Sixers-Bulls Game One Recap: Sixers And (Maybe) Bulls Lose

The playoffs started today with Sixers and Bulls at United Center. Bulls started the game off with focus, and kept it going throughout. Sixers spent a great deal of their beginning, middle, and even end taking jumpers. In the end, Sixers lost 103-91, but the Bulls lost too. If there was one problem this team has, it’s penetrating the rim. Some awesome bullet points:

• Jrue Holiday had trouble taking care of the ball; costing some valuable potential points.
• Andre Iguodala had 11 points but on 3-11 shooting; mostly on jumpers. As smart as Andre is, you have to really question his reasoning for those terrible shots.
• Spencer Hawes should not be on the Sixers roster come next season, and for the rest of his career.
• Back to Jrue, he actually shot 7-18 and made a free thrown for 16 points and had 7 rebounds. He only had 3 turnovers and I say that because it seems like he had 10. Jrue actually had a nice game.
• Elton Brand and Evan Turner were the only two players that seemed to have the fire. This concerns me.

Sixers spent most of the game playing catch-up. That was to be expected. But, again, didn’t have that playoff fire. It was a 20 point game at one point but it was an average deficit of maybe 7 points for most of the time. Sixers were hanging on despite poor play. They did end up trailing by 11 by half time. To start the 3rd quarter the Sixers made a little push but you couldn’t help but think that they never really put a scare into the Bulls. The last 8 minutes of the 2nd quarter was probably when things started falling apart.

Jodie Meeks probably shouldn’t start. I wanted Turner to start, and he did for the 2nd half which I think sort of explains the decent second half start. Like I said, Hawes shouldn’t be on the team for the rest of his career: player and if he were to somehow become a coach, gm person. He missed a wide open layup. For one thing, you’re 7 feet tall. DUNK. But hey, he’s such a great passer and really keeps the ball moving. Or something like that.

And the possibly big news is the Derrick Rose injury. The Sixers were down 14 with like a minute left. For some reason, most of the starters for the Bulls were still in the game. Not like Sixers were making a big run or anything. So Rose is doing his usual penetration when he takes a hop and his knee bends the wrong way as he comes down. If you saw his face and how he couldn’t even try to walk it off, you’d realize that something went wrong. Could it be ACL? (Ask Elton Brand). At this point, we don’t know anything. Seems like a coaching error to me but Bulls’ coach is known for playing his guys too long. While it probably won’t cost them in this series, if they want to beat the Miami Heat, they’ll need Rose to be 100%.

If it’s a serious injury, then this series just got very interesting. Before I move on, I just want to be a human for a second. We should never hope for an injury to a player. As some of you know, I’m nowhere close to being a Lou fan but I never wish an injury on him. While this is great news for Sixers in a basketball sense, I really hope Derrick Rose is OK. Stay classy Philly.

Alright so without putting a preview for the rest of the series, Sixers have lost to a Rose-less Bulls team this season so it’s not an automatic second round appearance for Sixers. Bulls beat the Heat without Rose. Bulls will still be a challenge for Sixers.

Game two is on Tuesday at 8PM on TNT. Head over to fellow FanSided blog Pippen Ain’t Easy for Bulls updates including the latest Derrick Rose news.