Bulls sweat out a win against Charlotte on a night where Salmons finally has a decent game. Then they come home for a crazy game against Denver. A tight battle throughout, game tied and time running out, Billups drives to the hole and gets bailed out on a dubious call with .6 seconds left. Billups is money at the line, so he makes the first and purposely misses the second to run out the clock. He gets a bad, quick bounce off the rim though and the Bulls call time-out with .3 seconds left.
Now if you are a Bulls fan and know your NBA history, you'll know that there is a "Trent Tucker" rule in the NBA that resulted from a 1990 game between the Bulls and the Knicks. In that game, the Knicks inbounded the ball to Tucker with only .1 seconds left! He tossed up a prayer that went in. Bulls protested, saying that .1 seconds was too short to get off a shot and they lost that protest! However, the NBA subsequently did a bunch of tests and soon after put in a rule that states that a player needs a minimum of .3 seconds to get off a shot.
So, inbounding from the halfcourt with .3 seconds left, Bulls toss it to a wide open Brad Miller who instantly heaves up a prayer that goes in. Bulls and fans go nuts as they seem to have escaped with one. The officials reviewed the play for a good 15 minutes, and they replayed the shot endlessly from every angle on the TV. There was no way in the world you could tell if the ball was completely off his fingertips. Just no way. It looked good to me, but there really was no way you could say for certain. You'd think that the hoop gods would try to make amends for the Tucker fiasco, but no, Chicago is a hard luck town for its sports' teams. Officials somehow decide to overrule the basket and give Denver the game!
Next night, at Toronto, they play hard but ragged and fold in the fourth. Bosh and to a lesser extent Bargnani killed the Bulls last year, and they did it again this game. Hinrich and Salmons couldn't make a shot if they were locked in the gym. Salmons was 1-11!
On the plus side, Gibson is already better than Tyrus. Yes, he makes plenty of mistakes and he's not going to be ROY, but we are 8 games into the season and he already knows more about how to play basketball than our four-year-man Tyrus, who is fortunately out for several weeks with an injured arm.
Bulls now have one at home and then the infamous circus road trip. Bulls get kicked out of the United Center while the circus plays there, and they have historically gone belly up during the long road tour. We'll see.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
From Terrible to Not Bad
Boston crushes them at their place; then Bulls fold at Miami; they have an awful first half at home against Milwaukee, but bounce back to squeak out a win; and finally they pull out a gutsy win in an ugly game at Cleveland. Most likely we will see quite a bit of this up and down from the Bulls, but they are not at their best right now so there are things to be hopeful about.
Rose is clearly not back all the way yet. He looks good in spurts, but the way they are controlling his minutes, you can tell he's not well. He does show flashes of his regular self, such as during a coast-to-coast drive at Cleveland.
Tyrus was sick with the flu and got a DNP against the Bucks. May be the best thing to happen to the Bulls as it threw Gibson in there. He was bad against Milwaukee, but he was pretty good against Cleveland; certainly better than Tyrus, who did play a bit there and actually wasn't as awful as usual. Maybe the Bulls should keep infecting him with flu all season. Not only will he play better but he might get some opposing stars sick.
Deng is "half a man" this season. What I mean is that when he's up against smaller, more passive defenders, he's doing pretty well; but when he has someone his own size against him, who challenges him, he folds. There was a sequence in the Boston game where Deng wimps out on driving to the basket against Pierce and instead tosses up one of his flat, lazy, no-arc jumpers. Then he stands there, with wrist gaily extended, watching his shot while Pierce runs down the court for an outlet pass. Deng is too late to catch the guy who infamously couldn't run down Noah on the dribble during the playoffs last year, and fouls him for a three point play. This is the Deng I despise.
However, his shot is falling when he isn't challenged, which is far, far better than we've seen from him the last two years. And while he still isn't a fierce defender, he's at least using a bit of energy on the defensive end, which is new for him. I'll take that, because he's never going to be the All-Star the Bulls were dreaming about when he had a decent year two years ago. Just having him become a relatively useful starter is a huge jump.
Brad Miller has been a key in the Bulls wins. He's stepped up, particularly in the clutch, with less time wasted on Tyrus. Too bad he's not 3-4 years younger because 10 more minutes of Miller on the floor would win a lot more games for the Bulls. And Noah deserves some props too because he's been rebounding, making the hussle plays, and even banging with Shaq as best as he can.
