One more for the road

Ran another sim, this time with updated playbooks for both teams.

BULLS (78 Overall) vs KNICKS (76 Overall)

GAME SETTINGS
Difficulty: All-Star
Quarters: 12 Minutes
Game Speed: Normal

SLIDER CHANGES
15 Dunk In Traffic success
15 Contact Shot success
55 Driving Contact Frequency
55 Inside Contact Frequency

BULLS
107 Points
36-83 FG (43%)
3-12 3PT (25%)
32-49 FT (65%) - Shows how lopsided victory was... imagine if they shot 10-20% higher?
17 Assists
6 Turnovers
15 Fouls
60 Rebounds (10 Off)
10 Steals
8 Blocks
26 Paint Points
40 Bench Points
13 Second Chance Points
5 Fast Break Points

KNICKS
80 Points
30-86 FG (34%)
6-29 3PT (20%)
14-28 FT (50%) - Geez. When you're cold, you're cold.
21 Assists
11 Turnovers
27 Fouls
45 Rebounds (5 Off)
5 Steals
6 Blocks
30 Paint Points
31 Bench Points
4 Second Chance Points
6 Fast Break Points

A tale of two games for the Knicks. They were efficient against the Celtics, but were completely shut down by the Bulls. As with the previous game, Knicks didn't force many turnovers. This surely has a lot to do with the elite PGs they've faced.

This game was barely competitive in the 2nd half, as the Bulls built a 13 point lead in the 3rd quarter and then went on a 17-1 run over the first 6 minutes of the 4th.

BOX SCORES

BULLS: Pts-Reb-Ast-Stl-Blk-TO-Fls-Mins (FG, 3PT, FT)
J.Noah: 9-17-3-0-4-0-2-30 (3-8 FG, 0-0 3PT, 3-5 FT)
T.Gibson: 9-10-1-1-0-0-3-26 (2-5 FG, 0-0 3PT, 5-6 FT)
L.Deng: 17-5-0-0-1-1-1-33 (7-17 FG, 0-1 3PT, 3-6 FT)
K.Bogans: 5-3-0-0-0-0-0-28 (1-3 FG, 1-3 3PT, 2-4 FT)
D.Rose: 27-1-7-2-0-3-2-32 (10-17 FG, 0-0 3PT, 7-9 FT)
BENCH
K.Korver: 15-2-0-2-1-0-2-20 (7-17 FG, 1-5 3PT, 0-0 FT)
B.Scalabrine: 5-6-0-0-0-0-1-20 (1-3 FG, 1-2 3PT, 2-2 FT)
C.Watson: 13-0-5-2-0-0-1-18 (2-6 FG, 0-0 3PT, 9-12 FT)
R.Brewer: 5-6-0-1-0-2-0-15 (2-4 FG, 0-0 3PT, 1-2 FT)
O.Asik: 2-7-0-2-2-0-0-11 (1-1 FG, 0-0 3PT, 0-3 FT)
K.Thomas: 0-3-0-0-0-0-1-7 (0-1 FG, 0-0 3PT, 0-0 FT)
J.Johnson: 0-0-1-0-0-0-0-6 (0-1 FG, 0-1 3PT, 0-0 FT)

Rose did most of the heavy lifting for Chicago, as he's done IRL w/o Boozer. One tweak I forgot to make was boosting his 3pt tendency since he's taking that shot more frequently. Ditto for Luol Deng.

Kyle Korver took 17 shots in 20 minutes. A lot of that came in garbage time, but even still that is a bit too much. I had Korver's touch tendency at 50 entering the game and he might be due for a drop.

I have no idea what C.J. Watson's 12 FTA were about. Perhaps the Bulls' plays are too geared towards driving rather than spotting up?

Other than Korver/Watson, I am very pleased with these statistics.

KNICKS: Pts-Reb-Ast-Stl-Blk-TO-Fls-Mins (FG, 3PT, FT)
T.Mozgov: 8-13-1-0-1-0-2-24 (2-3 FG, 0-0 3PT, 4-6 FT)
A.Stoudemire: 23-10-0-1-0-1-6-28 (10-18 FG, 0-0 3PT, 3-6 FT)
D.Gallinari: 0-3-0-0-0-0-1-22 (0-6 FG, 0-2 3PT, 0-0 FT)
L.Fields: 12-4-1-1-0-1-3-32 (5-9 FG, 1-4 3PT, 1-4 FT)
R.Felton: 6-0-10-1-0-1-4-32 (1-8 FG, 0-3 3PT, 4-6 FT)
BENCH
W.Chandler: 18-4-0-0-1-1-1-33 (7-24 FG, 4-13 3PT, 0-2 FT)
T.Douglas: 3-0-6-0-0-5-3-22 (1-8 FG, 1-5 3PT, 0-0 FT)
R.Turiaf: 5-8-1-0-4-1-4-28 (2-2 FG, 0-0 3PT, 1-2 FT)
B.Walker: 5-3-1-2-0-0-2-17 (2-6 FG, 0-1 3PT, 1-2 FT)
R.Mason: 0-0-1-0-0-0-1-8 (0-2 FG, 0-1 3PT, 0-0 FT)

