Dennis Rodman is expected to return to the starting lineup Sunday for the Bulls’ matinee matchup against the Toronto Raptors.
Rodman didn’t start in Friday night’s victory over Vancouver, the first time in eight games Bulls coach Phil Jackson changed the starting lineup. The reason remains murky.
Jackson said Joe Kleine started merely for personnel reasons–the Bryant Reeves matchup–and, with playoff roster decisions upcoming, as somewhat of an audition. But Rodman later revealed he had missed Thursday’s practice, an offense Jackson has responded to in the past with a benching.
Jackson acknowledged that Rodman played sluggishly throughout Friday’s victory, in which he had just four rebounds in 15 minutes.
“Dennis did not have a lot of energy,” Jackson said. “He complained about tendinitis in his knees, which is the first instance that he ever talked about it.”
The Bulls were 7-1 with Rodman starting at center in Luc Longley’s absence.
Back in action: After being completely blanked out in Tuesday night’s road victory over Indiana–no points, no rebounds, no assists–the Bulls’ bench responded with a 35-point performance against Vancouver. Steve Kerr led the way with 13 points and Scott Burrell had eight.
But there was a downer. Jackson used a unique lineup of Jud Buechler, Bill Wennington, Randy Brown, Toni Kukoc and Kerr to start the fourth quarter, and Vancouver rallied from a five-point deficit to tie the game. Jackson then had to go back to Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.
“Steve Kerr played a good game for us tonight, but our bench struggled a little bit there in the fourth quarter as they got back in it,” Jackson said. “But the play of Dickey Simpkins was important down the stretch. That was a bright spot for us.”
Simpkins had one point, two rebounds and two assists in 10 minutes. And his block of a Reeves shot with 3 minutes, 53 seconds remaining and the Grizzlies trailing 89-85 proved to be a big play.
Speaking of the bench: Randy Brown returned to action after missing eight games because of Achilles’ tendinitis and hit all three of his shots for six points. He also had a rebound and two assists in 16 minutes.
Lesson learned? Since the Bulls’ stunning overtime loss to Dallas, talk has abounded that they learned a valuable lesson about never looking past an opponent. Still, the Bulls played lethargically during Friday’s six-point victory over Vancouver and were outrebounded 43-33, a huge margin.
“It’s probably not the greatest trait to have, but I think we do play sluggish sometimes against the non-elite teams,” Kerr conceded. “It’s probably a result of the grind of the last two years, all the games we have played.”
Home sweet home: Jackson reiterated that the Bulls’ goal is clinching home-court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference and not necessarily for the NBA Finals.
In the Finals the team with home-court advantage opens and closes–if necessary–with two home games but has to spend an entire week in the visitors’ city with three straight road games.
“With that format I really believe the team without home-court advantage sometimes has the edge,” Jackson said.
