Joakim Noah
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.
Chicago Bulls Back @ United Center to take on L.A. Clippers
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 | Atlanta Hawks, Miami Heat, NBA, New Orleans Hornets, Philadelphia 76ers, Sports | No Comments
The Chicago Bulls are happy to be back at the United Center despite their recent road success. The bulls finished up their 7-game road trip with an amazing 5-game winning streak over 5 Western Conference teams with winning records. Not sure if the Bulls have ever done that before, but it is shocking to think that Head Coach Vinny Del Negro was able to orchestrate that feat. The Bulls got a little lucky on Friday night against the Hornets in New Orleans, as David West threw an errant pass to Chris Paul with less than 10 seconds to play that gave the Bulls another shot at tying the game to force overtime. After Derrick Rose’s shot was partially deflected, Luol Deng knocked home a “putback” with just 0.2 left on the clock, and the Bulls took care of business in overtime. Deng led the Bulls with 26 points; Rose chipped in 18 of his own; Joakim Noah scored 13 points and grabbed 18 boards, while rookie Taj Gibson scored 8 points with 8 rebounds to boot. Del Negro continues to get a balanced attack out of all of his players each and every night.
Deng summed up the Bulls renewed sense of urgency and confidence best: “When you’re winning, everything is positive. We’re going into games expecting to win. A game like that, if we had lost four in a row, we might have lost it. But the mentality right now is we can win every game.”
The Bulls are back home for a game against the Clippers on Tuesday night at the United Center. They go back on the road for quick trips to Philadelphia and Atlanta after that, but then return home for a big game against the Miami Heat on Saturday night. Four games in 5 days is never easy, especially with travel mixed in there, but if the Bulls can go 2-2, that will keep them over .500 as the All-Star break approaches. I’m not quite sure how Del Negro is doing it, but he appears to have his team focused and ready to take their play to the next level. Let’s just hope they can keep it going for the final 2+ months of the season!
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…
Chicago Bulls Must Fire Head Coach Vinny Del Negro Now
Friday, December 11th, 2009 | Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers, NBA, New Jersey Nets, Portland Trailblazers, Sports, Utah Jazz | 1 Comment
The time is now – Vinny Del Negro – head coach of the hapless Chicago Bulls – must go. Do you hear me Gar Forman (General Manager) and John Paxson (Bulls President)?
The Del Negro experiment has failed. Paxson (and Forman to a lesser extent) must acknowledge the mistake and correct the wrong before the team continues to fall further into the abyss. The Eastern Conference is atrocious, so even a mediocre team like the Bulls should be able to qualify for post-season play each year. Derrick Rose (16.1 points and 5.7 assists) is a star in the making; Joakim Noah hustles like no other player in the NBA and his numbers prove it (10.2 points and 11.6 rebounds); Luol Deng (17.3 points and 8.1 rebounds) still has NBA star potential and is only 25 years old (like Noah); rookie Taj Gibson (8.2 points and 5.7 rebounds) has shown signs of being ready to develop into a quality NBA player; and the Bulls have plenty of cap space available to land a big free agent from the free agent class of 2010. My biggest fears could be realized if the Bulls don’t make a coaching move right now. If you don’t fire Del Negro now, current players might regress, get frustrated or not give 100% night in and night out. Even worse, free agents may look at the team as a team in disarray and fail to consider a bid from the Bulls because of the circumstances. If the club does not land one of the big 2010 free agents, it could be several more years before the team becomes a force to be reckoned with in the weak Eastern Conference.
The time is now to bring in an experienced head coach who could also help pitch one of the big free agents to want to come to Chicago. Vinny is a nice guy, but he never coached at any level in the NBA before Paxson hired him prior to the 2008-9 NBA season. After the Bulls botched the hiring of Mike D’Antoni (who went to the New York Knicks) and Doug Collins, the Bulls settled on Del Negro – the guy his own team – the Phoenix Suns – turned down to be their head coach. His game management is bad. His offensive creativity is even worse. He might be a good head coach some day, but you can’t risk wasting the development of the likes of Deng, Rose, Gibson, Noah, etc. waiting for Del Negro to learn how to coach.
