Bulls at Hawks
THE STORY: The Chicago Bulls team that showed up for Game 3 was a lot more like the club that had cruised through the regular season with the best record in the NBA. After regaining home-court advantage with their most dominant performance yet, Derrick Rose and the Bulls have the Atlanta Hawks right where they want them heading into Game 4. The Hawks will need to go back to the drawing board and find a new way to defend Rose when they host Chicago in Game 4 on Sunday.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, TNT
ABOUT THE HAWKS: Atlanta surprised plenty of people with a relatively easy victory in Game 1. The Hawks flew into the United Center and grabbed a 103-95 victory behind 34 points from Joe Johnson. But things have not been quite as easy in the last two games, as the Bulls have rediscovered their focus on the defensive end and the Hawks have been unable to keep pace. Johnson slumped to 10 points in Friday’s Game 3, shooting 4-of-12 from the floor. The bright spot again was Jeff Teague, who has recorded over 20 points in each of the last two games while filling in at the starting point guard spot for the injured Kirk Hinrich.
ABOUT THE BULLS: A bum ankle did not appear to have any effect on Rose on Friday, as the league MVP poured in a career-high 44 points to go along with seven assists and five rebounds. After struggling with his outside shot in the first two games, Rose buried 4-of-7 3-point attempts in Game 3 and went 16-of-27 from the field overall. Chicago jumped out to a 19-point lead in the second quarter and kept it to double digits the entire second half. Atlanta drew to within 11 points in the fourth, but Rose buried a pair of 3-pointers during an 11-0 spurt to put it away.
WHO’S HOT/WHO’S NOT: Since going off for 22 points in Game 1, Jamal Crawford has totaled 18 on 5-of 17 shooting in the past two games for the Hawks. Luol Deng had a rough night on Friday, held to single digits for the first time in the playoffs when he finished with seven points on 3-of-10 shooting for the Bulls.
KEY STATISTIC: Rebounding. Chicago has dominated the boards in its two wins, building up a 105-73 advantage on the glass in the two contests combined. Joakim Noah has been the most prolific, pulling down 29 rebounds in the past two games.
LAST WORD: “I saw an energy level that, right away, I knew we were in trouble,” said Hawks coach Larry Drew, who called his first timeout just 49 seconds into the first quarter on Friday. “When you play an explosive guard like Derrick Rose, you have to make a commitment to getting back and making sure you try to keep him out of the paint. He’s too fast and too explosive.”