NP: Nine Inch Nails, The Fragile

A Bulls post, and its not even Saturday! From today's Sun-Times:

Hinrich's performance against the Clippers was disappointing well into the fourth quarter. He was misfiring from the perimeter and missed a layup with six minutes to play.

But then Hinrich settled down and burned the Clippers' defense for three straight layups on high pick-and-roll plays to help the Bulls maintain the lead down the stretch.

''I just started going to the basket instead of settling for jump shots,'' he said. ''I was getting good-look jump shots, but they weren't going in, so I decided I was going to go to the basket until they stopped me.''

That, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly how the Bulls can right this ship. Whenever they start to sag, typically in the third quarter, they rely heavily on perimeter shooting to get back into the game. And it usually doesn't work, and they end up in a much bigger hole. If you drive to the basket, or post up down low, before trying to shoot the lights out, you make the defense play honest, and ultimately get your guys better shots outside. And this is on top of the points in the paint and trips to the foul line.

Obviously, the Bulls struggle down low again teams with strong interior defense, but that doesn't mean you stop trying altogether. At that point, you're playing scared, and you'll never win that way.