The Chicago Bulls defeated the Utah Jazz 106 to 98 at the United Center earlier tonight.

The Bulls looked disinterested early in the game and fell behind early on. After Rose left with his second foul in the game, Gordon led the Bulls on a run to get back in the game. From there on out the game was close.

The Bulls were able to come through in the clutch behind the double clutch duo of Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon. With 5 minutes left in the game, the Bulls trailed the Jazz by 1. From there, Rose and Gordon took over. Rose started it by getting fouled on a drive to the basket and making both free throws. On the next drive, Rose got to the basket again, this time making a layup. Next time down the floor, Nocioni found Gordon for three. From there on out, it was just a free throw contest for the Bulls.

Ben Gordon was the Bulls best player tonight, finishing with 26 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1 block. Sensing the Jazz’s lack of shotblockers, Gordon was able to drive on the Jazz at will. Gordon drew 2 fouls on Deron Williams in the first quarter on drives to the basket. Gordon abused C.J. Miles whenever he was on him. Gordon got to the free throw line 10 times tonight. Unfortunately, Gordon only made 7 of his free throws.

Like the Celtics, the Jazz met Gordon with double teams when he touched the ball, although the Jazz play much softer defense. Gordon was able to cut through or drive past some of the Jazz’s double teams to get to the basket. There is no scenario where that should happen, so the Jazz need to seriously analyze their defensive effort. Still, the Jazz forced Gordon to turn the ball over, but when you’re getting 26 points and good defense out of Gordon, you can live with 4 turnovers.

Derrick Rose was also key in tonight’s win, finishing with 24 points, 3 assists, and 5 rebounds. It looked like it might be another down night for Rose after a poor first stint in the game, but Rose quickly picked up his play. Rose, like Gordon, was able to drive to the basket at will against the Jazz. The Jazz’s soft interior defense just made this an easy game for Rose. Defensively, Deron Williams abused Derrick Rose early on, but did very little late in the game. The only other negative in Derrick’s game is his lack of passing.

Andre Nocioni had another nice game, scoring 15 points and grabbing 8 rebounds. There is a strong possibility that Nocioni has been hurt for most of the year and has just recovered from the injury, as his effort and hustle levels are much higher than earlier.

Thabo Sefolosha had a nice game, finishing with 10 points and 4 steals. Sefolosha came in and really disrupted the Jazz, using his length on defense to force them into turnovers.

Luol Deng gave the Bulls 8 points, and Larry Hughes added in 10.

Joakim Noah had 9 rebounds and 1 block. He played really energetic, and gave the Bulls some second chances with his great offensive rebounding, finishing with 8 in the game.

Deron Williams finished the game with 19 points and 6 assists.

The Jazz’s front court destroyed the Bulls. Mehmet Okur had 23 points and 13 rebounds and Paul Millsap had 22 points and 10 rebounds. The Bulls just lack any semblance of man interior defense. If a big man gets the ball in a decent scoring position, he probably is going to score. Fortunately, tonight, the Bulls perimeter players were able to frustrate the Jazz front court duo into 9 turnovers.

Tyrus Thomas and Drew Gooden sat out the game for the Bullz. Carlos Boozer was out for the Jazz.

The Bulls are now 13-14 on the season and are ranked 8th in the East. The Bulls are 1/2 game behind New Jersey for the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference. The Bulls will have a chance to return to .500 against the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday.

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Tags: abused, Andres Nocioni, Ben Gordon, C.J. Miles, Chicago Bulls, Deron Williams, Derrick Rose, driving, free throws, Joakim Noah, Larry Hughes, Luol Deng, Mehmet Okur, Paul Millsap, Thabo Sefolosha, Utah Jazz

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 20th, 2008 at 10:48 pm and is filed under Game Recap. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.