Chicago Bulls shoot down the Atlanta Hawks; Advance to the conference finals with a 93-73 win – Part 1
The Chicago Bulls booked their place in the Eastern Conference finals with a 93 – 73 win against the Atlanta Hawks. The men from the windy city were dominant throughout the night and controlled the game from start to finish at
the Philips Arena in Atlanta. The Bulls have not been to a conference final since 1998, when Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen led them to 2nd three-peat.
Derrick Rose however played down the win, and the fact that the Bulls are going to the conference finals after 12 years. After the game Rose said that this Chicago team had not achieved anything yet that it wasn’t expected to,
"It's not surprising me at all, where we're at right now," Rose said. "We know that we have something special in front of us."
On a disappointing night for the Hawks, Joe Johnson and Josh Smith were the only players who crossed the 10 point mark. Johnson had 19 points and Smith added 18 to Atlanta’s cause. Jamal Crawford continued to struggle with just
8 points. Crawford was a standout performer for Atlanta in the first round, averaging 20.5 points per game, as well as in the early part of the series. His poor form has been a major factor in the Hawks’ demise.
It was a team effort from Chicago; however two players managed to shine more than the others. League MVP Derrick Rose was the usual suspect with 19 points and 12 assists. Rose took only 14 shots, but he really hurt Atlanta by repeatedly
finding his teammates with open looks. Carlos Boozer, who had struggled in this series so far, was the other. Boozer got a game high 23 points and he also hauled in 10 boards.
The Bulls started the game brightly and didn’t look back afterwards. Chicago’s early 11 – 4 sprint got them into a lead, one, which Atlanta couldn’t overcome throughout the game. Derrick Rose gave a sample of what was to come from
him in the first period as, although he had only 5 points, he dished out 4 assists. Chicago went ahead by as many as 12 at one point and closed the quarter with a ten point lead, at 27 – 17.
The second quarter started with Atlanta playing more aggressively as they tried to get back into the game. However, Chicago always seemed to have an answer for them. The Bulls’ 7 – 0 run in the middle of the quarter left the Hawks
trailing by 17, the largest gap of the first half, with 4:24 remaining. However, Atlanta finally managed a stretch where they outscored the Bulls, late in the first half. The Hawks ended the second quarter with a 10 – 3 run as they headed into the locker room
trailing by 10.
Atlanta’s perimeter offense struggled in the face of relentless pressure from the Bulls as they didn’t make a single three point shot in the whole first half.
Atlanta Hawks also suffered a blow with an injury to stand in point guard Jeff Teague, who wasn’t effective at all in the game. Teague had just 4 points and he attributed the poor performance to the knock suffered, "It was pretty
bad," Teague said. "It was pretty tough to hold the ball. There was no way I could shoot the ball."
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