The Boston Celtics defeated the Chicago Bulls 96-80 tonight in the Bulls’ first road game of the season.

Dreadful is the only way to describe the Bulls’ performance. The Celtics led early, late, and often as they dominated the Bulls.

The Celtics spread the scoring around. Kevin Garnett led the Celtics with 18 points, while Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo, and Paul Pierce all finished with 14 points.

Derrick Rose led the Bulls in scoring with 18 points. He was able to get to the rim at will. Even when Rose missed on his layups, good things happened, as Rose would draw multiple defenders with him making for easy tip in opportunities for the big men. Rose only had 1 assist, but this was more of his teammates’ fault than his.

Ben Gordon only had 11 points tonight. He started off the game weak, starting 0-6 shooting. Gordon had a good second half though, scoring all of his 11 points on 3-4 shooting and 4-4 from the free throw line. Gordon was able to drive pretty well today, creating scoring opportunities for his teammates (which they often didn’t capitalize on), and some layup attempts, which Gordon didn’t always finish himself. But he did make one of his driving layups and drew fouls on other drives. Gordon’s dribbling was out of control at times, and he did make some poor passes.

Gordon was probably the Bulls best guard defender tonight. Gordon is beginning to really understand how to guard different guys in different situations.

One bothersome thing that Del Negro did during the game was taking out Ben Gordon with about 3 minutes left. Just leave him in, and let him get some experience playing with Rose. That just stuck out as Del Negro suppressing Gordon’s stats, and that could be bad for the team’s chemistry.

Kirk Hinrich was a nonfactor tonight, scoring 6 points and dishing 3 assists. At one point during the game, Jeff Van Gundy ripped Hinrich for not passing to a wide open Tyrus Thomas, questioning who Hinrich was to decide who is worthy of being passed too. The offense generally stagnated when Hinrich was playing the point.

Thabo Sefolosha was again horrible. Sefolosha finished with 7 points on 2-6 shooting. All of his points came in garbage time. Del Negro has to move Gordon into the starting position soon. It is the right thing to do and the obvious thing to do in terms of winning basketball games.

Luol Deng was a no-show tonight, finishing with 8 points on 2-8 shooting. However, Tyrus Thomas takes home the crown for the absolute worst player of the game. Thomas had 11 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 blocks, which seems solid on the surface, but Thomas went 2-17 shooting tonight.

Aaron Gray had a nice defensive stretch in the 2nd quarter, grabbing 6 rebounds and blocking 3 shots. Noah had a solid defensive game, he finished with 13 rebounds.

The Bulls next game is tomorrow night against the Memphis Grizzlies in Chicago.

Sam Smith wrote in his mailbag today that Ben Gordon ended up agreeing to the Bulls contract terms, but the Bulls ended up pulling the offer. Here is what Smith wrote:

The talk around the NBA is the Bulls gave Ben a deadline and said either sign—which I thought was a maybe too generous offer, like with Deng—or forget it. Ben’s agent came back the next day and said forget it. The Bulls did. Then Ben apparently changed his mind, but an agent told me the offer was off the table and that was it, sending Ben into a funk.

This is a big problem. The guy agreed to the contract offer that the Bulls desired him on and yet, he isn’t signed long term. If Gordon was willing to sign for that contract, then Jerry Reinsdorf acted foolishly.

This sends the message to players that the Bulls will get their way in all negotiations. Gordon played the negotiations perfectly, and how any rational person would have played it. The Bulls’ offer was on the low end of fair, Gordon had no incentive to sign before the deadline because of how low the deal was.

When Gordon insinuated that he might take the Bulls offer on media day, he was being sincere. There was no reason for the Bulls to set an early deadline. When Gordon came back to the Bulls saying he would accept their offer, there is no logical reason why he did not walk out of that room as a long term member of the Chicago Bulls. It’s not like the Bulls made any big financial changes to the team between Gordon saying, “no” and changing his mind.

Very disappointing news, and continuing proof that Bulls fans should be upset with Jerry Reinsdorf and how he is running the team.

The Chicago Bulls take on the Boston Celtics tonight at 7 PM in Boston.

Both the Bulls and Celtics come into the game with records of 1-0.

The Bulls defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 108-95 in a great overall team effort on Tuesday.

