How low can they go? Tonight, the Chicago Bulls lost to the fourth worst team in the league, the Minnesota Timberwolves, 102 to 92.

Both teams came out showing their ineptitude, showing an inability to score at the beginning of the game. It took 4:15 into the game before Ben Gordon finally scored the first points in the game.

The Timberwolves didn’t win because they were particularly good tonight. They were just less bad than the Bulls.

It doesn’t look to get any for the Bulls either. Looking around the league at what the other interim coaches around the league are doing, the Bulls seem content to let Vinny finish out the year before going in a different direction. While an interim coach might not help drastically improve the Bulls, what Vinny is doing to the team has to stop. He is not properly developing Derrick Rose and is probably souring Ben Gordon on the Bulls, which might lead to Ben ditching the Bulls for greener pastures, even if the Bulls are competitive money wise.

Tonight, Derrick Rose started bad, but had a good second half. Rose finished with 22 points and 5 assists.

Ben Gordon had a bad shooting night, finishing 7-21. Those bad shooting nights will happen, so this is nothing to get worried about, especially since Gordon finished with 17 points and 6 assists.

Tyrus Thomas had a really nice game tonight. He finished with 15 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, and 8 blocks. It was really nice seeing Thomas being active on help defense. Unfortunately the Bulls other bigs man defense was horrendous.

Al Jefferson finished with 18 points and 14 rebounds and Kevin Love had 18 points and 12 rebounds. They weren’t completely killing the Bulls front court, but took advantage of it in a very methodical manner.

Ryan Gomes scored 19 points hitting clutch shot after clutch shot late in the fourth.

Derrick Rose struggled guarding anyone on defense. The Timberwolves backcourt had good games as well. Randy Foye scored 21 points and Sebastian Telfair added 18 points.

Aaron Gray had 10 points and 9 rebounds.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 14-20. It will be interesting to see what it will take to get Vinny fired during the season. Dropping the rest of this home stand, with the Bulls three next games against Sacramento, Washington, and Oklahoma City might just do the trick.

The Chicago Bulls started 2009 just where they left off in 2008, getting blown out. The Bulls got humiliated in Cleveland tonight 117 to 92.

For the second straight game, Vinny Del Negro quit. This is the third time this season where Vinny clearly quit on a game, the man is simply a quitter. The Bulls were down 15 with almost an entire quarter left in the game, yet Vinny never brought Rose and Gordon back in the fourth, allowing Cleveland to rebuild their lead.

There is not much to analyze about the Bulls humiliating losses these days. The Bulls are simply playing glorified Boylan-ball. It is only glorified, because Vinny is playing Ben Gordon more than Boylan did and because the Bulls now have Derrick Rose. The Bulls have no noticeable offensive sets and the team doesn’t even pretend to try on the defensive end of the court. Someone should really teach Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah about the concept of help defense, because both seem to think that you aren’t allowed to help out when an opposing guard dribbles to the basket.

It is clear what the Bulls have to do, replace Vinny Del Negro. We gave him a try. Perhaps his ideas really were great, but that doesn’t chance the fact that he had no coaching experience, and obviously could not implement anything. And on the small chance that the players are actually running his offensive and defensive sets, then Vinny is a terrible basketball mind. Regardless, the result has been horrific, and Vinny has earned his dismissal.

Derrick Rose finished tonights game with only 3 points and 2 assists. Rose simply didn’t care when he was in the game. He accepted defeat. This is unacceptable. Our head coach has made this team so bad, that our never give up point guard is accepting defeat. The coach needs to go.

Ben Gordon is the lone bright spot for the Bulls tonight, finishing with 22 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal. He is simply a great scorer, and can score in the face of adversity. Gordon showed a certain look of disgust on his face often tonight. That is the look of other players not passing him the ball when he is sitting there wide open waving his arms yelling for the ball. On one of these plays Thomas dribbled the ball down the court ignoring Gordon on three separate occasions. Sefolosha and Noah also went in against heavy defensive coverage either to be stripped or put up a bad shot. Apparently no one taught our players that you can pass out of the paint to the perimeter in a drive and kick or post up. The coach needs to go.

Our big men again did not produce offensively or defensively. They were easily scored on by the Cleveland bigs and did not offer any resistance to the penetration by Cleveland’s guards. Anderson Varejao had 26 points, Ben Wallace 13, and J.J. Hickson had 13 points. A bunch of Cleveland players had their season highs tonight. The Bulls big men have no idea how to defend either big men or penetrating perimeter players. The coach needs to go.

Lebron James had a triple double for Cleveland, finishing with 16 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists. He easily picked apart the Bulls.

Lindsey Hunter added in 13 points for the Bulls and Andres Nocioni had 11 points.

Delonte West gave the Cavs 14 points, Sasha Pavlovic added in 13, and Mo Williams had 11.

Cedric Simmons had 9 points and 4 rebounds. He has done something our other bigs haven’t been able to do, and that is catch and dunk the ball.

Zydranus Ilgauskus did not play tonight.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 14-19 on the season.

The Chicago Bulls got trounced by the Orlando Magic 113 to 94 at the United Center.

The Magic jumped to a big lead early on and never gave up, completely rolling over the Bulls. The Bulls offense came out slow because Orlando played tough defense on Gordon, throwing hard doubles at him, knocking him off his rhythm causing him to miss shot after shot.

Vinny Del Negro made a coaching no no when he quit on the team with 20 minutes left, less than 2 weeks after quitting in the Boston game when down 15 with 15 minutes left. With 20 minutes left, Del Negro made a four man mass substitution. Mistake one, leaving Thabo in. The other players would instantly begin to think why Thabo wasn’t getting called out with the rest of them. The second mistake was when he put Rose back in, in the third quarter. The other players in that group, would begin to think why Rose wasn’t being punished with the rest of them.

