Ben Gordon misses a long three with his hand in his face. And the thing is, just by the way he was walking the ball up the court, you knew he wasn't going to pass. Bad.
Yeah, they're not calling traveling on anyone (except Gray). I think Hughes took about five steps on one drive.
Woot! Hughes comes up with the big three. And why the hell did NY wait so long to foul? They lost a good 7 or 8 seconds right there because of that.
I don't think they are really "sluggish"...just a bit "jacking" and taking some bad shots...Larry Hughes is showing some "clutch" with that ending 3 pt shot that gave us the major advantage...Gordon is kind of clutch but I can see in his form that he is rushing his shots nervously. He'd be 2 times better if he'd slow down 1 notch.
Ben Gordon needs to get his act together from three point land. He's doing great with two pointers, free throws, driving, playing great defense, rebounding well, passing well. But the three pointer is what has always made Ben Gordon deadly.
Nice win for Chicago....good win, but we cannot have as many shot selection mistakes when facing the harder teams in the league...but still a win is a win.
Larry Hughes was awesome again. Deng solid. Gordon, Rose, and Hughes combined for 48 points. That's always good from your backcourt. Hopefully Paxson finds a trade for Hinrich before he even comes back, because I don't want to see him ever play another game in a Bulls uniform. I want Rose, Gordon, and Hughes to get all the guard minutes.
I didn't realize how many minutes the starting lineups had played. That would explain the sluggishness. I only watched the second half. Did they say why Tyrus wasn't playing? I completely agree with your take on the bad shots. At the same time, we should give VDN some props for playing Hughes, who is the worst jacker of them all. He can hit a shot if you give it to him in rhythm and he's helping the Bulls win. He just never passes.
Awesome? He hit a big shot at the end, but his quick shooting got NY back in the game again in the fourth. And he was 6-14. Those three scored 48 points on 43 shots. Rose is the only one who played well.
1 make shy of .500 from the field. 8 boards, 3 assists, 4 steals and a block. he kinda filled up the stat sheet.
You know what pace is, right? There were over 100 rebounds in the game. 4 steals are nice, but his shot selection in the fourth was still questionable. And again, this a NY team with a gimmick run and gun style. The game went down to the last possesion, not a win to really be excited about.
I didn't hear anything specific why Tyrus didn't play tonight's game but one could speculate that he was seen as completely useless in this particular game by VDN. Or perhaps he didn't show any promise in practice and VDN wanted him to sit and watch and not screw us over. Thomas probably didn't do something right in practice and VDN just wanted him to watch I'd say. As for VDN's props...he has my props for the win and coaching decisions. As for Hughes...he's ummm...a true jacker. He's the kind of guy that you only pass to if you know he has a 60 and greater percent chance of knocking it down otherwise it'll be a wasted possession because his passing skills are not only selfish but weak...because he's a "self" player. He can hit a shot and shows some clutch promise that's for sure. But nonetheless the he still wins "biggest jack" award.
VDN really tightened up his rotation the last two games. I think he's trying to get a few wins, which is fine, but ultimately he needs to develop TT, Thabo, and Noah. He seems to be afraid to have two of them on the court at the same time, or Thabo at all. It kind of disturbing that he needs to tighten up the rotation this much to beat Washington and NY...
I wouldn't worry to much about developing Tyrus. He is a lost cause at this point imo. Joakim Noah has played well in spurts this season. His scoring has been crappy, but he has shown some good rebounding and defensive signs. He is just grossly out of shape. I think the Bulls should work on developing Thabo as a 3/4 hybrid. There is no reason Thabo can't play the 4 with his long arms. He isn't going to be a guy you put on the Tim Duncan's or Amare Stoudemire's, but he could be effective defensively against Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Garnett, and the Al Harrington's of the world.
There should be some development...perhaps that's why TT and Thabo specifically have seen less playing time. Maybe VDN figures that it would be best for these guys to train off NBA court instead of them (Thabo and TT) having off and on nights which ultimately lead the Bulls to Loserland and sometimes Winnerland. I love Winnerland and this is just one theory as to why TT and Thabo haven't played as much. ------------------------------------------------------------ BG7 I don't think TT is a lost cause...he's just a...slow developer.