The Celtics beat the Cavaliers 90-85, after receiving their championship rings. The Celtics were powered by a 27 point performance by Paul Pierce.

Tonight’s game will serve as both Derrick Rose’s first national television game, as the game will be broadcast on ESPN, and as Rose’s first road game.

The Bulls are expected to start Derrick Rose, Thabo Sefolosha, Luol Deng, Tyrus Thomas, and Drew Gooden. The Celtics are expected to start Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Kendrick Perkins.

The Bulls struggled mightily against the Celtics last year, losing 81-92, 82-107, 93-116, and 92-106 in their 4 games against each other.

The Celtics are a 10 point favorite for tonight’s game.

The game is at 7 PM and will be broadcast on ESPN.

1. LA Lakers - 93.9185
2. Detroit Pistons - 85.7849
3. Boston Celtics - 85.4889
4. Atlanta Hawks - 84.2388
5. Utah Jazz - 84.0007
6. New Jersey Nets - 83.7924
7. Toronto Raptors - 83.6934
8. Houston Rockets - 83.6689
9. Chicago Bulls - 83.3227
10. New Orleans Hornets - 81.9382
11. Minnesota Timberwolves - 78.1894
12. New York Knicks - 77.7545
13. Cleveland Cavaliers - 76.3125
14. Phoenix Suns - 67.7195
15. Milwaukee Bucks - 66.4667
16. San Antonio Spurs - 62.0451
17. Denver Nuggets - 58.0249
18. Golden St. Warriors - 56.8600
19. Sacramento Kings - 56.7024
20. Orlando Magic - 55.6220
21. Miami Heat - 55.3546
22. Indiana Pacers - 55.3247
23. Memphis Grizlies - 54.6681
24. Dallas Mavericks - 54.3407
25. Philadelphia 76ers - 53.5610
26. Oklahoma City Thunder - 53.1716
27. Washington Wizards - 52.9230
28. Portland Trail Blazers - 50.4509
29. Charlotte Bobcats - 49.9253
30. LA Clippers - 42.8015

1. LA Lakers - 92.9805
2. Houston Rockets - 84.741
3. Detroit Pistons - 84.6915
4. Boston Celtics - 84.4825
5. Atlanta Hawks - 83.2265
6. Utah Jazz - 82.8900
7. New Jersey Nets - 82.7565
8. Toronto Raptors - 82.5955
9. Chicago Bulls - 82.1523
10. Minnesota Timberwolves - 80.5605
11. New Orleans Hornets - 79.281
12. Phoenix Suns - 78.8435
13. New York Knicks - 76.5142
14. Milwaukee Bucks - 65.2685
15. Cleveland Cavaliers - 61.601
16. San Antonio Spurs - 60.7485
17. Denver Nugges - 56.8695
18. Golden St. Warriors - 55.6165
19. Sacramento Kings - 55.5485
20. Washington Wizards - 54.9235
21. Orlando Magic - 54.4430
22. Indiana Pacers - 54.1590
23. Miami Heat - 54.0635
24. Memphis Grizzlies - 53.6130
25. Philadelphia 76ers - 52.3205
26. Oklahoma City Thunder - 51.9680
27. Portland Trail Blazers - 49.2660
28. LA Clippers - 41.4120

Vinny Del Negro, Derrick Rose, Drew Gooden, Thabo Sefolosha, Aaron Gray and Ben Gordon talk to Jillian Jesk about the team’s season opener.

Here are the Dabullz.com power rankings for the 2008-2009 NBA Season for the date October 29th, 2008.

1. Los Angeles Lakers - 91.1664
2. Boston Celtics - 85.4902
3. Chicago Bulls - 83.3227
4. Cleveland Cavaliers - 62.668
5. Milwaukee Bucks - 51.1299
6. Portland Trail Blazers - 50.4526

Keep in mind that these power rankings are only based on one day of game data. It will take probably a month before the rankings take any type of important equilibrium.

Teams will be added to the data set as they play their first games.

The Bulls are doing well in the rankings thus far thanks to their high powered offense. The Bulls had by far the best offense of any of the team’s that played.

The Lakers were dominant as well. They had a very good offensive display yesterday while having a stifling defense.

The statistical data suggests that the Celtics might be slowing down, but again, it is only one game, and we will need more games before this reaches any sort of equilibrium.