They've brought this on themselves with the mistakes they've made both against the Bucks and throughout the season.
It's all about consistency in the NBA. That means taking care of the ball, taking opponents seriously and above all, closing out games. The Bulls have done poorly on all of those fronts far too often this season. If there's ever been a team that's won it all even with those issues, I'd like to know more about it.
At this point, the Bulls can only make steps toward improving themselves for the better teams. That begins with Game 5 at the United Center. Rose has already let what happened to end Game 4 leave his mind. The question is whether every other Bulls player and fan will too.
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