Bulls look to bounce back

Boston Celtics vs. Chicago Bulls
8:00 PM ET, February 16, 2012
United Center, Chicago, IL
Coverage: TNT

It was just a few days ago, when these two teams meet up in down town Boston for what has become one of the newest eastern conference rivalries. The Boston Celtics came away with the victory, an important point to bring up is that MVP Derrick Rose did not play in that game due to back spasms, but in all fairness the Celtics were without the starting center O´Neal, 6th man Brandon Bass and captain Paul Pierce did not have the best of days, going 4 for 10, scoring a career low 9 points.

The Boston Celtics know what it takes to win; they have done it more times than any other team in the NBA, but with so many injuries, bench players and rookies are looked upon to produce much more, in the case of the Celtics bench, they have shined at the opportunity, with rookie like JaJuan Johnson, who is averaging 10 points a game in about 15 total minutes, while big guys like Chris Wilcox and Michael Pietrus have helped relive the pressure from the other older starters. Ranked second in defense overall has them happy, but 26th in offense is a big concern, and they will have little to adjust before heading to Chicago.

The Chicago Bulls want revenge, keeping the game close the entire time, within 2 or 4, it wasn’t until about 8 minutes left in the 4th quarter, that the Celtics blew up and extended the lead to 12. Fighting as always, the Bulls did not give up and climbed back into the game making it a 3 point match with about one and a half minutes left, but the Celtics at home were simply too strong and ended up winning the game by 5. The Bulls rank atop the best in the league, 3rd in defense, 9th in overall offense and 2nd in rebounding while rounding out the top categories in 3rd for assists, by far on paper the better team in the NBA.

The Celtics know that they will be entering a hostile environment and the Chicago fans will play a key role if the Bulls are successful, making noise and creating issues of communication for the Celtics, which will eventually have an effect and I see Rondo making a few errors based on the fact that he simply cannot hear his coach or teammates. The Bulls will have to watch their fouls and not depend so much on the tre-ball. I like the Celtics in this game to make another statement like the one they made on back to back games against the Magic, they still have their championship blood in them and it has started to bubble.