Well looks like ball hog Ben is out in full force already. 2 or 3 forced shots and a turnover after he got caught in the air.
He started out 0-3, right? That'd make him 7-10 since. 4 assists, 2 steals, and a block. Somehow the Bulls are outscoring the Bucks.
You know what's even more annoying about the bulls last ten games, if they had beaten the bad teams instead of the good ones, they'd have a two or three game lead for the eighth spot instead of 1.5.
Another slow start from Ben "starters set the tone" Gordon. He started out 0-3 with 3 TO's. He came back strong, which is great, but if his scoring patterns don't scream sixth man, I don't know what does. And notice when he came on strong? When VDN put Hinrich in for Rose... More proof that the Rose/BG backcourt isn't working.
6th man coming in and going 0-3 with 3 TO is what you want? What I want is for the guy not to get yanked for a cold start and for him to get into a game long rhythm like he did last night. Overall that's pretty much what he does. Seems like 8th seed and the victory last night is the real proof.
Or when BG is matched up against frontline players, he's handled. And when he's up against inferior players he flourishes. He typically starts out slow in the third as well. I'd rather have BG as the guy coming in for the guy getting yanked for being cold. But we've got lots of time to keep rehashing this argument. And the victory is the important thing.
He has a bunch of games where he did most of his damage in the first quarter this season as well. Ben's scoring by quarter: 1st Quarter: 5.3 PPG (36th best in NBA) 2nd Quarter: 4.8 PPG (28th best in NBA) 3rd Quarter: 5.2 PPG (31st best in NBA) 4th Quarter: 5.2 PPG (20th best in the NBA) Average those all together and you'd think Gordon should be the 29th best scorer in the league. Instead, he's currently the 18th best. What's that tell you? There are a lot of guys who score points in just big bunches in one quarter or so, and Gordon's not one of them. The way Gordon spreads his scoring out throughout a game kind of makes him the anti-sixth man at this point.
Or it shows you that he scores better in the second and fourth quarters, which is pretty much what I said. His higher ranking could also indicate that he plays more minutes than the other guys. And we know that BG is still out there in blowouts getting points when other guys get taken out and rested for the next game...
Now the Bulls go to Miami to face the Heat, but I am not the least bit worried. We seem to fight a lot harder to the top tier teams. We very well win.
