Wallace has come up big tonight when needed, hitting 4/4 from the stripe in both OTs combined. Both teams are starting to look flat, but I guess that'll happen when you play as much as they have.
Gordon and Hinrich both have played 44:30 Gordon looked incredibly tired out there. He passed up shots and basically stood in the corner to catch a breather. Duhon's in for him. Wait, Gordon's back. And hits!
I'm really hoping the Bulls can manage to get a hoop at this next possession, cause I think that could seal the deal. The Blazers can't hit a shot right now, but who knows what's going to happen next. If the Blazers are smart, next time down the court they just run the pick and roll with Aldridge at the top of the key, cause they've killed the Bulls with that play all second half....and the Bulls take the lead!
Thabo's wearing jeans... kind of weird looking middle aged mom jeans. Ben buries a tough shot though!
D'oh, I was making a funny. Well, that sucked. Gordon coughed up the ball, Jack gets the fast break layup AND 1 Bulls badly need a 3 now.
And Gordon turns it over and then fouls on the other end as Jack makes the tough layup and now the three point play. Gordon best make up for that.... On a side note, I don't think teams should be allowed to have TOs in OT, lol. This game is dragging on because it seems like every 10 seconds another TO is getting called.
So close to a 3 point play opportunity right there. The Bulls continue to kill them on the boards here in the 2nd half, grabbing all sorts of offensive boards. And then Smith bricks the 2nd FT....
I can't believe I stayed up for this shit. Doug Collins: "Boylan is working himself into this job" Me: How is that? We're .500 because we played two bad teams and have let two teams come back and beat us.
Bulls down 4 now after Jones drains a pair from the line. I think they look for a three here with only 12.3 left on the clock and down 4, not to mention that Ben Gordon has been hot all night, might as well let him do what he does best.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MikeDC @ Jan 3 2008, 11:21 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>That was unpleasent for me to watch.</div> Exciting game, rough ending. I dunno, I enjoyed it. I might sound like a fanboy, but why is it that Gordon gets subbed out on defense, but Wallace doesn't get subbed out on offense? The free pass Wallace keeps getting continues to amaze me.
Great win for Portland, this is truly unbelievable to watch and I'm having a lot of fun following them. Young teams normally do not close out games well, but this team gets it done. If they make the playoffs, Nate McMillan undoubtedly deserves Coach of the Year regardless of how many wins the Celtics rack up. Bad loss for the Bulls. They had many opportunities to close out this game. Portland outworked Chicago, it's that simple. They wanted it more.
All things considered - Deng got injured, 4th game in 5 nights going to two overtimes, Portland's on a huge streak - the Bulls did pretty well.
Thanks for the compliments Denny. Good job choking Chicago. I guess this game is a tale of the season though. They had high expectations this year and haven't been consistent at all. Tonight, they have a 14 point lead midway through the 3rd and manage to throw it all away, only to lose in double OT. Hell, if it wasn't for Joe Smith and Ben Gordon, the Bulls probably wouldn't have even made it to OT. The entire team, aside from those two, shot the ball horrendously. The Bulls desperately missed Deng all night. He really gives them the versatility they missed, and would have given them a better option for guarding Roy than Hinrich, who is too undersized to guard him. The Bulls really beat themselves though. They made some bad turnovers down the stretch, namely the one that cost them the game in the 2nd OT. They couldn't defend the pick and roll either. Roy and Aldridge murdered them in the 4th with that, since Wallace was more apt to defend the paint instead of staying with his man, leaving Aldridge open on that shat at least 4 times in the 4th and the OTs. The three also killed them in two ways. Firstly, they gave up 11/22 to the Blazers. Secondly, they hit 4/24. They couldn't defend it, but maybe more importantly, couldn't hit it. When you're a jump shooting team, you need to be able to knock down the three when need be, and they couldn't. In general, I look at this and say that the Bulls beat themselves moreso than what the Blazers did. They had 11 TOs, a lot of them in costly situations. They couldn't hit a three, couldn't defend the three, and couldn't get second chance points when they had countless opportunities. I'm not saying this loss is going to kill the Bulls season, but it certainly doesn't help them. They had a golden opportunity to turn it into a blowout in the third but allowed the Blazers back into the game. A win here would have brought them within a game of the 8 seed, instead they drop further back. It's a good thing it's a long season, cause they still have plenty of time to turn their season around. This game would have been a step in the right direction, but it didn't turn out that way.
