Empty the Bench

As hard as you might try to scrub it off, bad blood stains. It spreads. The names change, the years pass by, the game evolves, but in the end, disdain and contempt perserveres, lurking in the shadows, ready to awake from over 15 years of slumber. Yes, one of the greatest rivalries in NBA history is alive and well, and there’s about to be another chapter added to the story. Detroit Pistons versus Chicago Bulls. The best of friends, these two proud franchises are not.

It’s been a long time since Isiah Thomas’ Bad Boys finally succumbed to the impending greatness of Michael Jordan’s Bulls in 1991. The Pistons walked off the court in frustrated humiliation with nary a handshake or congratulations for their rival to be seen. That day saw their mini-dynasty and postseason domination of Chicago come to a grinding halt. While the Bulls went on to enjoy a spat of championships, the Pistons were reduced to middle-feeders, a team suffering from old age, poor draft choices, and faceless coaching. Indeed, the mid-90s were cruel to Detroit. The rivalry was put on hold; no contest, the Bulls had the upper hand.

Fast forward a few years, when Grant Hill moves to Orlando in exchange for a pack of nobodies that included Ben Wallace. Boom, a solid Pistons team becomes a good Pistons team. Larry Brown takes over the coaching duties, Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton are brought onboard, Tayshaun Prince is plucked at the bottom of the first round, and Rasheed Wallace becomes the final ingredient of a championship. Meanwhile, the post-Jordan Bulls are in full rebuilding mode, an afterthought in the Central Division. Again, no rivalry here.

That all changed last summer. With GM Joe Dumars confident that Big Ben would be resigned as a free agent, the unthinkable happened (at an unimaginable amount of money): Wallace signs a four-year, $60 million deal with the team’s old rival, the Chicago Bulls. He joined a squad loaded with young, scrappy talent–Ben Gordon, Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich, Andres Nocioni–that flirted with an upset of the Miami Heat in last year’s playoffs. Throw highly touted rookies Thabo Sefolosha and Tyrus Thomas into the mix, and suddenly NBA prognosticators are predicting the dawn of another new era in Chicago… and, in turn, another eminent fall from grace for Detroit.

Not so fast. The Pistons (mostly) didn’t miss a beat, especially after the midseason arrival of Chris Webber, and finished the regular season with the East’s best record. Meanwhile, the Bulls lose their last game of the season, freefalling into the conference’s fifth seed and a date with the defending champion Heat. A Pistons sweep of the Orlando Magic wasn’t the least bit surprising; the Bulls sweep of the Heat was shocking to most.

The stage is set. The rivalry is back and as heated as ever. It’s been well over 15 years since this much has been on the line between the Pistons and the Bulls. Are the Bulls destined to walk in the footsteps of Jordan’s Bulls, repeatedly falling to Detroit in the playoffs before finally gaining the upper hand? Or will the Pistons’ championship hopes end in bitter defeat and no congratulatory handshakes? Empty the Bench breaks down the matchups, gives you a few things to watch for as the series unfolds, and looks into our shiny crystal ball to let you know how it’ll turn out.

Backcourt
This is where the Bulls will need to assert themselves and, at a minimum, match the play of their counterparts. You’re going to read a lot about perimeter shooting and penetration in regards to Chicago, and for good reason. With little to no offensive production in the post from their starting bigs, the Bulls heavily rely on the sweet shooting strokes of Ben Gordon and Kirk Hinrich (with Chris Duhon and Sefolosha coming off the bench). The Heat had no answer for any of these guys, and that was the main reason they were swept… well, that and their shameful arrogance.

Gordon, especially, was hard on the Heat. Over his first four games of the postseason, he’s averaging 25.5 points on 44% FG and 40% from three-point land, along with over 5 boards and 5 assists a night. This guy can light it up from anywhere on the floor, get to the hole, and put points on the board in a hurry. He will need to continue his high level of play, and ideally elevate it just a bit more.

Hinrich had somewhat of an off series against Miami, often finding himself in early foul trouble, which he’s prone to doing. Indeed, he averaged 4.5 personals a game, tops on his team. His team will probably need more than the 11 points he averaged against Miami, but his pesky defense is just as vital. During the regular season against Detroit, Hinrich was extremely successful at irritating Billups and Hamilton to the point where these two normally team-oriented players wanted to get back at him so badly that they’d come down on offense, ignore set plays, and try to take him one on one. More often than not, that led to charges, frustration, and missed shots on Detroit’s part, and you can bet this trend didn’t go unnoticed by Scott Skiles. It’s essential for Heinrich to stay on the court.

