Chicago Bulls
De Ja Vu: Rose, Deng Lead Bulls Over Trailblazers in OT
Saturday, February 27th, 2010 | Atlanta Hawks, Chicago Bulls, Dallas Mavericks, Indiana Pacers, NBA, Portland Trailblazers, Sports, Utah Jazz | No Comments
For the 2nd game in a row, Derrick Rose and Luol Deng paved the way for a big Bulls win at the United Center. Rose scored 33 points – 12 in the 4th quarter – to get the Bulls into the extra period. Rose thought he had won the game with a driving layup as the horn sounded to end the 4th quarter, but the ball rimmed out. The Trailblazers held Rose scoreless in OT, but Deng chipped in 7 of his 23 points in the extra frame and the Bulls were able to pull away for a 115-111 overtime victory over one of the better teams in the NBA. Joakim Noah also had one of his better games since dealing with a severe foot injury – he scored 8 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in 27 minutes.
The Bulls are now 31-27 overall with a stellar 19-9 home record at the United Center. The Bulls are in Indiana tonight to take on the Pacers, before returning home to play the next 4 games in the United Center against the Atlanta Hawks, Memphis Grizzlies, Dallas Mavericks and Utah Jazz.
Rose, Deng Lead Bulls Past Pacers 120-110
Thursday, February 25th, 2010 | Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, NBA, New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, Sports | 1 Comment
The Chicago Bulls kept up their fast start after the NBA All-Star Break with an easy 120-110 win over the Indiana Pacers at the United Center in Chicago. Luol Deng led the way for the Bulls with 31 points and 9 rebounds. He also blocked 4 shots on the defensive end. Derrick Rose just missed a triple-double with 23 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists. Taj Gibson also turned in another solid effort with a double-double – 14 points and 11 rebounds (including 7 offensive boards).
Granted the Bulls 5 of 6 streak out of the gate is somewhat expected – they beat the Knicks twice, the Timberwolves, the 76ers and the Pacers. But in the NBA, you play your schedule and you have to win these games. The Bulls are now 3 games over .500 at 30-27. They have a lock on the 6th seed in the Eastern Conference with a 1.5 games lead over each of the Miami Heat and Milwaukee Bucks. The Charlotte Bobcats are the only other team in the hunt for the 8th seed in the East (2.5 games behind the Bulls), so the Bulls are in a good position to qualify for the post-season for the 2nd year in a row.
Bulls Start 2nd Half off with Blowout Win over Knicks
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 | Chicago Bulls, NBA, New York Knicks, Sports | No Comments
The Chicago Bulls started off the 2nd half with a dominating 118-852 win over the New York Knicks at the United Center on Tuesday night. The Bulls outscored the Knicks in each quarter and shot over 60% from the floor for the game.
More importantly, Bulls star guard Derrick Rose led the way with 29 points, 3 rebounds and 6 assists. He made 14 of his 18 field goals and showed little adverse affects from the bruised hip he suffered in the final game before the All-Star Break. Head Coach Vinny Del Negro took no chances with the Bulls leading by so much – he limited Rose to just 27 minutes during the contest.
Luol Deng chipped in 18 points, Taj Gibson grabbed 10 boards, while Kirk Hinrich scored 14 points with 8 rebounds and 6 assists.
The Bulls got back to .500 with the win. The Bulls are in a 3-way tie for the 6-7-8 seeds in the Eastern Conference with the Charlotte Bobcats and the Miami Heat. The Bulls battle the Knicks in the home-and-home series at Madison Square Garden in New York City tonight.
Rose Hurt, Bulls Lose in Home Blowout to Magic 107-87
Thursday, February 11th, 2010 | Chicago Bulls, Orlando Magic, Sports | 1 Comment
Not a good night for Bulls fans, as Derrick Rose was injured at the start of the Bulls 107-87 blowout loss to the Orlando Magic at the United Center. Just over 2 minutes into the game, Rose was fouled hard by Magic star Dwight Howard. Rose landed awkwardly on his right hip. Rose made the basket and then the free throw, but the Bulls took him out of the game after that for precautionary reasons. Rose went to a hospital after the game to have an MRI done on the injure right hip and results will be forthcoming. Head Coach Vinny Del Negro had this to say about the hard foul and Rose’s status – “I don’t think there was anything intended there at all, just try to block a shot… Let’s see what the MRI says. Let’s see how much discomfort, how stiff he is tomorrow. Usually, those things tend to loosen up rapidly, and luckily, we do have the All-Star Break. I just hope he’s all right to participate because he deserves it and I want him to enjoy himself.”