Now granted, somehow, Del Negro got the Bulls to finish the 2008-9 NBA season as the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference. The Bulls even took the Boston Celtics (without Kevin Garnett and Leonard Powe) to 7 games in the 1st round of the playoffs. That being said, the team has taken a major step back in 2009-2010, and you can’t simply blame that on the fact that Ben Gordon left to sign a lucrative free agent contract with the Detroit Pistons. Del Negro has not instilled that killer attitude they displayed against the Celtics in the playoffs last year and the team has been in a tailspin ever since the annual Circus Road Trip. The Bulls have dropped 9 of 10 games after winning the 1st game of the trip in Sacramento. The team now sits at 7-13 – only 1.5 games out of the 8th seed in the playoffs, but moving in the wrong direction. I don’t mind the losses to the Lakers, Nuggets, Trailblazers and Jazz to finish up the west coast portion of the road trip – a lot of teams would have lost those 4 games. But to lose at Milwaukee and then follow that up with lackluster performances in December – there is no excuse. It’s unacceptable to lose to the Toronto Raptors by 32 points at home. It’s unacceptable to lose to the 1-19 New Jersey Nets on your home court. It’s even unacceptable to lose to the Atlanta Hawks by 35 points on the road. The Del Negro ship has sailed and now it’s time for Forman and Paxson to give him one final push off the dock…
Del Negro had this to say about his job security: “I don’t worry about that. I really don’t. I go to work every day, doing the best and trying to develop these guys. Those are questions for Gar, John and Jerry Reinsdorf… We’re fighting with what we have. We’ll keep on fighting. And these decisions aren’t up to me.” Guess what Vinny – you should be worried. Your days are numbered and hopefully we’ll see a different team after you leave…
Chicago Sports Teams – Downright Bad – Cubs, White Sox, Bears, Bulls…
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 | Chicago 2016 Olympics, Chicago Bears, Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago Bulls, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, Rio de Janeiro, Sports | 1 Comment
WOW – it has been a rough year for Chicago sports teams. The Bears and Bulls are just continuing the downward trend for Chicago sports teams. Throw in the fact that the City lost out on the bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics this past October, and you wonder why they even field teams in the “Second City.”
Both MLB teams allowed August collapses to dictate disappointing finishes in 2009. The White Sox (79-83; .488 winning percentage) finished 7.5 games behind the Minnesota Twins in the American League Central Division, while the Cubs (83-78; .516 winning percentage) finished 7.5 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals in the American League Central Division. Obviously neither team qualified for the playoffs.
While the Bears and Bulls had promising starts to their respective seasons, things have quickly turned for the worse for each team.
The Bears started off by winning 3 of their first 4 games, but a current 4-game losing streak has the Bears sitting at 4-7. With games against the Vikings, Ravens and Packers (teams with winning records) still on the schedule, a 6-10 finish looks like a best-case scenario. A Bears loss to either the Rams (1 win) or Lions (2 wins) could end up costing Head Coach Lovie Smith his job. While the defense has been pretty awful all season long, the biggest disappointments come on the offensive side of the ball. During the off-season preceding the season, the Bears traded 2 1st round draft picks and then-starting QB Kyle Orton to acquire “franchise player” Jay Cutler from the Denver Broncos. Cutler has been a huge enigma in 2009 – while he has thrown for 2671 yards and 16 TD’s and completed over 62% of his passes, he has also thrown a league-high 20 interceptions. His 74.4 passer rating is well below his career 83.9 passer rating. Coupled with Matt Forte’s sophomore slump (1,238 yards rushing with 8 TD’s in 2008 v. 543 yards rushing with 3 TD’s in 2009), it looks like the Bears have a lot of work to do if they want to turn this thing around.
