Bulls Road Ahead: Can the Bulls exploit Isaiah Thomas' defense?

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The NBA playoffs begin for the Bulls on Sunday when they square off against the top-seeded Celtics.

Brad Stevens' group is built on depth, but at the head of that list is point guard Isaiah Thomas. The 5-foot-9 All-Star finished this season ranked second in the league in scoring (and fourth-quarter scoring) on his way to the Celtics winning 52 games.

The Bulls will have their hands full during the series, as Thomas averaged 24.8 points on 54 percent shooting in four games against them this season.

Insider Vincent Goodwill and Mark Schanowski both think the Bulls, who went 2-2 against Boston in the regular season, have a shot to steal at least a few games in the series. And one of the big ways they can do that is exploiting Thomas on the defensive end.

"The playoffs allow you to be a lot more physical against smaller players. So putting Isaiah (Thomas) in screen and rolls and beating him up a little bit and forcing switches," Goodwill said on the Bulls Road Ahead, presented by NW Indiana and Chicagoland Honda Dealers. "You can go completely big and put Dwyane Wade and Jimmy Butler in your backcourt and force switches and put him on the post defensively. We'll see if the Bulls are going to be creative in that way. You'd like to see Jerian Grant out there with is length and his 3-point shooting...but they  have a lot of ways they can play this from a strategy standpoint. Isaiah Thomas is a great scorer but you wonder if you can physically mess with him a little bit and see if he'll physically wear down over the course of the game."

See what else they had to say about the series in the video above.

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