After that play, the rest was history for the Bulls. The Magic outscored the Bulls 41-17 in the 1st quarter. Ouch! The Bulls outscored the Magic in the 2nd and 4th quarters, but it wasn’t enough. The Bulls fell back under .500 at 25-26 and they are tied with the Miami Heat for the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference. The Milwaukee Bucks are just 1 game behind the Bulls and Heat, so it is going to be a dog-fight the rest of the way for the Bulls. They will need to get back a healthy Rose and Joakim Noah after the break if they expect to make a real post-season run during the next 2 months…
Bulls, Blackhawks Get Back on Track with Saturday Night Wins
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 | Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, NBA, NHL, Orlando Magic, Sports | No Comments
The Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks each got back on track with bug wins on Saturday night.
The Bulls defeated the Miami Heat 95-91 in front of a crazy home crowd at the United Center. The win snapped a 3-game losing streak after the team had played so well on their west coast road trip. Luol Deng (25 points, 7 rebounds) and Derrick Rose (24 points, 5 rebounds) led the way for the Bulls. The Bulls are tied with the Charlotte Hornets for the 6th/7th seeds in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. The Heat and Milwaukee Bucks are tied for the 8th and final seed in the conference. It’s going to be a battle down the finale 3 months of the season for these playoff-hungry clubs. The Bulls have 2 more games – tonight at the Indiana Pacers and Wednesday night v. Orlando Magic – before the NBA All-Star Break this weekend.
The Blackhawks defeated the Blues 2-1 on the road in St. Louis. The win snapped a 3-game losing streak – the last 2 of which were tough home losses in which the Hawks blew early leads. Patrick Sharp and Jonathan Toews tallied the Hawks 2 goals in the win, while Annti Niemi had a stellar night in net, stopping 34 of 35 shots on goal. The Blues scored their only goal with under 2 minutes to play in the game, denying Niemi his 5th shutout of the season. The Hawks still hold a 15-point lead in their division and they trail the West-leading San Jose Sharks by only 4 points for the best record in the Western Conference. The Hawks have 3 more games – tonight v. Dallas Stars; Saturday night v. Atlanta Thrashers; and Sunday afternoon at Columbus Blue Jackets – before the Olympics break.
If the Bulls and Blackhawks can keep up this exciting pace, Chicago sports fans will have a lot to cheer about at the United Center come NBA and NHL playoffs time in April, May and June…
Home “Not So” Sweet Home for Bulls & Blackhawks
Thursday, February 4th, 2010 | Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat, NBA, NHL, Sports | No Comments
Chicago NBA & NHL fans were eagerly awaiting the return of the Bulls & Blackhawks to the United Center this week. Unfortunately, while each team played a game at home in front of their raucous fans, the desired outcome – a win – didn’t happen as both teams laid eggs in their home court/ice.
Coming off a 5-game winning streak on the road against teams with winning records – the 1st time a team has ever done that in NBA history – the Bulls looked lethargic in their 90-82 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday night at the UC. The Bulls shot just 38% from the floor and pretty much trailed the entire game. Luol Deng led the Bulls with 18 points, while Derrick Rose chipped in 16 points. To put the loss in perspective – the Bulls were 14-7 at home during the season entering the game and the Clippers had won just 6 games all season long on the road. Not good. The Bulls get another shot at redemption at the United Center against Dwayne Wade and the Miami Heat on Saturday night.