After their frontcourt teammates held the keys to the first-round sweep of the Magic, it’s now the All-Star backcourt of Billups and Hamilton’s turn to step up. Though Jameer Nelson and Grant Hill are no slouches, the onus for beating Orlando largely centered around containing Dwight Howard. Once that’s accomplished, the rest falls in place. In their series against the Bulls, however, it’s just the opposite: keep Chicago’s perimeter threats under wraps, and the chips should fall in Detroit’s favor. That means closely contesting all outside jump shots, staying out of foul trouble, forcing turnovers, and not allowing dribble penetration by either Gordon or Hinrich, thereby giving them easy looks for Ben Wallace and PJ Brown dunks and wide-open jumpers from Deng.

Billups has a distinct size advantage on Hinrich, so look for him to stick out that big ol’ butt of his and try to post him up as much as possible. The 6-7 Hamilton has about four inches on Gordon, and a lot more length, so it’s imperative he also uses this mismatch to his advantage. Against Orlando, these two combined for 40 points, 10 assists, and just 4 turnovers a game. Billups shot a staggering 52% from the field. As long as they keep their cool and don’t get caught up in taking their man one on one, look for those combined averages to see a slight uptick against Chicago. Chauncey Billups is nicknamed “Mr. Big Shot” for a reason, and he thrives in heated situations such as this. He’s the deciding factor in this intriguing matchup.

Frontcourt
It’s all about defense for Chicago’s bigs. You know what Ben Wallace brings to the table–rebounding, energy, weakside defense, steals, blocks–and you can bank on him expending every ounce of energy in his body for the duration of this series. He wants to beat his old teammates, badly. With $60 million owed to him over the next four seasons, he doesn’t have to worry about justifying his move to Chicago last summer. Still, his decision would look that much more correct if he’s able to help knock out Detroit and take his team to the conference finals. Veteran PJ Brown is on the last leg of his long career, and along with Andres Nocioni will be counted on to bang with Rasheed Wallace and rebound the ball.

The key frontcourt matchup, however, is at the small forward spot, where Tayshaun Prince will be tasked with shutting down, or at least slowing down, rising star Luol Deng. It was Deng’s coming-out party in Round One against Miami, as he finished with per-game averages of 26.3 points (tops for the Bulls), 58% FG (!!), 9 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1.75 steals. We’ve mentioned it before, but one of the most amazing things about his game at this point in his career is the remarkable restraint he shows in avoiding three-point shots. A lot of young guys will not hestitate to hoist the longball, but Deng is mature enough to recognize that he doesn’t yet excel in that area. As such, he just doesn’t shoot them–ever. During the regular season, in playing all 82 games and logging 37:30 minutes a night, he attempted just seven from beyond the arc. Once he adds this to his repertoire–and he will–the 22-year-old is going to be quite the all-around player.

If there’s anyone up to the task of guarding Deng, however, it’s the Palace Prince. Every player is different, but the member of this year’s All-NBA Defensive Second Team has been called upon to man up with Tracy McGrady, Reggie Miller, Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, etc in past playoffs, and has succeeded on most fronts. In fact, he made the first significant impact of his professional career when coming in off the bench strictly to bother and harass McGrady when his Magic had a 3-1 series lead on Detroit back in the ‘03. As you know, his D was suffocating and the Pistons came back to win the series. Don’t expect to see Deng spotting up for half as many wide open shots as he did against Miami with Prince on the floor. To aid his defensive effort, look for Prince to make Deng work on the other end of the court, too, as he’s no slouch with the ball himself. Against Orlando, Prince averaged 16.5 points a night on 53% shooting… and 70% from behind the arc.

This is the kind of series Rasheed Wallace relishes, though something tells us that we won’t be seeing any “Rasheed Wallace mic’d up” segments on TNT. As expected, Wallace significantly stepped up his game once the postseason began, and though he wasn’t consistently dominating, his ability to stretch the defense with his outside shot, then take it back down on the post and mostly get whatever shot he wanted to, heavily tipped the scales in Detroit’s favor against the Magic. No matter who Skiles throws at him–Big Ben, Brown, Nocioni, Ty Thomas–’Sheed will have a height and length advantage that he must capitalize on. Say what you will about Wallace’s regular season effort; come playoff time, this guy is a difference-maker, and we fully expect him to make life for the Chicago Bulls very difficult in this series.

