Court Vision: The latest around the league

Boston's defense couldn't figure out how to stop Derrick Rose on Thursday. (Gary Dineen/NBAE via Getty Images)

• The Bulls destroyed the Celtics on Thursday night, and the takeaway from the game is either (depending on your perspective) that the Bulls made a statement or to remind folks that Boston struggled at the end of the regular season last year, too. Both of those things are true. Here’s the thing: Chicago only had to “make a statement” last night, in terms of their popular perception as a legit force, if you haven’t been paying attention. They have the league’s best scoring margin, their defense has ranked either first or second in points allowed per possession all season, they swept the Heat, split with the Celtics and Lakers and have generally played the best teams well. 

Chicago was for real as a title contender before Thursday night.

• The most notable thing from that game, to me, was the fact that Derrick Rose obliterated Rajon Rondo and did what he pleased against Boston’s defense. If that happens in the playoffs, or if Boston’s defense fades against the Heat in the conference semifinals, you’re going to be reading a lot of stuff like this, courtesy of Ken Berger at CBS Sports:

But barring a miracle from either O’Neal in the postseason, the Perkins trade is looking more and more like it will be the Celtics’ undoing. Maybe it was an overreaction to Pat Riley hoarding talent in Miami, and if so, there’s a paradox there. If the Celtics had simply remained who they were, they would’ve had something to anchor them heading into the playoffs. 

The Perkins trade will be the easy target if the Celtics fail, but it’s only a valid target if they fail because of their defense. That has not been the case since the trade, but as Berger correctly points out, it was indisputably the case on Thursday night. Perkins would have helped, for sure, but to my eyes more credit should go to Rose and the Bulls. 

Rose has improved his timing and patience so much, even within the last few months of this season. I was so impressed last night with how Rose reacted when Rondo would go over a screen and one of Boston’s big men would jump out on the other side in an attempt to cut off Rose’s path on pick-and-roll plays. In the past, Rose might have dribbled backwards or picked up his dribble. Now he keeps his dribble alive and either stays in place or moves laterally as the screener rolls the hoop. That kind of patience places enormous stress on the big man trying to contain Rose. Should he stay out there? For how long? Or should he sprint back toward the paint, since his man is open back there somewhere? If the big man stays out there an extra beat or two, the crisis a pick-and-roll creates lingers a bit longer than usual.

As Boston’s defense tried to figure out how to respond to that crisis, Rose would re-start his attack, with a brutal crossover or by splitting a double-team on his way to the paint. Only at that moment, when Rose arrived near the rim, did you feel the impact of Perkins’ absence. But by then, Rose had won the battle anyway. A brilliant performance, but you can count on Boston to adjust both in terms of strategy and effort if the teams meet again.

• Henry Abbott and his band of TrueHoop brothers merrily name the league’s scrappiest players. Fun. 

• Kevin Pelton of Basketball Prospectus chooses Dwight Howard as MVP over Rose, and his must-read column contains this thoughtful line:

My greatest sadness about the MVP debate this year is that it has been reduced to stat geeks against Derrick Rose, which hasn’t helped either side. Look, Rose has had a fabulous year. I enjoy watching him attack a defense as much as anyone. And it is absolutely unfair that he’s taken a barrage of criticism from statistical analysts because of an MVP campaign that he’s had no role in orchestrating outside of his play.

• Along the same lines, Kevin Arnovitz at ESPN.com invokes some music comparisons to explain why this season’s MVP debate has been so discouraging. A very thoughtful piece. 

• I agree with both of these guys in that reducing the Rose/Howard/LeBron James discussion to “stat-heads versus people who watch games” is ridiculous. People would probably lump me in the stat-head boat, since I cite things like points per possession, pace and rebounding rate often, including in my reasoning for why Howard should be the MVP. Three things would be wrong with that characterization: 1) I watch and re-watch a ton of games; 2) Those stats everyone calls “advanced” are not all that advanced. Counting possessions is about as basic as math gets. Rebounding rate is a simple percentage, the sort of thing we learn before middle school. Basic on-court/off-court plus/minus is so simple an elementary school student could understand it with a few minutes of teaching. There are certainly more advanced stats out there, but few trickle that far into mainstream NBA writing; 3) If you actually read (asking a lot, I know) the cases most alleged “stat-heads”make for Howard, you’ll see they are based as much on observation as on stats.

One example: Folks say Rose carries perhaps the league’s heaviest burden on offense, since he handles the ball all the time and creates shots for teammates who would struggle to do so on their own. You can see that just from watching the games! But if you watch the Magic, you don’t have to look all that hard to realize Howard has the same kind of burden. How many of Orlando’s offensive sets center completely around Howard’s abiliy to set a nasty screen and draw the attention of multiple defenders as he rolls to the basket? He may not touch the ball on those sets, but the shots that result come from the attention defenses must pay him. 

You know how I know that? I watch the games! Factor in the importance of his refined post-up game, and Howard may carry the same sort of load on offense as Rose. And look! I didn’t even mention one advanced stat.

The stats vs. eyes thing is a false dichotomy. If you think it’s a real divide, you just don’t read carefully. 

• Scroll down here and check out Boston’s shot chart for Thursday night’s loss. Ouch. 

• Carmelo Anthony says he is shooting threes so well in New York because he’s practicing more. When he starts missing them — regression to the mean — will that mean he has stopped practicing? 

• Kelly Dwyer of Yahoo! with a wonderful reflection on Scottie Pippen.

• Phil Jackson shared some drinks and time with the beat reporters who cover the Lakers, and he talked about lots of things — why he’s going to quit after this season, the relationship between Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan and his thoughts on how to control and discipline players. Here’s one account from Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register, and another from Mike Trudell at NBA.com. Both are well worth a read. 

• If you’re a smart bettor, you’ll put money on the top seed in each conference advancing to the Finals, every season. History says you’ll win in the long run.

• The Nets may want to move Travis Outlaw, who is owed $28 million over the next four seasons and wrapping up a season in which he has shot just 38 percent and recorded a single-digit Player Efficiency Rating. Good luck with that. 

• Some nasty letters are going back-and-forth in the Kings saga.

• The Jazz are playing out the string, and Tyrone Corbin does not sound happy with how C.J. Miles is going about things. 

• Kyrylo Fesenko has a catch phrase. And a broken thumb. He’s done for the year, and perhaps with the Jazz.