With 33 seconds left, and down by 6, the Bulls needed perfection to pull off the win. The Bulls needed to make a quick three, and then get a stop on the other side of the ball. Within 2 seconds, the Bulls got the ball to Nocioni off the inbound play, and he was fouled by Parker. Nocioni made all three free throws. Bulls were now down 90 to 87. Now just to get the stop. The Bulls forced San Antonio down in the shot clock, Ginobili is in a bad situation, he pump fakes, gets Nocioni in the air, foul, three shots. Ginobili makes two free throws, and the Spurs win 92 to 87 at the United Center.

The biggest positive that can be taken away from tonight’s game is that it looks like the Bulls are back. The team has that same intensity that it did in 2006-2007. If the Bulls continue to play with this level of intensity, they will begin to steamroll the easier teams and get over .500 rapidly.

The shooting slump is over for Ben Gordon. He came out firing, hitting his first 5 shots in the game. Gordon finished with 20 points on 9-16 shooting and had 4 assists. The offensive performance was better than it looks from the box score, given that the Spurs were allowed to maul Gordon all game with no repercussions. Gordon also initiated some successful fastbreaks. On one, he had the ball in a two on one fastbreak, threw it up to Tyrus Thomas for the alley oop dunk. On the other, he found a cherry picking Luol Deng for the easy lay-in.

Derrick Rose had a really bad night, something that is becoming a trend. Rose finished with 12 points on 6-21 shooting and 8 assists. Rose has become an inefficient scorer, chucking up a lot of bad shots every game. He will make a pretty move, such as a spin into a layup over Tim Duncan tonight, that makes the fans forget about how bad he is doing on most offensive possessions. His assist numbers seem to just be the product of handling the ball so much, nothing special that he does in terms of creating for his teammates. His defense is an abomination. The only players that I’ve really seen that are as bad as Rose on the defensive end in the NBA are Adam Morrison and J.J. Redick. Comparing him to a rookie Gordon on the defensive end is just being nice.

If you are a Bulls fan, you have to be scared about what you’re seeing out of Rose. He is playing really bad basketball. He is an inefficient scorer and can’t defend a chair. Someone needs to hold him accountable for his poor play, and soon. Back in November, Rose looked like a near allstar and has since regressed a ton.

For the first time since coming back, Kirk Hinrich really struggled on the offensive end, scoring 4 points on 2-9 shooting. I have strong doubts of Kirk being the highly efficient scorer that he looked like in his games this season. I think it will be the same inconsistent Kirk that we’re all used to.

However, Kirk’s defense was dynamite. He locked down Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili during his stints in the game. When he was on them, they couldn’t do anything. Kirk’s defense since coming back has been simply amazing. Kirk over the last few games has been better defensively than Ron Artest or Bruce Bowen at their best over the last decade. If Hinrich keeps up this defense all long, you have to call him the best defender in the NBA. Hopefully there is more great defense from Hinrich to come.

I think Vinny made a bit of a mistake during the stretch run with his Hinrich and Gordon subs. With Bruce Bowen in the game, the Bulls could have hid Derrick Rose on Bowen, put Hinrich on Ginobili, and Gordon on Parker, and get away with it. If Vinny didn’t think a three guard lineup was a good idea, than at the very least, Rose should have been the guard on the bench down the stretch.

Andres Nocioni had a really nice game, finishing with 17 points and 15 rebounds. His intensity was great, and he was actually playing smart defense, and attacking the boards. He played more within the offense. So the question has to be raised, why hasn’t he been doing this all year? Why was he just being a chucker and playing lazy, stupid defense for most of the year? It’s just not tonight, his defense has looked better in a few other games this week.

Luol Deng also had a solid game, putting up 12 points 10 rebounds. Not a spectacular game, but solid, which is better than what the Bulls have gotten out of Deng most of the season. He made some really good jumpshots which kept the Bulls close.

For the Spurs, Tony Parker had 20 points and 8 assists. He got whatever he wanted against Rose. Gordon slowed him a little, and Hinrich completely shut him down. But when Rose was on Parker, he really torched us.

Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan both had nice games. Ginobili had 21 points and Duncan added in 18 points and 14 rebounds. They just did what they usually do. With all three of the Spurs big three playing well, they are a tough team to beat.

Matt Bonner had 12 points and 11 rebounds. Michael Finley and Drew Gooden both had 11 points in the game.

I really hate moral victories, because to get a moral victory means that you lost the game. But this was a good moral victory for the team. Just getting the team to play with a lot of intensity against a great team for 48 minutes is a win at this point.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 18-23 on the season.

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Tags: Andres Nocioni, Ben Gordon, Chicago Bulls, Derrick Rose, Drew Gooden, Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng, Manu Ginobili, Matt Bonner, moral victory., San Antonio Spurs, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 18th, 2009 at 1:24 am 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.