The key for Chris Webber is very simple: stay out of foul trouble and nail the mid-range jumper. If he can successfully force Brown or Wallace out of the key to defend, it’s really going to open things up for Hamilton, Billups, and Prince to slash to the hole for relatively easy looks at the basket. Going against his predecessor in Detroit should give him added motivation to perform at the top of his game, but he obviously gives up a lot of quickness to Wallace. Still, he too has a height advantage, and should be able to get that lazy baby hook of his all day. If C-Webb has the outside/inside game going, the Bulls will be in trouble.

Bench
Both of these squads have incredible depth and can go eight, nine deep when they need to. For Chicago, Andres Nocioni is a backup who will likely log starter minutes. He’ll be heavily relied upon to bring grit, defense, rebounding, and three-point shooting he’s known for. Having recently said the Bulls will win this series, though, and still suffering from pain in his foot, he’ll be a marked man, especially when he’s assigned to ‘Sheed Wallace. When Wallace posts him up down low, the Argentinean has no chance. Expect to see Nocioni follow the lead of Heinrich and do his best to irritate the Pistons and get them thinking about him and not the task at hand. Don’t be surprised when he lays some hard fouls on, say, Rip Hamilton either.

Chris Duhon will see significant minutes at the point, and can be a dangerous outside shooter and scrappy defender. Rookie Thabo Sefolosha displayed flashes of brilliance in containing Dwayne Wade in the first round, and during the regular season he recorded one of his better overall performances against these Pistons, logging 11 points and 10 boards in an April 4 blowout. Fellow first-year player Tyrus Thomas didn’t get much action against Miami, but his energy and athleticism will be needed much more against Detroit. Adrian Griffin will see very limited minutes.

For Detroit, Antonio McDyess has been one of the most valuable Sixth Men in the NBA since January. He’s one of the most effective pick-and-pop players on the team, and when he’s on, Dice is very capable of putting up anywhere between 15 and 20 points a night, along with strong rebounding numbers. He shoots a high percentage from the field and plays tough defense. Everyone outside of Ben Wallace is going to encounter difficulty manning up with Dice, so keep your eye on his performances as the series wears on.

Carlos Delfino, a controversial inclusion on our Top Eight Ballhawks of the NBA list, is playing with tons of confidence and will have to produce both offensively and defensively. Lindsey Hunter didn’t see much time in the Orlando series, but his quickness and pesky defense will likely earn him more time against Chicago’s perimeter-oriented offense. Flip Murray will also see some minutes at the point. Dale Davis and Jason Maxiell are two more bigs that will see some time; keep your eyes on J-Maxx whenever he’s on the court. This kid can ball.

At the End of the Day . . .
The Chicago Bulls are a rising powerhouse in the Eastern Conference. In fact, they’re already one of its top three teams. GM John Paxson has done an incredible job of building his roster and coaching staff, and though I’m not a fan of his egotistical ways, Scott Skiles deserves a lot of respect for the job he’s done these past few seasons in molding his core group of young guys. The Ben Wallace signing was not cheap, but his veteran leadership and championship pedigree have been invaluable; it was the right move to make. Throw in yet another lottery pick this June, courtesy of Isiah Thomas via the Eddy Curry trade, and you’re talking about a team that could potentially be stacked for the foreseeable future. After years of bottom-feeding, it’s a new day in Chicago.

Still, they’re just not ready yet. This Detroit Pistons team is hungry for a championship, and they’ve had a full week to listen to the national media heap loads of praise on the Bulls and stop just short of calling them unstoppable. The Pistons are at their best when they feel disrespected, and though they’re not unanimously considered the underdog in this series by any means, they’re going to approach these games with a chip on their shoulder. Just the other day, the normally cordial Tayshaun Prince was visibly tired of all the Luol Deng talk, saying after practice that “Everybody’s got Deng questions. I guess I’ve got to play defense.”

It’s going to be a closely contested series, but I don’t think the Bulls are quite as good as the Miami Heat made them look. The Pistons have too much size, too much confidence, and way too much playoff experience and mental fortitude to succumb to the Bulls… for now. Look for the Pistons backcourt to outplay the Bulls’ backcourt, and for Prince to make it his personal mission to put all the Deng accolades to rest for awhile. Rasheed Wallace, too, will give the Bulls fits. So what’s that all amount to? It says here . . .

Pistons in Six