Indiana Pacers 107 vs. Chicago Bulls 105
March 31st, 2009 by Andrew WamboldtThe Chicago Bulls let a victory slip away tonight in Indiana. The Bulls had a sizeable lead in the fourth, but Indiana stormed back, and took a 105 to 103 lead on a Danny Granger three. Ben Gordon then came back down and hit a tough guarded shot to tie the game up at 105 a piece.
The Pacers then ran down the clock and T.J. Ford drove on Derrick Rose and fell back for a tough fade away jumper which he swished through the net. The Bulls tried to answer with Ben Gordon, who was covered tightly by Danny Granger. Gordon pushed off Granger with his left arm and lifted for a jumpshot, but came up short of the rim. Tyrus Thomas could have potentially tipped it in if he wasn’t bumped by Brad Miller.
The Bulls lost for two main reasons. Firstly, Ben Gordon couldn’t make his shots. Secondly, the Bulls didn’t play any defense.
Ben Gordon just had one of those nights in which nothing went in. The announcers mentioned that Gordon had a wrist injury, that could have been why. He missed quite a few wide open threes, all of which would have been the difference in the game. He finished with 12 points on 5-18 shooting. Really bad game from Gordon.
Despite that, the Bulls were still in the game. The problem was that the Bulls didn’t play any defense. The Pacers were just getting whatever they wanted against the Bulls non-existent defense. If Gordon was on his game today, the Bulls offense would have been more than enough to make up for the Bulls lack of defense, but he wasn’t, and their defense really hurt them tonight.
Danny Granger ripped the Bulls for 31 points. This one isn’t too bad, because Danny Granger is a great scorer, and the Bulls were playing Kirk Hinrich heavily at the small forward position. But T.J. Ford, who finished with 22 points and 9 assists. Derrick Rose has to put more effort into defense, and actually make a guy work for his points. T.J. Ford was able to get wherever he wanted on the court, which allowed him to either score at ease, or set up his teammates for easy baskets.
Josh McRoberts had 10 points in the game, which is unacceptable. He is horrible. When you’re giving up that many points to McRoberts, you know your team has defensive problems.
For the Bulls, Derrick Rose was great on the offensive end. He asserted himself from the beginning tonight. He finished with 24 points, 6 assists, and 11 rebounds. Very nice offensive and rebounding effort from Rose tonight. Hopefully he comes out with this type of aggressiveness more often.
Kirk Hinrich played pretty well too. He finished with an efficient 20 points, 7 assists, and 7 rebounds. Overall good game from Kirk. He could have done a little bit better job on Granger, make him work a little harder for his shots, but you can’t really single Kirk out for this when the entire team played poorly defensively and Hinrich was guarding a bigger player. But then you look at it again and realize that Kirk Hinrich is the defensive leader of this team. If you’re leader is mailing it in on the defensive end for the night, the other players will probably follow, especially on a team like the Bulls. Hinrich also missed 2 clutch free throws that would have helped the Bulls in getting the win.
Tyrus Thomas had 20 points and 2 blocks, but only had 1 rebound. Thomas needs to rebound the ball. That goes for the Bulls as a whole. They let the Pacers get a second chance after they failed to secure a rebound, which set up another posession for the Pacers in which Ford hit the game winner. The Bulls have had quite a few games where they gave the other team a second change to beat or tie them, and this is really costing them.
Brad Miller had a nice little game. 14 points and 8 assists. He was setting his teammates up well.
Tim Thomas had 11 points on 4-6 shooting off the bench.
Brandon Rush had 11 points and Jarrett Jack had 10 points.
Joakim Noah only played 19 minutes from some unknown reason tonight.
The Bulls were without John Salmons tonight.
With the loss, the Bulls fall to 36-40 on the season.
Closing Comments
The Bulls blew this one tonight. Missed free throws, lack of rebounding, and lots of missed shots by one particular player, and a lack of defense from everyone tonight cost us. These are the games we have to win. Yes, it’s a road game, but it’s a team who has been effectively eliminated from the playoffs, so you need to win. The Bulls probably would have won with John Salmons tonight, but that doesn’t matter, because he didn’t play, and other players had to step up. Now the Bulls are only 1 game ahead of the Bobcats, who beat the Lakers tonight, and their playoff spot is in question. The Bobcats have the tiebreaker against the Bulls as a result of winning the season series. This is a little unfair, as it penalizes the Bulls for only playing the Bobcats once at home this season, while the Bobcats got two home games against the Bulls.
What do the Bulls have to do now? Take matters into their own hands and win. Beat a bad New Jersey team at home, beat a bad New York team at home. Beat Philadelphia at home. And they most definitely better beat the Charlotte Bobcats at home. Who knows, maybe when they’re playing the Bobcats they will have the chance to knock them out of the playoff picture. Then go out and beat the Pistons on the road. And then they have the Raptors at home to end the season. Win that game, don’t blow the season then and there.
Tonight was an example of why I like John Salmons on the Bulls so much. Ben Gordon will have bad nights, although not usually like this. It is tough for the Bulls to win when Gordon has a game like this. But with Salmons out there scoring, the Bulls can usually weather a bad game like this from Gordon as long as Salmons is on his game.
The main reason for this loss is the defense, and that can only be blamed on the coach. The Bulls defense seems to get worse and worse with every passing game. You’re defense isn’t this bad this late in the season if it’s not for bad coaching.
It looks like I am going to be calling for the firing of Vinny Del Negro after the season. I made the challenge to Del Negro a few weeks ago that if he doesn’t get the Bulls to .500, or win a playoff series with a losing record, then he deserves to be fired. Both don’t appear to be happening this season, therefore, Del Negro will probably deserve to be fired.
Bad loss from the Bulls tonight that mainly stemmed form bad coaching from Del Negro.
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Tags: Ben Gordon, Brad Miller, Brandon Rush, Chicago Bulls, Danny Granger, Derrick Rose, game tying shot, Game Winner, Indiana Pacers, Jarrett Jack, Joakim Noah, John Salmons, Josh McRoberts, Kirk Hinrich, March 2009, T.J. Ford, Tim Thomas, Tyrus Thomas, Vinny Del Negro