Amare was having a nice game until he got into foul trouble in the 3rd quarter. He picked up a 5th foul in the 4th, subbed out, and that's what spurred the 17-1 Bulls run. He subbed back in during it, and committed his 6th foul on the next play. No Amare essentially turns the Knicks into a poor-quality 3pt shooting team, as they won't be getting any open looks without an interior presence. In case you couldn't guess, Wilson Chandler was the primary culprit and took the majority of his shots in the 4th quarter with Amare out of the game. There were quite a few possessions where the Knicks would just give it to Chandler to jack up a three.

Felton and Douglas combined for 2-16 FG (1-8 3PT), while Rose and Watson flat out smoked them for 40 points on the other end. Douglas in particular had 5 turnovers in only 22 minutes. I'm not really complaining about the production, just pointing out how lopsided it was. Felton/Douglas still combined for 16 assists so it wasn't all bad.

As promised in the last recap, I adjusted Fields' tendencies to generate a more realistic shooting spread and it worked. 9 shots in 32 minutes, with 4 of them coming from deep, that's about as accurate as it gets.

Gallinari shot 0-6 and was notably nowhere to be found during the 4th quarter (when the Knicks seemingly would have been better off w/ him instead of Wilson Chandler jacking up all those threes (or at least with both on the court). This is due to the low minutes I've given Gallinari in the rotation, but more concerning is that this guy seems to play terribly in every CPU game.

GAMETRACK

BULLS
Rose: Six jumpers (4 via Isolation, 2 via double pick play), two layups via double pick play, one And-One isolation layup, one isolation dunk.
Deng: Four Off-Screen mid-range jumpers, one catch/shoot jumper, one post-up jumper, one isolation jumper.
Korver: Three Off-Screen mid-range jumpers, one catch/shoot mid-range jumper, one fadeaway three via his own steal, one fastbreak layup, one basket cut layup (perfect pass, not even cheesy)
Noah: Three dunks (two after offensive rebound, one of which was an And-One; one via cut after a double team).
Gibson: Putback dunk, catch/shoot jumper
Watson: Iso jumper, Iso layup (semi-break)
Brewer: Catch/Shoot, basket cut layup
Scalabrine: Spot-up 3pt
Bogans: Spot-up 3pt
Asik: And-One via offensive rebound

Overall I have few complaints about the Bulls results. Deng/Korver combined for 7 screen plays, which is really too much considering those are just the made baskets. It's ok for Korver, not so much for Deng. Deng last season got 26% of his offense from spot-ups, 14% from isolations, 9% off-screens, and 7% from post-ups. I wouldn't say his touch tendency needs adjusting, rather just a larger variety of plays instead of just screen plays.

KNICKS
Stoudemire: 6 Dunks (Four P&R w/ Felton, one of which was an alley-oop; One P&R w/ Mozgov, one fastbreak (assisted, cherry picked), one post-up, one catch/shoot, one fastbreak layup, one isolation jumper.
Chandler: Three 3pt via Play, Two post-ups, one fastbreak dunk (assisted)
Fields: Three spot-ups, one post-up, one fastbreak dunk (self)
Mozgov: Two mid-range spot-ups
Turiaf: Two And-One Layups (one via hand-off, one via offensive rebound)
Walker: Drive/Pull-Up jumper, one fastbreak dunk (self)
Felton: Driving runner
Douglas: Catch/Shoot 3pt

Amare still needs his dunking reduced. I said I'd reduce his ooping, and I did. It seems like he's catching the ball a little too easily, but that's not an uncommon problem and he does have better hands than most. Still, I'm happy with the amount of Pick & Rolling and general variety in his offensive game.

Chandler scored (and likely missed) all those threes off the same play, and it just occurred to me I need to change the Bench SF playbooks because Chandler isn't starting anymore. The plays are geared towards a 3pt shooter and could use a bit more variety. It would be easier if we could just assign plays to specific players.

Everyone else I'm happy with. Felton and Douglas were running plays, just getting swatted left and right by the Bulls stifling interior defense (I watched 1st and 4th quarters).

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I'm generally pleased with the overall results. Teams are getting to the point where they only need a few minor tweaks here and there. I will try to post a roster update by the end of the week.