Looking around, I see a lot of this "it's the players" vs. "it's the coach" thing. Can't we pretty much agree that both were inexcusably bad? Definitely Vinny was terrible to go with a seven man rotation despite being up by 35 points. And oh yeah, we're playing again tomorrow. What a stupid fuckwad. That being said, this sort of thing happens several times a year for most teams, where they get short-handed or have OT and circumstance forces guys to play huge minutes. And this Bulls team completely wet the bed in a historic way.
If you understood anything about basketball you'd understand why playing Gray or Hunter or JJ for 10 minutes makes a difference. The reason the Kings did what they did was because the bulls couldn't keep up the intensity because they were tired. They went from forcing bad shots to giving up wide open threes and failing to rotate and closeout and even not being able to box out on free throws. Giving guys minutes to catch their breaths makes a difference. It's not Gray playing 10 minutes, it's Noah not playing 40. Noah, and everybody else on the bulls is a lot more effective at the end of the game if he hasn't played the whole damn game. Please Denny, with all our your astounding knowledge, explain how the very same guys who dominated the first half against the Kings starters couldn't get a stop at the end of the game against the Kings' third string. The bulls didn't start sucking just in the fourth quarter did they? You can't possibly believe that can you? The kings third string isn't some kind of hidden basketball juggernaut that Westphal is saving for the stretch run, are they?
So we have Deng saying "we relaxed" and you saying they're overly tired. Boo hoo for these 23 year old guys who can't manage to keep their wind playing 40+ minutes. There are plenty of players in this league that do it just fine. It's like the Bulls are in a marathon, and your way to win is to sprint from the outset. Problem is, you can't play and win many games with limited talent by playing hard 100% of the time. Especially if you're relying on Aaron Gray and Lindsey Hunter to contribute even 10 minutes each. They're simply way overmatched by even Sacramento's 2nd string. No, the Bulls didn't start sucking in the 2nd half, they sucked the whole time, Sacramento just sucked worse for the 1st half. When they stopped sucking, they made a lot of 3 point shots which is what it takes to come from behind by a big amount. Evans, Thompson, Hawes, Udrih, and Rodriguez, at least, would be getting big minutes for the Bulls. We're that bad. Most of those guys would start for us (Evans over Salmons, Thompson over Miller, Hawes over Miller, Udrih over Salmons). As for Brockman... When he plays significant minutes, he's been just as good as against the Bulls, if not better: @CHI 16:48 6 boards MIN 19:25 8 boards NOR 16:35 8 boards NYK 26:12 9 boards @NOR 19:03 10 boards As for their 3rd string... Udoka 3-5 3pt Udrih 3-4 3pt Rodriguez 1-1 3pt Greene 3-6 3pt (That's 10-16 3pt) Why on earth should Westphal take them out? They were bringing the Kings back from a huge deficit against the Bulls 1st stringers before they were tired (or whatever).
And most guys over 6'10" would start over Miller at this point. The only reason he is starting is to try and make sure that Gibson doesn't foul out because his foul rate is so high. The bulls still have three starter better than the Kings. And Hinrich is better than anybody they have coming off of the bench. Denny you need to actually watch the games to have an opinion that makes any sense. Guys play differently when they are tired. It's the difference between settling for jumpshots as the shot clock expires and taking it aggressively to the rim. You're not going to see that in a boxscore.
Hinrich isn't better than anyone they have coming off the bench. He's perhaps the 2nd worst guard in the league averaging more then 6 MPG. By your logic, the Kings could have LeBron and Kobe and Wade and Garnett on their bench, but the Bulls would be better because three of their starters are somehow better than theirs. I've seen the Bulls play plenty this season to know it's not going to get any better. Do you really like seeing Deng try to create for himself with the game on the line and we desperately need a basket?
Denny, even in your fantasy world, what team would bring LBJ, Wade, Kobe and Garnett off of the bench? The '87 Eastern Conference All-star team? Start making sense, please.
I don't think that is a point that anyone would concede, so I ignored it, like I should do with everyone of your comments until you say something new.
