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United Center unkind to Bulls shooters
The rims are tight, and because the building is so spacious, with the stands farther than normal from the court, a shooter's depth perception can also be off.
Then there's the fact that the building often is cold, and the lights play tricks sometimes.
Welcome to the United Center, the state-of-the-art home of the Chicago Bulls. It has all the amenities, but when it comes to shooting a basketball, the Bulls dearly miss the torn-down Chicago Stadium.
''I loved playing in the Stadium,'' Michael Jordan says. ''It was cozy, and I liked the rims and the feel of the place.''
The Bulls had an NBA-best 37-4 record at the United Center this season and have lost only two playoff games there in the last three seasons, but it is still a tough building to shoot in. In the five playoff games the Bulls have played there this season, they are shooting only 41.6%, with a high of 46.6% and a low of 36.5%.
It might be easy to blame poor shooting on the building. When the Bulls go on the road, their shooting percentage goes way up. They've played three road playoff games, one at New Jersey and two at Charlotte, and have shot better than 51% in all three, averaging 53.4%.
''This is a building you don't shoot well in, and I have said that before, maybe 150 times over the course of the last few years,'' coach Phil Jackson says. ''It's the backboards, the basket standards, the rim and the ambiance and the surrounding environs that make it not a shooter's place. It's just a variety of things, but we try not to psychologically be intimidated by it.''
The Bulls open the NBA Eastern Conference final Sunday against the Indiana Pacers at United Center. Despite the shooting woes he has there, Jordan says it's still home and that his team has an advantage there.
''It's our home floor, and we want to protect it,'' Jordan says. ''We have to protect it if we expect to win another championship.''