The same could be said for the Bulls. The Bulls started the season with a 6-4 record through their 1st 10 games. But their annual “Circus Road Trip” away from the United Center proved costly. They lost the last 5 games of the trip and now sit at a dismal 6-9. Kirk Hinrich and Tyrus Thomas are both injured, and Derrick Rose is still trying to get back to his top form after dealing with an ankle injury during the pre-season which limited his play. There are a few bright spots for the Bulls. #1 – the Eastern Conference is just awful – even at 3 games under .500 the Bulls would still qualify for the playoffs if the season ended today. #2 – Luol Deng (18.3 points and 8.5 rebounds per game) and Joakim Noah (11.5 points and 12.1 rebounds per game) have looked great early on. #3 – the Bulls are set up well salary-cap-wise for the 2010 free agent feeding frenzy – which will include the likes of LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Amari Stoudamire and Chris Bosh.
Sorry Chicago sports fans – looks like you better root real hard for the Blackhawks to win the Stanley Cup in 2010…
Chicago Bulls Off to “Good” Start
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 | Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons, Los Angeles Lakers, NBA, Sports, Utah Jazz | No Comments
I guess it’s all relative, but the Chicago Bulls are clearly off to a good start during the 2009-2010 NBA schedule. It looks like the Bulls might be a part of one of the better divisions in the NBA’s Eastern Conference – the Central Division. 4 out of 5 teams in the division have winning record while the Detroit Pistons bring up the rear at .500. The Cleveland Cavaliers – winners of 7 of their last 8 games – lead the Central Division with a 7-3 record.
The Bulls defied the odds by making the playoffs right at the end of the 2008-9 NBA season – earning the 7th seed in the conference. The Bulls proved it wasn’t a fluke either, taking the Boston Celtics all the way to the brink of elimination with an exciting 7-game series in which the home team won each game.
The Bulls have picked up where they left off this season. With the departure of Ben Gordon in the off-season, but the re-emergence of Luol Deng as a legitimate NBA starter (Deng has been hampered by injuries each of the last 2 seasons), the Bulls haven’t missed a beat. The Bulls are 5-4 with a solid 4-1 home record at the United Center in Chicago. Deng leads the club with a 17.6 scoring average – his 9.2 rebounds average per game is impressive as well. Derrick Rose was hampered by a bum ankle during the pre-season, but is slowly getting back into game shape. Rose averages 13.8 points, 5.3 assists and 2.9 rebounds per game.
The biggest surprise for the Bulls has been the consistent play of Joakim Noah – 11.8 points and 12.2 rebounds per game. Talk about a huge step-up from his 6.7 and 7.6 averages from last season. Kirk Hinrich has also impressed with his solid play early in the season – 9.9 points and 4.56 assists per game. And Rookie Taj Gibson has showed some brilliant moments in limited play so far. Gibson is averaging 7.3 points per game and his 4.89 rebounding average is 3rd behind Noah and Deng on the team. 20 of his 44 rebounds have been offensive rebounds so he can clearly spark an offensive outburst during his minutes.
If the Bulls are going to make a push for a 2nd consecutive playoff appearance, they are going to need better play from John Salmons (12.6 points and 4.0 rebounds) and Brad Miller (8.2 points and 4.7 rebounds). To date, neither player has played as well as anticipated heading into the season. The Bulls are also going to have to play better on the road.
The Bulls now embark on the grueling “Circus” road trip to the west coast (as the Circus invades the United Center for 2 weeks). As mentioned above, the Bulls tend to play poorly on the road, so it will be important for the team to win at least 2 of the 6 games on the trip. It won’t be easy because trying to against the Los Angeles Lakers, Denver Nuggets, Portland Trailblazers or Utah Jazz on the road is highly unlikely. That leaves games against the Kings in Sacramento and the Bucks in Milwaukee to win. The 2 games after the circus road trip are against the Pistons at home and the Cavaliers on the road, so it doesn’t get any easier with 2 intra-division battles. At 5-4, this will be a telling 8-game stretch for the Bulls – they certainly won’t be over .500 at the end of it, but if they can win at least 3 of the games, an 8-9 record isn’t the worst thing in the world this early in the season. Head Coach Vinny Del Negro and his staff will have their work cut out for them over the next 3 weeks of the NBA schedule.
