The Chicago Bulls got trounced by the Orlando Magic 113 to 94 at the United Center.

The Magic jumped to a big lead early on and never gave up, completely rolling over the Bulls. The Bulls offense came out slow because Orlando played tough defense on Gordon, throwing hard doubles at him, knocking him off his rhythm causing him to miss shot after shot.

Vinny Del Negro made a coaching no no when he quit on the team with 20 minutes left, less than 2 weeks after quitting in the Boston game when down 15 with 15 minutes left. With 20 minutes left, Del Negro made a four man mass substitution. Mistake one, leaving Thabo in. The other players would instantly begin to think why Thabo wasn’t getting called out with the rest of them. The second mistake was when he put Rose back in, in the third quarter. The other players in that group, would begin to think why Rose wasn’t being punished with the rest of them.

Fortunately for Vinny, one of his veteran assistants probably saved him during the break between quarters. To start the fourth, Del Negro brought back in Gordon and Aaron Gray, averting a near chemistry disaster, similar to the one Skiles made in his last season with the Bulls with his mass substitutions.

Ben Gordon finished with a so so game, finishing with 18 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block, and 4 turnovers. The turnovers were not as bad as they looked in the box score for Gordon, as one of his turnovers was from a pass that bounced off Aaron Gray’s stone hands and another was when the ball got passed to him at the last second when Tyrus bailed on a shot, causing Gordon to get the 24 second violation, even though he began his shot instantly upon receiving the ball. Still, Gordon had two really bad turnovers. One, he threw it up in the air out of a double, although in Gordon’s defense, no one came to get the ball. (Rose usually is the only one smart enough to come and get the ball when Gordon is doubled, but Del Negro had taken Rose out moments before). The other turnover was Gordon dribbling off his foot while positioning himself, a turnover that prompted the mass substitution.

Joakim Noah had a really nice game tonight, putting up 19 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 assists. This is the type of game that Noah can have when he is actually making those short shots that the other players are creating for him.

Derrick Rose wasn’t very good today, going assist-less. He only scored 11 points.

Andres Nocioni had 10 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists. Nocioni was getting into it with both Dwight Howard and Rashard Lewis with his rough play.

Larry Hughes added 15 points for the Bulls.

Dwight Howard was dominant today, forcing the Bulls to double. When the Bulls doubled, Howard would make the correct decisions when passing the ball, making the Bulls pay. Howard had 15 points and 14 rebounds in the game.

Rashard Lewis poured in 21 points.

The Magic had 7 players in double figures: Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis, Hedo Turkoglu, Marcin Gortat, Jameer Nelson, Courtney Lee, and Anthony Johnson.

The main difference between the Bulls and Magic appears to be coaching. Even when Howard was out of the game, the Magic were able to create open looks for their three point shooters out of the post. The Bulls big men only can make passes forward, but they never make the pass out to the perimeter to the wide open player, often missing Ben Gordon standing wide open for three. The Magic are so good because all of their bigs see the shooters, and are able to pass out of the post to the perimeter. This is something our bigs need to learn to do to help us become a better team.

The Bulls end a turbulent 2008 with a record of 14-18.

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Tags: Andres Nocioni, Anthony Johnson, Ben Gordon, Chicago Bulls, Courtney Lee, Derrick Rose, Dwight Howard, give up, Hedo Turkoglu, Jameer Nelson, Larry Hughes, Marcin Gortat, Orlando Magic, quiiter, quit, Rashard Lewis, Vinny Del Negro

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 at 2:36 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.