Top Ten questions for the Bulls heading into Game 5

Two months ago, who would have thought that the Bulls would be battling the Celtics (even without KG) for the right to advance to the second round?

This series has had a little bit of everything: three classic games, a great point guard battle between two future stars (though Rondo has clearly won the matchup so far), incredible clutch shooting from a pair of former UConn Huskies, and the drama of an up and coming Bulls team trying to become the first No. 7 seed in the last 11 years to win a playoff series.

With the crucial Game 5 tonight, here are 10 key questions the Bulls must answer if they want to send more shockwaves across the league and get one step closer to pulling off the huge upset.

10. Will Kirk Hinrich, when he’s in the game, keep guarding Paul Pierce?

This may be the most overlooked aspect of the entire series. Even though Hinrich gives up a lot of size and strength to Pierce, he has done a great job when he has guarded him. In fact, the Bulls probably don’t win either Game 1 or Game 4 without Hinrich’s defensive play, not to mention his 18 points on Sunday. John Salmons has done a decent job on Pierce, but he’s clearly limited by his groin injury.

9. Will the Bulls come out with a sense of urgency?
Immediately after the Bulls won Game 4, I said to my dad, “well, you know the Celtics are going to come out pissed on Tuesday, and the Bulls might be a little soft knowing that they stole one.” Then again, I had similar concerns about Game 2, but the Bulls played really well and should have won that one also. One thing we do know is that it’s silly to try and predict how this inconsistent Bulls team will play from game-to-game.

8. Will Ben Gordon go on another one of his shooting sprees? Gordon, who becomes a free agent this summer, is making it real tough on John Paxson. He almost won Game 2 single-handedly, and he kept the Bulls alive in the series with a ridiculous three-pointer at the end of the first overtime on Sunday. For the Bulls to have a realistic shot at beating the Celtics two more times, Gordon has to go off again in at least one of the games, if not both. His unique scoring ability is what keeps defenses honest and opens things up for Rose.

7. Will the Bulls control the defensive backboards? If the Bulls had gotten any defensive rebounds late in Game 2, they’d probably be up 3-1 right now. However, the Bulls did outrebound the Celtics in these last two games. Boston’s shooters are too good to keep giving them second and third chances, so it’s crucial that the Bulls are able to keep Big Baby and Kendrick Perkins off the glass tonight.

6. Will Derrick Rose start going under the screens against Rajon Rondo? It seems pretty simple really: make Rondo shoot jumpers. Sure he has improved his shot, but I’ll take my chances with Rondo shooting 17-footers versus him getting to the basket, which he has done all series. Rose just isn’t playing very smart on defense when he’s trying to fight over the top of the high ball screens. Rondo is the Celtics’ best all-around player and the guy that makes them go. The Bulls, mainly Rose, have to do a much better job of stopping Rondo’s penetration.

5. Will Ray Allen and Paul Pierce both be on? Let’s be honest. If Allen and Pierce are both hitting their shots, the Bulls can’t win. They won the first game because Allen was way off, and almost took the second because Pierce played like he wanted to be somewhere else. And even though Pierce made some big plays late in Game 4, he still finished only 9-of-24 from the floor. When one of the two is off, the Bulls have a chance, because Boston doesn’t have a heck of a lot of other options. But if both are on at the same time, forget it.

4. Will the Bulls start feeling the pressure?
There’s really no pressure on the Bulls. They’ve already done more in this series than anyone thought they would have. That being said, the Bulls seem to honestly believe they can win this series, and they should. In Game 4, they stayed poised down the stretch, even when they fell behind by five points late in the first overtime. Guys like Rose, Noah, and Gordon really don’t seem to get rattled very easily in big games.

3. Will the Bulls limit their turnovers?
We saw what happened when the Bulls committed 16 turnovers in the first half of Game 3. You figure that the Bulls can’t commit more than 15 turnovers to have a chance to win tonight. Outside of Game 3, Rose has been really good, but he is still averaging more than five turnovers in the series so far, while Rondo is averaging less than two.

2. Will Tyrus Thomas be on the bench once again in crunch-time? Hopefully, the answer to that question is yes. The Bulls’ best lineup is Rose, Gordon, Hinrich or Salmons, Noah and Miller. Vinny Del Negro finally seems to realize that Thomas shouldn’t be on the court when the game is on the line. Yes, he did make a few jumpers in overtime in Game 1, but the chances of him doing that again are remote.

One other thing: near the end of regulation on Sunday, did you notice how after Tyrus got a rebound with 16 seconds left and the Bulls up two, he had every opportunity to give it up to either Rose or Gordon knowing that the Celtics had to foul? Instead, he kept the ball and the Celtics gladly fouled him. What we learned from that exchange is that Thomas is a selfish, egotistical player who wanted to be the one in the spotlight shooting the free throws, even though Rose or Gordon would have been a much better option for the Bulls.

1. Will the Bulls have the mental toughness to win another game in Boston? When you’re on the road, the lid on the basket seems a lot tighter, calls go the other way, and falling behind early is a death sentence. Remember, this is a Celtics team that won the title last year playing a Bulls team that has only three guys (Gordon, Hinrich and Miller) who have played significant playoff minutes. The Bulls showed they weren’t intimidated the first two games of this series playing in a hostile environment, but how will they respond when the Celtics make their inevitable run and the crowd gets into it?