Chicago Bulls 113 vs. New Jersey Nets 104
December 13th, 2008 by Andrew WamboldtThe Chicago Bulls defeated the New Jersey Nets 113 to 104 tonight at the United Center.
The Bulls fell behind big in he first, but fought their way back by some hot shooting from Ben Gordon.
In the fourth, Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon took turns making big plays to get the Bulls the win. Ben Gordon started it out by dishing to Rose on the wing, who sunk a three, tying up the game. The next time down, Gordon hit a three to give the Bulls the three point lead. Then a combination of a Derrick Rose fall away shot, a Ben Gordon pass to a cutting Luol, and a Ben Gordon free throw off of a Devin Harris technical locked the game up for the Bulls.
Ben Gordon was absolutely tremendous tonight. Gordon finished with 29 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Ben Gordon seems to have found his three point shot again, and when Gordon is on from three, he is one of the deadliest scorers in all of basketball. Gordon is running off a lot more screens now, allowing for Derrick Rose and Larry Hughes to set him up for wide open jumpshots.
Derrick Rose was great too, finishing with 22 points, 6 assists, and 6 rebounds. He seemed passive for a lot of the first half, but really turned it on in the fourth, which was great to play. Unlike in past games where our fourth quarter attack was only one of Rose or Gordon, or a very awkward combination of the two, this game, Rose and Gordon played off of each other brilliantly in the clutch.
Larry Hughes had a solid game, scoring 10 points, grabbing 6 rebounds, and passing for 3 assists. Hughes had a tough shooting game tonight, only shooting 3-10, but he took his shots within the offense, so it’s hard to get mad at him.
Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah seem to be back, well at least for tonight. Thomas finished with 16 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 blocks. It seems that Thomas was short changed in the box score in the block department. Thomas played smart for most of the game, played good defense, and actually ran the court. Thomas completed three alley oops tonight, one from Ben Gordon and two from Larry Hughes. Joakim Noah had a solid 7 point, 8 rebound, 3 block game. He finished the easy shots set up for him and played good defense. Not much more you can ask out of these two than what they gave us tonight.
Luol Deng and Drew Gooden continue their horrible play. There was a trend going on for most of the game. When Deng and Gooden were in the game, the Nets would go on a run. The only time this didn’t happen was at the end of the game when Rose and Gordon took over.
Luol Deng finished with 11 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists. Deng had some nice scores that were set up by Rose and Gordon. Deng is a very selfish player ou there. At the end of the game, after grabbing a rebound, Deng refused to pass it to the wide open Gordon, the best free throw shooter on the team, and instead absorb the foul himself, presumably to pad his stats. Deng then proceeded to miss the first free throw. Deng also had his share of selfish, ineffective one on one iso plays that he likes to do.
Deng continued his career of anti-clutch play. He missed the aforementioned free throw after his display of selfishness, but he also had a turnover on a 5 second violation and various stupid fouls on Vince Carter down the stretch. Deng was so bad that Del Negro had to pull him for Hughes for the final seconds of the game.
Drew Gooden scored 14 points on 5-14 shooting and brought his usual lack of defense.
Vince Carter completely dominated Luol Deng, scoring 39 points. Luol Deng looked like he was 40 years old out there. Deng could not keep up athletically with Carter at all and his only answer was to foul Carter.
Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon did a pretty solid job defensively tonight. Devin Harris was limited to only 22 points on 6-18 shooting. Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah had a lot to do with Harris’ shooting woes, but Rose did a solid job making things a bit more difficult for Harris as well. Bobby Simmons got off to a quick 9 points in the first quarter amidst defensive confusion resulting from Deng’s inability to guard Carter. Gordon then stepped up his defense, bringing Simmons down to 5-11 shooting for the game, only giving up 12 points.
Brooke Lopez had a very good 17 point, 7 rebound, 3 block game tonight. He looked very good.
With the win tonight, the Bulls improve to 11-12 on the season.
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Tags: Ben Gordon, Bobby Simmons, Brooke Lopez, Chicago Bulls, clutch, Derrick Rose, Devin harris, Drew Gooden, Joakim Noah, Luol Deng, New Jersey Nets, poor defense, technical, Tyru Thomas, United Center, Vince Carter