Although the Blackhawks had lost the final game of their 8-game, 5-3 road trip all over the country, the Hawks were poised to make a good showing at home and improve upon their 21-5-1 record at the UC. After taking a 1-0 1st period lead, the Hawks collapsed in the 2nd period, giving up 3 goals to the Blues in a span of 8 minutes. Marian Hossa’s 16th goal of the season brought the Blackhawks within a goal with over 15 minutes still to play in the period, but the Hawks never tallied that final goal to send the game into overtime. As usual, the Hawks outshot their opponent by a wide margin – 34-19 – but in this instance, it didn’t equate to a victory. Patrick Kane scored his team-leading 22nd goal of the season in the loss. Luckily, the Hawks only have to wait 24 hours for a shot at redemption in front of the home town crowd when they host the Phoenix Coyote on Friday night at the UC.
Rose, Bulls Cruising Right Along…
Thursday, January 28th, 2010 | Chicago Bulls, NBA, New Orleans Hornets, Sports | 1 Comment
The Chicago Bulls are cruising right along after a 4th straight road win last night – 96-86 over the Oklahoma City Thunder. It was the 4th straight game that the Bulls defeated a Western Conference with a winning record on the road. Coming into the current 7-game road trip, the Bulls had won a TOTAL of 4 road games all season long. With last night’s win, the Bulls assured themselves of a winning record on the trip (5-2 or 4-3), even if they lose to the Hornets in New Orleans on Friday night.
Derrick Rose led the way with 26 points, 7 assists and 3 rebounds. Joakim Noah still recovering from a foot injury scored 13 points and grabbed 11 boards. Loul Deng chipped in with 17 points, while rookie Taj Gibson set a personal career-high with 15 rebounds – nice balance yet again.
The Bulls are now 22-22 – at the .500 mark for the 1st time since November 21, 2009 when the Bulls were 6-6. The Bulls are tied for the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference with the Charlotte Bobcats and they trail the Toronto Raptors by just 1 game for the 5th seed in the East. Crazy stuff.
I’m sure the Bulls will do something really annoying in the next few weeks (maybe sooner) that will make me come back down to reality. But right now, I’m going to savor this long stretch of consistent solid play from the Bulls…
Bulls Continue to Frustrate Fans with Erratic Play
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 | Chicago Bulls, Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers, NBA, New Orleans Hornets, San Antonio Spurs, Sports | No Comments
The Chicago Bulls are on a 3-game road winning streak, but they are still making life miserable for their fans in Chicago. The Bulls embarked on a 7-game road trip last week with an 18-20 record. They started off the trip with “winnable” games against the Warriors in Golden State and the Clippers in Los Angeles. The team knew that they needed to get a win or 2 right away because the back end of the trip was much more difficult with games against 5 teams with winning records.
So – after dropping the 1st 2 games against the Warriors and Clippers with lackluster performances, it looked like the Bulls might go winless on the trip. But then the improbable happened – the Bulls defeated the Suns in Phoenix, the Rockets in Houston and the Spurs in San Antonio. If the Bulls can win one more game on the road trip, they will match the total number of wins that the Bulls had on the road in the first 3 1/2 months of the NBA season – 4. Pretty incredible.
Now that they have Bulls fans believing again, I’m sure they’ll find a way to crap the bed against the Thunder in Oklahoma City and the Hornets in New Orleans to finish the road trip a “successful” 3-4.
The recent keys to success have been the dominating play of Derrick Rose and the consistent play of Luol Deng. In the last game before the road trip, Rose scored 37 points to lead the Bulls to a double-overtime win against the lowly Wizards. Since then, Rose has scored 19, 23, 32, 20 and 27 points respectively, and his average is now up to 19.6 points per game. Throw in a 5.9 assist average and a 3.7 rebound average, and you can see that Rose is getting better with each game. Rose has also limited himself to just a 2.6 turnover average on the current road trip, an excellent stat for a 2nd year player still learning the NBA game.
Luol Deng is the picture of consistency for the Bulls during the 2009-2010 NBA season. Deng is averaging 17.5 points per game and 7.9 rebounds per game. Since a November 19th loss at the Lakers in which Deng scored just 6 points, he has scored in double-digits in every game save for 3. Deng too has been limiting his turnovers and his renewed energy around the boards has Bulls fans salivating.
