The Chicago Bulls and Ben Gordon experienced a bit of deja vu tonight.

Last year, after making a big trade at the deadline, the Bulls played the Nuggets at the United Center and beat them down.  This year, the same thing, as the Bulls defeated the Denver Nuggets 116 to 99.

Last year, Ben Gordon scored 37 points in the post deadline game against the Nuggets.  This year?  Ben Gordon also had 37 points.

The game didn’t look like it was going to be a Bulls victory at the start.  Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah were playing absolutely no interior or help defense.  At one point Chauncey Billups put one in close as Tyrus Thomas stood by idly.

Thomas and Noah were obviously worried about foul trouble.  The Bulls only had eight players suit up tonight, having Lindsey Hunter, Kirk Hinrich, and Aaron Gray as the only options in the game.  It was really a 7 man rotation, as Lindsey Hunter only played 1:07 in the game.  With only Gray backing them up, Thomas and Noah were playing no defense to avoid foul trouble.

But then the big man duo started playing defense, and it was good defense.  Nene Hilario scorched the Bulls, making his first eight shots for 16 points.  After that?  He had 3 points on 1-9 shooting.  Kenyon Martin had some nice baskets in the first half, but left the game at halftime with backspasms, which helped the Bulls greatly.

With the young bigs holding it down inside, Ben Gordon started making some big shots.  First in the second quarter to get the Bulls bakc into the game, and then had a monster third quarter to give the Bulls a solid lead.  When Ben Gordon rested early in the fourth, the Nuggets were able to tie the game at 83.  From there, Gordon came in, and the Bulls went on a 33 to 16 run in the last 9:27 to run to victory.

Ben Gordon was terrific tonight.  He finished the game with a season high 37 points.  He was great shooting the ball, going 4-7 from three point land.  He scored on a lot of fastbreak layups.  Gordon has really developed into one of the best fastbreak players in the NBA this past season.

Gordon was joined by Kirk Hinrich for the fourth quarter, as Vinny Del Negro benched the rookie, Derrick Rose, in favor of the veteran backcourt.  Rose was having a terrible game.  He just doesn’t understand where he needs to be on defense.  Billups realized this, and picked apart Rose for an easy 25 points.

Kirk Hinrich was good tonight, scoring 9 points and passing for 8 assists.  The big difference Hinrich made was playing good defense on Billups in the fourth.

Tyrus Thomas was phenomenal tonight, outside of the beginning of the game.  Thomas finished the game with 21 points, 12 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 3 steals.  What more can you ask out of your power forward?  If Thomas keeps up his great February play, he will vindicate Paxson’s selection of Thomas over LaMarcus Aldridge in the 2006 NBA Draft.

Luol Deng was very good tonight as well.  He had 22 points, 12 rebounds, and 3 steals.  He started out the game hot, and then disappeared for two quarters, and then reemerged in the fourth.  It’s alwas nice to see Deng making some important shots in the fourth, after he had been so invisible in the fourth for so many years.

The most important aspect of Deng’s game tonight was his defense.  He played good defense, holding Carmelo Anthony, who was slightly banged up, to 12 points on 5-18 shooting.  When Anthony only scores 12 points on 5-18 shooting, the Nuggets are usually going to lose that ball game.

Joakim Noah added in 13 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 blocks for the Bulls.  Aaron Gray had 4 points, including one basket on a thunderous dunk.

Linas Kleiza had 16 points for the Nuggets.

I think not having Andres Nocioni is really going to help the Bulls.  Nocioni really had become an on the court cancer.  He might have been a great locker room guy, but what he did on the court was an abomination.  This might be a similar situation to 06-07.  In 06-07 the Bulls went on their big run to finish the season, and almost win 50 games after Nocioni went out with his plantar fascitis.  Will the Bulls go o na similar run this year without Nocioni?  Only time will tell.

This team is beginning to look more and more like the vintage Scott Skiles Bulls.  Perhaps no one will ever find out the reasons for the turnaround, but it’s happening, and that’s all that matters.  The Bulls are looking like a dangerous team heading into the playoffs.  Doing what they are right now is not enough to make them one of the top teams in the East like it was in 06-07.  But it could be enough to make the Bulls a team that the big teams will want to avoid in the first round come playoff time.

With the win, the Bulls improve to 25-30 on the season.  With a Bucks loss against Cleveland tonight, the Bulls are only 0.5 games out of the eighth seed.  But there is no reason for the Bulls to set their sights on just the eigth seed.  The Bulls have a cupcake schedule to end the season, so they should conceivably go on a run with the way they’re playing.  The Bulls are only 3.0 games behind Philadelphia and Detroit for the 7th and 6th seeds, 4.0 games behind Miami for the 5th seed, and 7.5 games behind Atlanta for the 4th seed.

The Hawks are probably a little out of reach for the Bulls, but the fifth seed is definitely attainable.  The Bulls have 2 more games against the Heat this season, and they can help their case by winning both of them.  If the Bulls can get in that fourth vs. fifth matchup, they might just be able to find themselves back in the second round of the playoffs.

Tonight was a good win against a top Western Conference team, with our roster depleted.  Easily the best Bulls win of the season.

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Tags: Aaron Gray, Ben Gordon, Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Chicago Bulls, deja vu, Denver Nuggets, Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, Kenyon Martin, Kirk Hinrich, Linas Kleiza, Lindsey Hunter, Luol Deng, Nene Hilario, season high, Tyrus Thomas, Vinny Del Negro

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 21st, 2009 at 2:14 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.