Bulls new players playing, I think. Tyrus hurt his hamstring and is not. MikeDC got special dispensation to abandon his family and attend the game, full report later!
After a brillant first half, BG can't hit a shot down the stretch and Kirk can't get TJ Ford to go to his left. Bulls lose a game they could have won.
Very bad defense late in the game, combine with Ben taking bad shots trying to get us back into the game, when we were only down by like 4 or 5
Completely missed this game, but judging by the comments and box score, I'm going to guess Miller/Salmons did not lead this team to the promise land. Also noticed Rose struggled with his shot going 1/9, but only played 28 minutes. I was worried that the Nuggets game where Vinny benched Rose for a significant part of the game wasn't just an aberration.
Kirk Hinrich and by extension, Vinny Del Negro for playing him, cost the Bulls this game. Hinrich bricked a bunch of shots, made a lot of bad passes, and played crappy defense all game. Him freezing Gordon out of the offense at the start of the third was disgraceful. What a selfish player. The guy who scored 22 points on 9-11 shooting in the first half couldn't get a single shot up in his original 5:21 stint in the third. Then Hinrich allowed Ford to get two straight easy scores late in the fourth, putting the Bulls down 5 with 1:23 left in the game, which they were never able to recover from.
Was Hinrich in to start the third? BG went from playing extremely well in the first half to forcing every shot he took in the fourth. BG did everything wrong in the second half where he did everything right in the first. And it wasn't as much a freeze out as BG just not being as aggressive as he had been earlier, he passed up shots and then took bad ones. And even with his fantastic shooting, the bulls were still down one at the half.
Salmons looked good. While he didn't know the plays very well, he didn't force anything and hit shots. Miller looked older and slower, but he moved the ball well.
BG was still getting touches, he just didn't shoot in the third. And in the fourth he started forcing and dribbling into double teams. I think part of the problem was that VDN might have had all three new guys in at once at one point and BG wasn't getting the ball in the right places. And he wasn't coming off of the picks the same way either, which might have been the fault of the guys setting the picks.
I thought the new guys like good, too. Pretty much as advertised. I thought we had gotten rid of our small ball play with Noc as undersized PF, but Deng was playing there with Salmons at SF.
Yeah, I don't get why they try so hard to be unconventional. Small ball is a gimmick. And this wasn't the game to try it out. They needed this win to keep the Pacers reeling. Try the crazy stuff against Orlando who we know the bulls can't play with at this point.
Well that wasn't what I wanted to see. I promised a game report, but jeez, that was disheartening. I'll just summarize: The Good * Ben Gordon. Couldn't miss a shot in the first half. Comes out and gets more or less completely ignored in the third quarter, and then takes a seat for the rest of it. Comes back into a desperate situation ice cold in the forth. Damn. A shot at the end might have been ill-advised, but the outcome was decided and the situation was pretty messed up. My only real criticism is he didn't look to drive at all. All in all, he's the least of our worries, except that he's good as gone. Which ought to be the most of our worries. * Brad Miller didn't shoot well, but he immediately delivered two of the hardest fouls the Bulls have laid since Antonio Davis was on board. * Noah... despite one completely silly play in which he attempted a Hakeem Olajuwan style isolation back down and failed miserably (looked like a called play though), he rebounded and played defense. The Bad * Derrick Rose looks like he's in a funk of some sort. Didn't take it to the hoop. Made adept passes, and didn't do anything eye openingly stupid, but didn't show off much of his specialness at all. * Tim Thomas notably walking away from a huddle at then end of the first half... shows where his head's at. * Deng. Didn't have a very good game. Didn't control Marquis Daniels (oh how I'd prefer him to John Salmons), and was a seriously ugly 2-6 from the line. Disturbingly and loudly clanking them short. Ick. The Ugly * Kirk Hinrich... brought in, I guess, for his defense, with VDN administering a shaming yank of Rose 2 minutes into the third... Kirk proceeded to let TJ Ford completely abuse him. He also pretty fully ignored Gordon for the next few minutes despite Ben having shot 99 for 100 in the first half. And he wasn't exactly finding anyone else. * Vinnie... where to begin. Kirk coming in for Rose at inopportune moments. Sitting the hot hand (Gordon). Not recognizing that Kirk never guards quick PGs worth a damn. Playing Tim Thomas at all. Having a teaching moment (close game with time to run a set play at the half) and not having Rose in the game... in fact Rose was sitting at the end of the bench with TT not in the huddle for a minute. Shudder. Having the team stand around while he figures out what he wants to tell them in dead ball situations. Can't work up the energy * Tyrus. The usual mix of spectacular and dreadful plays. Where did he go as a rebounder? * Salmons. Drew Gooden if Drew Gooden was a SF with a shittier contract. Right down to the goofy beard. * From my seat, perched in the first row of the upper deck at center court, I had a bird's eye view of Chuck Swirsky's shiny head and Bill Wennington who was sporting a sheet a pre-written dialog (I seriously doubt he's the only color guy to do this... it's not a rip on him) and his ipod. * The guy with the really nasty ass gold tooth who sold me the ticket.
Salmons played well. If you're not even going to give the guy a chance or be the least bit objective...
This game was terrible. There's got to be some reason VDN isn't putting in Rose during crunch time because he took heat for this after the Miami loss and he did it again when Kirk Hinrich was ice cold. Ben Gordon played great like always but I'm pretty sure he's gone after this season. It'll be interesting to see who we'll have as a scorer by then.
Exactly... I didn't put Salmons in the bad or ugly category, did I? He made a couple of bad plays when he first came in that I completely chalked up to being in a new situation. He settled down and played pretty much how I expected him to, which was fine, but nothing special. Drew Gooden as a SF is very appropriate what he looks like to me.
And this is wrong too. BG stopped shooting in the third and the bulls went in a big hole. They came all the way back and were up 76-75 at the start of the fourth. BG played the whole 4th and the last minute of the third. Every shot he took in the fourth was a bad shot. And he took 8 shots in the fourth. I have no idea why everything in the fourth was forced after everything in the second was completely in the context of the offense and looked so good.
Salmons did play pretty much as expected. If he played his usual 37 minutes, he would be around his usual 18 points from Sacramento.
