The Chicago Bulls fell to the Minnesota Timberwolves 109 to 108 tonight in overtime.

This loss was especially bad for the Bulls because they blew a large lead. The Bulls led by 16 points in the first quarter, but when Kirk Hinrich came in and played point guard, the offense stalled out, allowing the Timberwolves to charge back into the game.

Derrick Rose had two shots to win the game for the Bulls, but missed on both. On the first, at the end of regulation, Derrick Rose missed a contested jumpshot, bringing the game into overtime. At the end of overtime, with the Bulls down one, Rose careened a bankshot off the rim. Aaron Gray and Luol Deng tipped the ball up, but neither could get the ball in the basket. Minnesota victory.

The Bulls really need to start running some end of game plays for Ben Gordon. He is proven in that department, Derrick Rose is not. Teams simply aren’t going to give Rose the lane at the end of games, leaving a poor jumpshooter with a contested jumpshot. Giving the ball to Gordon, who they might give the drive to, but who is also the Bulls best jumpshooter, is a much better option at the end of games.

Ben Gordon actually had a real nice game tonight, scoring 23 points on 10-20 shooting. Gordon’s game was pretty good all around, except for his third quarter. Gordon looked more aggressive tonights, and created some offense.

Luckily for Bulls fans, Kirk Hinrich played so bad that there was no way that Vinny could justify keeping Kirk in late in the fourth. Hinrich had 1 point on 0-7 shooting, with 3 turnovers. The Kirk Hinrich of old was back. The one who just dribbles around and around without meaning. His defense wasn’t very good either. That Kirk Hinrich should not be playing any kind of meaningful minutes in the NBA. I hope this Kirk isn’t back to stay, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he reverted into his non 2006-2007 form.

Gordon had 9 points in the fourth quarter and overtime. Overall, Gordon did a nice job during the clutch, although he did miss a potential go ahead jumpshot from the corner. Hopefully Vinny has learned that Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon should always be the Bulls backcourt during crunch time.

Derrick Rose looked good early in the game, but played himself into a very poor outing. Rose scored 18 inefficient points, and dished 7 assists, but had 5 turnovers. Rose needs to step his game up. The Bulls were playing better early in the season because they had both Rose and Gordon going. Rose hasn’t been able to get it going this entire month, and as a result, the Bulls are struggling.

Luol Deng had a nice game, finishing with 22 points and 8 rebounds. Deng was just sticking his jumper and making some nice cuts to the basket. When Luol does that, he is a very good player to have.

Al Jefferson just completely dominated the Bulls front court. He scored 39 points and grabbed 9 rebounds, while forcing Joakim Noah into foul trouble. The Bulls had nothing to stop Jefferson, and Jefferson hit big shot after big shot, including the tip in that brought the game into overtime. Noah actually had an outstanding 7 blocks, but he was still no match to stop Big Al.

Randy Foye had a poor outing, but hit the go ahead bank shot, which ended up being the game winner.

Andres Nocioni had 15 points in the game. Nocioni had some nice hard fouls which really got the T’Wolves heated.

Joakim Noah had 14 points and 10 rebounds and Tyrus Thomas had 11 points and 9 rebounds. Unfortunately the Bulls front court was horrible defensively. In addition to Jefferson’s 39 points, the Bulls front court gave up 19 points and 15 rebounds to Kevin Love.

Rodney Carney was great, scoring 13 points on 5-6 shooting. Carney finished the game with a true shooting percentage of 108.3%.

This is the Bulls fifth straight loss.

With this loss, the Bulls fall to 18-27 on the season. The Bulls were 18-27 at this point last season. This is the second straight season that the Bulls loss to the Timberwolves in their 45th game of the season.

Vinny Del Negro is currently doing worse than Jim Boylan, who went 19-26 in his first 45 games. Jim Boylan also didn’t have that Derrick Rose guy on his team. It’s hard to see the Bulls keeping Del Negro much longer if this poor play keeps up.

Similar Posts:

• Minnesota Timberwolves 102 at Chicago Bulls 92
• Houston Rockets 107 vs. Chicago Bulls 100
• Chicago Bulls vs. Minnesota Timberwolves Recap
• Dallas Mavericks 115 vs. Chicago Bulls 114 in OT
• Chicago Bulls 102 vs. Cleveland Cavaliers 93

Tags: Al Jefferson, Andres Nocioni, Ben Gordon, Chicago Bulls, Derrick Rose, Game Winner, hard fouls, Joakim Noah, Kevin Love, Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng, Minnesota Timberwolves, overtime, Randy Foye, Rodney Carney, terrible, true shooting percentage, Tyrus Thomas, Vinny Del Negro

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 25th, 2009 at 9:19 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.