A final piece to the puzzle has been the consistent play of Joakim Noah. Noah is averaging 12.1 rebounds per game – a fabulous stat in and of itself. But the more telling stats are his minutes – 33:06 per game – and his scoring – 11.3 points per game. Noah has fouled out of only 1 game all season long so he is contributing crunch time and giving his coaches the ability to use him during all parts of the game.
With these 3 players proving their worth over the long NBA season so far, if I were one of the big free agents looking to make a move following the 2010 season, I would seriously consider the Bulls. Especially for a Chris Bosh or Amar’e Stoudemire, being able to play next to Noah on a nightly basis would elevate each player’s games to no limit. As long as President John Paxson and GM Gar Forman can get rid of Vinny Del Negro before the end of the season (or shortly thereafter) so that a free agent player will know that he has a legitimate NBA coach leading the way, I would think that the Bulls should be able to land one of the big free agents in the class of 2010…
Celtics a Different Team Without Kevin Garnett; Bulls Top Celtics 96-83 in Boston
Friday, January 15th, 2010 | Chicago Bulls, NBA, Sports | No Comments
The Boston Celtics are a much different (worse) team without Kevin Garnett. Last night’s 96-83 loss to the visiting Bulls clearly showed that. Now granted, the Celtics were playing their 4th game in 5 nights so the team was clearly not as energized as they typically are in front of their home crowd at the TD NorthBank Garden in Boston. But you can see how the absence of Kevin Garnett in the paint really affects the way other teams attack the Celtics on offense. With no Garnett (and no Rasheed Wallace too), Paul Pierce has to play that much harder on the defensive end of the court (not his string suit). Minutes also go up for Pierce (39+ minutes) and Ray Allen (35+ minutes). Over the course of a long NBA season, that can take its toll on the aging Celtics especially with the lack of depth on the team’s bench.
The Chicago Bulls should also be given some credit. They knew they had to attack the Celtics right from the start (as they did so many times in the epic 1st round, 7-game playoff series that the Celtics won last year). The Bulls jumped out to a 29-18 1st quarter lead and even though the Celtics continued to chip away at the lead (8 points at halftime; 7 points at the end of the 3rd quarter), the Bulls never let the Celtics get closer than 4 points in the 4th quarter. Even when that happened, the Bulls rattled off 3 straight baskets to up the lead right back up to 10 points.
It was a total team effort for the Bulls as each Bulls starter scored double digit points. Luol Deng led the way with 25 points and 4 assists. Derrick Rose overcame early foul trouble to score 17 points, grab 8 rebounds and dish out 4 assists. Joakim Noah notched his 19th double-double of the season with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Kirk Hinrich chipped in 11 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists. Taj Gibson played through his foot injury to score 14 points and grab 6 rebounds. And in just 17 minutes off the bench, Tyrus Thomas grabbed 7 rebounds – 6 offensive – and had 4 steals.
Don’t look now, but the Bulls have won 7 of 10 games. At 17-20, they are the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference, but just 2 games out of the 5th seed in a top heavy conference. If the Bulls can somehow pull off a mid-season trade for an upper echelon player or make a run at one of the top tier free agents in the much-coveted 2010 class (Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Amar’e Stoudemire, Joe Johnson) their could be good things to cheer about for Chicago Bulls fans in the very near future…
Bulls Top Pacers 104-95; 7th Seed in East?!
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 | Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, NBA, Sports | No Comments
The Chicago Bulls defeated the Indiana Pacers 104-95 at the United Center on Tuesday night. With the win, the Bulls are now 12-17 – good for the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference. What a joke?!
For now, it looks like Vinny Del Negro’s job is safe. Derrick Rose led the Bulls with a dominating performance – 28 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds (he did have 6 turnovers however). Luol Deng continues to be a consistent presence for the Bulls – 15 points and 8 rebounds. “Bench” players also were the key to success in the win: Tyrus Thomas grabbed 15 boards and was clearly missed by the Bulls as he recovered from a broken arm injury. John Salmons poured in 17 points while Brad Miller chipped in 16.
The Bulls close out 2009 with a trip to Detroit to play the Pistons on New Year’s Eve. The Pistons have lost 8 straight games, so the Bulls are hoping they can make that 9 in a row…