Hinrich has been decent with his increased minutes, good but not as good as he can be. His shooting is off. Not as off as Salmons though, who couldn't hit the side of a barn for most of this season. I think he was shooting .264 before Cleveland! He was 3-15 vs the Spurs and the Bucks and 2-14 vs Boston. It would be hard to shoot that bad if he was trying to miss! He was 6-13 vs Cleveland and was pretty good vs Miami, so he may have just been in a slump -- hopefully short, because the Bulls really need him.
I shouldn't rub salt in the wound, but Ben Gordon has been shooting very well for his new team. He's scored between 22-30 points in every game and has shot over 50% in every game except one.
Except for some garbage time in Boston, Bulls first pick last year, Johnson, has not played a minute. That's a bit scary, and disappointing when so many other rookies are playing decently. I guess if Gibson pans out he'll be considered a steal, but the Bulls obviously had higher hopes for Johnson.
In short, it looks like we're going back to the scrappy Bulls of the early Skiles era. They don't shoot well but they get steals, defend and rebound. If Rose gets back to form and Gibson progresses, a playoff slot is a realistic goal.
Rose is clearly not back all the way yet. He looks good in spurts, but the way they are controlling his minutes, you can tell he's not well. He does show flashes of his regular self, such as during a coast-to-coast drive at Cleveland.
Tyrus was sick with the flu and got a DNP against the Bucks. May be the best thing to happen to the Bulls as it threw Gibson in there. He was bad against Milwaukee, but he was pretty good against Cleveland; certainly better than Tyrus, who did play a bit there and actually wasn't as awful as usual. Maybe the Bulls should keep infecting him with flu all season. Not only will he play better but he might get some opposing stars sick.
Deng is "half a man" this season. What I mean is that when he's up against smaller, more passive defenders, he's doing pretty well; but when he has someone his own size against him, who challenges him, he folds. There was a sequence in the Boston game where Deng wimps out on driving to the basket against Pierce and instead tosses up one of his flat, lazy, no-arc jumpers. Then he stands there, with wrist gaily extended, watching his shot while Pierce runs down the court for an outlet pass. Deng is too late to catch the guy who infamously couldn't run down Noah on the dribble during the playoffs last year, and fouls him for a three point play. This is the Deng I despise.
However, his shot is falling when he isn't challenged, which is far, far better than we've seen from him the last two years. And while he still isn't a fierce defender, he's at least using a bit of energy on the defensive end, which is new for him. I'll take that, because he's never going to be the All-Star the Bulls were dreaming about when he had a decent year two years ago. Just having him become a relatively useful starter is a huge jump.
Brad Miller has been a key in the Bulls wins. He's stepped up, particularly in the clutch, with less time wasted on Tyrus. Too bad he's not 3-4 years younger because 10 more minutes of Miller on the floor would win a lot more games for the Bulls. And Noah deserves some props too because he's been rebounding, making the hussle plays, and even banging with Shaq as best as he can.
Hinrich has been decent with his increased minutes, good but not as good as he can be. His shooting is off. Not as off as Salmons though, who couldn't hit the side of a barn for most of this season. I think he was shooting .264 before Cleveland! He was 3-15 vs the Spurs and the Bucks and 2-14 vs Boston. It would be hard to shoot that bad if he was trying to miss! He was 6-13 vs Cleveland and was pretty good vs Miami, so he may have just been in a slump -- hopefully short, because the Bulls really need him.
I shouldn't rub salt in the wound, but Ben Gordon has been shooting very well for his new team. He's scored between 22-30 points in every game and has shot over 50% in every game except one.
Except for some garbage time in Boston, Bulls first pick last year, Johnson, has not played a minute. That's a bit scary, and disappointing when so many other rookies are playing decently. I guess if Gibson pans out he'll be considered a steal, but the Bulls obviously had higher hopes for Johnson.
In short, it looks like we're going back to the scrappy Bulls of the early Skiles era. They don't shoot well but they get steals, defend and rebound. If Rose gets back to form and Gibson progresses, a playoff slot is a realistic goal.
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