Tip off about to happen. The Bulls come in winning 4 out of five, playing well under Jim Boylan. The Blazers are one of the hottest teams in the league, winning 14 out of 16. Ben Gordon needs to keep his hot streak going off the bench while the Bulls have to work on containing Roy, but they can't sag off of the others too much because the Blazers have countless players who can beat you.
Err, that's Jim Boylan we're playing under. Well enough against bad competition We'll see tonight. I'm expecting we come back to earth a bit. Deng with a sweet pass to Wallace who duffs it. Our guys ought to be fined when they pass to him.
Yea, I realized my mistake once I posted it and promptly fixed it. So far we aren't looking horrible. However, I really hate it when Ben Wallace even bothers to shoot. Unless he's dunking the ball, there's no point in shooting for him cause he'll blow it, as you noticed by his blown layup.
I wonder if we docked Ben a rebound from his stat sheet for every time he misses an eminently makable shot whether he'd start to care.
I'm liking the defense the Bulls are playing right now. They've already forced 7 turnovers and gotten 6 points off of them. If they can keep this up, there's no reason why they can't win. Also, that pass from Noah to Noc was quite nice....glad to see Noc didn't pull a Big Ben and blow the gimme.
Noc makes the close in shots. He's got some post-like moves. Noah is coming off a terrific game last night. I think we got lucky facing the Blazers after a 13-0 run and then a loss.
Bulls are really impressing me right now. They're playing with a newfound will under Boylan. Ben Gordon is looking good again tonight, giving them a huge spark off the bench. My main concern is the health of Deng though. He looked off early and apparently has a strained achilles, leaving me to wonder how effective he'll be later in the game and whether or not he's going to play much in the 2nd half. Regardless of that, the Bulls are looking impressive so far. They're defense has been very good and they're playing most good on offense, now they just need to sustain it.
Looking at this lineup the bulls have out there, only Gordon and Smith (sorta) can make shots and score.
Adrian Griffin has exactly the same body as Ike Diogu, except Ike is about 6'7 and 260 and Griffin is 6'4 and 230 or so. He's looking pretty hefty. And why the hell is he on the court?
Shakespeare wrote, "when you strike at the king, you better kill him" (or something to that effect). Deng helped get Skiles fired. Now his replacement has Deng on the bench after 1-5? Is he hurt?
Griffin is out there for leadership and defense, that's about it. As for the Bulls, good to see them playing good defense. They held the Blazers to 36.8% shooting in the first half. My only gripes are they aren't defending the three well, as noted by the Blazers making 5/11, and they're getting beaten on the boards, which isn't acceptable against one of the worst rebounding teams in basketball. If the Bulls are going to win this, they need to rebound better and keep up the stellar defense. Looking past the Blazers FG%, the Bulls have also forced them into 7 turnovers. And is there a reason why Ben Wallace took 5 shots in the first half, which is more than Noc and just one less than Hinrich. Ben...just don't shoot, the team is better off when you just stick to playing defense, cause nothing good comes out of you taking a shot unless it's a dunk.
To answer your question Denny, they said that he's been playing through a strained achilles for a couple of weeks now.
Yikes... that's a scary injury. If it tears hsi quickness is done. And he's not that quick to start with.
Half is about 4 minutes in now. The Bulls have extended their lead to 57-46, holding the Blazers to 5 points right now. And an update on Deng as well. He has a strained left achilles and more than likely will not be playing the rest of the game.
Kirk and Noc both with open looks at 3 and miss. Good defense and then Noc misses another open 3, they get the offensive board and Kirk scores. Aldridge facials Noc.