Game 2 Not So Kind to Bulls as Celtics Rout Bulls 118-90
Saturday, October 31st, 2009 | Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons, NBA, Sports | No Comments
It was a tale of 2 different nights – less than 24 hours after a successful Bulls home opener win over the Spurs on Thursday night, the Bulls took it on the chin against the Celtics in Boston on Friday night. The Celtics used a 29-18 advantage in the 2nd quarter to open up a 15-point halftime lead. A 12-point advantage in the 3rd quarter gave the Celtics a 27-point lead after 36 minutes – game over.
There was a lot of anticipation heading into this game because of the way the 2 teams battled in the 1st round of the playoffs just 6 months ago. The Celtics won that series in 7 games, but the Celtics did not have Kevin Garnett in that series, and the Bulls had Ben Gordon who has since left the Bulls for the Detroit Pistons.
Paul Pierce (22 points), Ray Allen (20 points) and Kevin Garnett (16 points) led the way for the Celtics, while Rajon Rondo chipped in 8 rebounds and 16 assists as the general of the team. The Celtics have looked great so far in their 3 wins this season and Head Coach Doc Rivers is really pacing his older players’ minutes in order to keep them fresh for the long haul. Having Rasheed Wallace coming off the bench doesn’t hurt either.
The Bulls looked a little bit lost after a full team effort on Thursday. Joakim Noah looked the best – 16 points and 10 rebounds. Tyrus Thomas also had a solid game – 10 points and 8 rebounds – as did Kirk Hinrich who scored 10 points and dished out 7 assists off the bench. Derrick Rose scored 10 points, but he only had 2 assists and no rebounds. And Luol Deng only played 19 minutes because of foul trouble, scoring 4 points and grabbing 5 boards.
Looks like much will be the same for the Bulls in 2009-2010. This is an average team that will look great one night, only to look dazed and confused the next night. Buckle in for a long ride Bulls fans – but hopefully they will be able to win enough games to qualify for post-season play for a second year in a row.
Balanced Bulls Attack Delivers 92-85 Home Opener Victory Over Spurs
Friday, October 30th, 2009 | Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, NBA, San Antonio Spurs, Sports | No Comments
What a great way to open the NBA season for the home town Bulls – a 92-85 victory over the San Antonio Spurs. Derrick Rose – who had missed most of the Bulls pre-season with an ankle/knee injury – started for the Bulls to delight of the sold out United Center crowd. But it was the balanced attack orchestrated by Head Coach Vinny Del Negro and delivered by the Bulls players that really made a huge impact at the UC.
Six Bulls players scored in double-digits. Luol Deng led the way with 17 points and 9 rebounds. Derrick Rose poured in 13 points while racking up 7 rebounds and 7 assists. Joakim Noah added 10 points and a team-high 10 rebounds. John Salmons scored 10 points, Tyrus Thomas scored 13 points and grabbed 6 boards, while Kirk Hinrich scored 14 points and grabbed 6 rebounds in 29 minutes off the bench. Talk about a full team effort.
What made it even more special was that it came against a good team-oriented basketball squad – the San Antonio Spurs. The Bulls shut down the Spurs playmaker Tony Parker, and although Tim Duncan still had a phenomenal night – 18 points, 16 rebounds – they made sure that no one else had a big night.
The Bulls didn’t have much time to bask in the glow of victory as the team boarded a choppy flight east right after the game to get ready for NBA Game 2 on the young season against the Celtics in Boston. The Bulls and Celtics battled in a grueling 7-game series in the 1st round of the 2009 NBA playoffs, so let’s hope there is some excitement in the air at TD Banknorth Garden in Boston on Friday night. Go Bulls!
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