Early in the ball game, it looked like Derrick Rose was going to be the star of the game, making his first 7 shots of the game.  But it turned out that Rose, who finished with a terrific 22 points and 7 assists, was only the opening act.

Ben Gordon was headlining this event, going for a thunderous 39 points, scorching the Bobcats from behind the three point line making 7 three point shots.

The Bulls defeated the Bobcats, who will be going fishing early this summer.

This one wasn’t an easy one for the Bulls.  The Bulls opened up a 10 point lead in the first quarter, but the Bobcats clawed their way back into the ball game, making it a 2 point game at halftime.

The Bobcats led the Bulls 83 to 78, but the Bulls would come back.  First Ben Gordon made two straight shots, then Kirk Hinrich nailed a midrange jumper.  Ben Gordon would then find Joakim Noah on the fastbreak for a monster dunk.  Ben Gordon would draw the foul on the fastbreak and make both free throws to make it a two point game.  And finally, the Bulls tied it up at 92 on a reverse layup by Brad Miller off of a baseline drive.

John Salmons then went on a scoring burst, with some help from Ben Gordon, to net the Bulls the victory.

The Bulls starting backcourt was impressive tonight, combining for 61 points.  Ben Gordon was just feeling it tonight, and it was nice to see him break out of his shooting slump as the Bulls near the playoffs.  Derrick Rose’s midrange jumpshot was on automatic tonight, and when he’s making that jumpshot, the Bulls are tough to beat.

John Salmons had a terrible first three quarters, but he had a great fourth quarter, scoring 11 points in the final 5 1/2 minutes in the ball game.  I really admire the never stop shooting attitude of guys like Salmons and Gordon.  Salmons had a tough first three quarters, but he didn’t let that shake his confidence, and just kept shooting, and eventually the shots start going in for these guys.

Joakim Noah was also very impressive tonight.  He finished with 11 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2 blocks.  Noah just did a little bit of everything tonight and passed the ball very well.  He was key in the Bulls’ victory tonight.

Kirk Hinrich played well off the bench, scoring 10 points on 4-5 shooting.

D.J. Augustin had an alright night, scoring 15 points and dishing for 8 assists.  Raymond Felton helped out too with 26 points and 7 assists, but he turned the ball over 5 times.

Emeka Okafor had 13 points, 14 rebounds, and 2 blocks.  He had nice stats, but it didn’t really seem that he was impacting the game all that much.  Okafor has the talent, he just needs to learn how to impose his will on the game more.

Boris Diaw had a double double with 24 points and 10 rebounds.  Gerald Wallace had 13 points.

Tyrus Thomas finished with 9 points, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 2 steals.  He really didn’t have a good game at all, shooting 3-10.  His head didn’t seem to be in the game very much.

With the win, the Bulls improve to 40-40 on the season.

Closing Comments

It was nice to see the Bulls get the hard fought win over the Charlotte Bobcats tonight. The Bulls are now 40-40 on the season, which puts them back at .500. I am glad that the Bulls are back at .500, and hope they can maintain that, or even finish above .500 on the season. It is nice that the Bulls are no longer a losing team!

The Bulls now have a simple scenario left to secure at least the seventh spot in the Eastern Conference. If they beat the Pistons on Monday, they are the 7th seed, it’s that simple. They need Philadelphia and Miami to keep losing if they have any hope of finishing in the 5th or 6th spots.

The Bobcats are an interesting team to watch. I don’t think they have a whole lot of talent, and are set up for longterm mediocrity, but the one thing that the Bobcats can hang their hats on is that they are a well coached team. Larry Brown has done a good job coaching the team.

Good win for the Bulls tonight, now they just need to go out and beat Detroit on Monday to keep the dream of the fifth seed in play.

Go Bulls!

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Tags: Ben Gordon, Boris Diaw, Brad Miller, Charlotte Bobcats, Chicago Bulls, D.J. Augustin, Derrick Rose, Emeka Okafor, Gerald Wallace, Joakim Noah, John Salmons, Kirk Hinrich, Raymond Felton, Tyrus Thomas

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 11th, 2009 at 10:00 pm and is filed under Game Recap. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.