The Chicago Bulls defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 117 to 102 at the United Center tonight to move into the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference.

Ben Gordon was the real star tonight, finishing with 34 points, 7 assists, and 4 steals. Just a great overall game. Gordon really got going in the second quarter, hitting three after three en route to 21 first half points. Gordon went 4-6 from three point range, and is just 23 three pointers away from breaking Nick Van Exel’s record for most threes by a player in their first five years in the NBA.

Derrick Rose was great as well, finishing with 27 points and 6 assists. Almost all of Rose’s points came right at the basket on layups. Granted Milwaukee doesn’t have any shotblocking resistance inside, but Rose was finishing around the hoop better than he has all season long.

Kirk Hinrich had an interesting stat game tonight. He finished with 11 points on a super efficient 123.9 TS%. Well done.

John Salmons also did very well, scoring 21 points. He’s a much better starting small forward than Luol Deng.

Brad Miller went around in the first half like a drunken sailor, missing shots and fumbling the ball. He picked up his play in the second half though, and finished with 12 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists.

Tyrus Thomas was really bad tonight. He was taking a lot of bad shots, and not playing that good of defense. His counterpart, Joakim Noah, had another good rebounding game, finishing with 13 rebounds.

Thomas actually broke the Bulls franchise record for most consecutive games with a block. The new record is 24 consecutive games.

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute had 21 points and 11 rebounds for the Bucks. A lot of his points came inside, and were because of some poor inside help defense by our bigs.

Richard Jefferson scored 27 points, but he did it inefficiently, taking 23 shots.

Ramon Sessions had 20 points and 11 assists and Charlie Villanueva added in 19 points.

This was just a nice all around win for the Bulls. When you’re playing a team you are in direct competition for in a playoff race, you have to beat them, and the Bulls did that tonight. This was really a must win game, as the Bulls will embark on a tough set a games, where they will have to play rlando, New Orleans, Boston, and the Lakers, after this.

The win gives the Bulls the tiebreaker over the Bucks as well, as the Bulls win the season series against their old coach 3-1.

With the win, the Bulls improve to 29-34 on the season. The Bulls now are the sole possessor of the eighth spot on the East. Next up is catching Philadelphia at seventh. The Bulls are currently 2.0 games behind Philadlephia.

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Tags: 100 TS%, Ben Gordon, Brad Miller, Charlie Villanueva, Chicago Bulls, Derrick Rose, John Salmons, Kirk Hinrich, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Milwaukee BUcks, Ramon Sessions, Richard Jefferson, tiebreaker, Tyrus Thomas

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