The Chicago Bulls fell to the Milwaukee Bucks 99-97 last night after Brad Miller failed to convert on a potential game tying shot.

The final shot has become a subject of debate among fans, as many have felt that Derrick Rose should have been the one taking the final shot, and not Brad Miller.

Derrick Rose absolutely made the correct basketball play. He drew the defensive attention, and kicked it to the open man. Brad Miller has been a pretty good scorer in clutch situations, and is arguably the Bulls most clutch player, so he is not a bad option to take the final shot. He just missed, and missed shots happen.

If Rose had forced up a shot there, he would have been blocked by Andrew Bogut. Rose could have tried to drive past Bogut, but it appeared that Bogut was playing good positional defense on that play, and would have likely stopped Rose’s drive.

The point guard battle didn’t quite live up to the hype, as both Rose and Jennings put up average performances.

It actually looked like Rose was getting set to have a special game, but he ended up fading as the game went on. There was a stretch in the game, where Rose got aggressive, and repeatedly attacked Brandon Jennings, scoring with a lot of success. Unfortunately Rose’s aggressiveness led him into taking some bad shots, leading to him finishing the night with only a 51.9 TS%.

Rose finished with 19 points and 7 assists total in the game. Brandon Jennings finished with 15 points and 8 assists. Jennings didn’t score the ball with the best efficiency, shooting 5-15, but made up for that somewhat by shooting 3-4.

The impressive thing about Jennings is his aggressiveness and court vision. He forces offensive option by attacking the defense with his blazing speed.

The Bulls got some good offensive performances from their wings. John Salmons finished with 23 points on 8-15 shooting and Luol Deng finished with 22 points on 7-14 shooting and 14 rebounds. It’s encouraging to see the Bulls wings be able to both score in a high volume at a good efficiency in the same game.

Joakim Noah finished with 16 points and 17 rebounds. I felt Noah was abused a little defensively early in the game, but he picked up his intensity in around the middle of the third quarter, which led to much better defense by the Bulls.

Noah is still a bit small to effectively play the center position. Andrew Bogut just outmatched him in length, which allowed Bogut to put up a monster 22 points, 15 rebound, 3 steal, and 4 block game. Bogut was huge down the stretch defensively, altering shots on the Bulls drives to the basket.

For the Bucks, Charlie Bell scored 16 points, Ersan Ilyasova scored 13 points, and Carlos Delfino scored 15 points.

It is a bit troublesome that Vinny Del Negro still refuses to play James Johnson when Brad Miller is not producing, and Lindsey Hunter and Jannero Pargo are combining for 32 minutes.

What the Bulls are doing right now is clearly not working, as they have lost five straight. Johnson clearly has a lot to offer the Bulls from a talent perspective, so why not see what you have in Johnson, when what you’re currently doing is resulting in loss after loss?

With their fifth straight loss, the Bulls fall to 6-9 on the season.

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Tags: Andrew Bogut, Brad Miller, Brandon Jennings, Carlos Delfino, Charlie Bell, Chicago Bulls, Derrick Rose, Ersan Ilyasova, James Johnson, Joakim Noah, John Salmons, Luol Deng, Milwaukee BUcks, Vinny Del Negro

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 4:23 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.