Bulls v. Blazers

Joe Smith continues to be a great spark for us, already 21 points in the game. I'm more than willing to bet the Blazers didn't expect this, but he's been very good tonight and very good the last few games. Now if only someone could cover Outlaw...

And also, awful shot by Noc....Bulls lead down to 3.

And Noc misses yet another 3 from the corner and Blake comes down on the other end to tie the game.

Duhon splits the FTs as Blake just misses beating the buzzer (missed the shot anyways though).

And now more thoughts on the game here.....Bulls need to defend the three. The Blazers killed them from out there near the end of the quarter. The Bulls need to not worry about the post because the Blazers aren't about to score there anyways. They need to focus on locking in on the Blazers shooters and contesting every three. As far as offense goes, get better shots and knock down the good ones. The Bulls took quite a few bad shots there in the quarter, but were lucky to make some of them. However, when the Bulls did get the good look, they couldn't make it. There were three separate occasions where either Noc or Kirk had an uncontested three and missed in those last three minutes. They have to capitalize on that. Lastly, get second chance points. They're getting on the offensive glass but not capitalizing on the the opportunities. They have to score second chance points when given the opportunity instead of blowing the chance.

 

I wish they wouldn't call Boylan the interim coach. How lame is that anyway? He's the coach for the rest of the season with a chance to go from there. Doesn't that merit just calling him "the coach"

 

The TNT guys seemed to indicate Deng's been sore for a bit. If that's the case, why the hell didn't the Bulls at least dress Thabo?

 

Good question there, and yea, it was mentioned earlier that Deng had been bothered by this for a couple of weeks now. I'm thinking they didn't dress Thabo because they didn't expect it to present the problems that it has here tonight.

 

Jarett Jack is a really solid player. Thought this snip about him was interesting:

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>"How important is getting the play calls and signals?

For our team, Shane Battier is excellent at hearing opponents calls during the game and knowing what is going to happen before the opponent runs the play and letting our coaching staff know. That type of advantage could be the difference between 2-3 possessions a game and determine the outcome.

There are lots of players who make it a priority. If you sat close enough to the court of a Dallas Mavericks game, Dirk Nowitzki does a great job of calling out the other teams plays to their bench, as does Jarrett Jack of the Portland Trail Blazers for his team. If Mike Dunleavy of the Pacers knows the play, he will call it out in his teams term just to get a small edge."</div>

 

let the record show i was willing to trade Gordon or Hinrich to get Roy... who's eating them up

 

Gordon loses it and makes for a lost possession on the last one.

 

Agreed

 

Guh.