Tyrus Thomas
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…
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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