Fortunately for Vinny, one of his veteran assistants probably saved him during the break between quarters. To start the fourth, Del Negro brought back in Gordon and Aaron Gray, averting a near chemistry disaster, similar to the one Skiles made in his last season with the Bulls with his mass substitutions.

Ben Gordon finished with a so so game, finishing with 18 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block, and 4 turnovers. The turnovers were not as bad as they looked in the box score for Gordon, as one of his turnovers was from a pass that bounced off Aaron Gray’s stone hands and another was when the ball got passed to him at the last second when Tyrus bailed on a shot, causing Gordon to get the 24 second violation, even though he began his shot instantly upon receiving the ball. Still, Gordon had two really bad turnovers. One, he threw it up in the air out of a double, although in Gordon’s defense, no one came to get the ball. (Rose usually is the only one smart enough to come and get the ball when Gordon is doubled, but Del Negro had taken Rose out moments before). The other turnover was Gordon dribbling off his foot while positioning himself, a turnover that prompted the mass substitution.

Joakim Noah had a really nice game tonight, putting up 19 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 assists. This is the type of game that Noah can have when he is actually making those short shots that the other players are creating for him.

Derrick Rose wasn’t very good today, going assist-less. He only scored 11 points.

Andres Nocioni had 10 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists. Nocioni was getting into it with both Dwight Howard and Rashard Lewis with his rough play.

Larry Hughes added 15 points for the Bulls.

Dwight Howard was dominant today, forcing the Bulls to double. When the Bulls doubled, Howard would make the correct decisions when passing the ball, making the Bulls pay. Howard had 15 points and 14 rebounds in the game.

Rashard Lewis poured in 21 points.

The Magic had 7 players in double figures: Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis, Hedo Turkoglu, Marcin Gortat, Jameer Nelson, Courtney Lee, and Anthony Johnson.

The main difference between the Bulls and Magic appears to be coaching. Even when Howard was out of the game, the Magic were able to create open looks for their three point shooters out of the post. The Bulls big men only can make passes forward, but they never make the pass out to the perimeter to the wide open player, often missing Ben Gordon standing wide open for three. The Magic are so good because all of their bigs see the shooters, and are able to pass out of the post to the perimeter. This is something our bigs need to learn to do to help us become a better team.

The Bulls end a turbulent 2008 with a record of 14-18.

The Chicago Bulls defeated the New Jersey Nets 100 to 87 at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The Bulls opened up a 15 point lead in the first quarter, but as usual, let the Nets get back in the game. In the fourth quarter, the game was tied 86 to 86. From there, the Bulls went on a 14-0 run and sailed to victory.

During the 14 point run, Gordon hit two threes that served as the daggers in the game.

Derrick Rose was the Bulls’ best player tonight, leading the Bulls to victory. Rose finished with 21 points, 13 assists, 4 rebounds, and 2 steals. Rose completely controlled the tempo of the game tonight and found the open man. Rose took notice of the Nets porous defense and drove to the rim at will.

Ben Gordon, as usual was great. Gordon finished with 24 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists. Ben Gordon is just great as usual. He takes over a bit in the first half to keep the Bulls from flopping. In the second half, he defers to Rose and lets Rose do his damage, but still comes back to make two clutch threes late in the fourth. What’s not to love? Regardless of whether Gordon gets the designation of being an allstar, Gordon has clearly arrived as a star player in the NBA. He isn’t a superstar, but by now, it should be clear that he is a star.

The Nets opposing duo also played well. Devin Harris had 26 points and 5 assists and Vince Carter had 31 points. Unfortunately for those two, the rest of their team isn’t very good at all. Brooke Lopez was solid, scoring 9 points and 8 rebounds, but his help defense was poor, allowing for Rose to have a big game driving to the basket. Outside of those three, the Nets got basically no other contributions.

Larry Hughes and Andres Nocioni contributed nicely, hitting some shots for the Bulls. Both players scored 17 points.

The Bulls big men were really good. Aaron Gray put in solid defense, as did Tyrus Thomas. Joakim Noah came off the bench and showed a lot of energy. Noah finished with 8 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 blocks. Despite his high block total, Noah’s interior defense was still very suspect.

This is the Bulls first road win outside of the circus trip. The Bulls snapped a 7 game road losing streak, and 3 game overall losing streak with tonight’s victory.

With the win, the Buls improve to 14-17 on the season.

The Chicago Bulls fell to the Atlanta Hawks 129 to 117 in Atlanta tonight.

The Bulls backcourt duo was tremendous, combining for 60 points.

Ben Gordon got the Bulls off to a good start, scoring 15 points in the first quarter. Gordon finished the game with 33 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds, and 2 steals.

Gordon made six three pointers tonight and was on fire from three point land. On his second three point shot, Gordon became the Chicago Bulls’ all time three point shooter. Gordon has extended the Bulls three point record to 669 three point field goals. The previous record was 664 field goals by Scottie Pippen.

Derrick Rose had 27 points, 7 assists, and 4 rebounds. He was able to get into the lane at will against the Hawks porous defense. I was beginning to get worried that Rose might have just been on a hot streak in November, and that his consistent shot was just fools gold, but Rose’s shot looked really good again tonight to help quell those concerns.

Unfortunately, Joe Johnson was unstoppable. Johnson torched the Bulls for 41 points and 8 assists. It didn’t matter who was guarding him, he was scoring no matter what. When the Bulls made the double, he would make great passes to set up his teammates.

Tyrus Thomas had another good game. Thomas finished with 15 points, 9 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2 steals. He just played a controlled, solid game. He contributed on both sides of the ball.

Thabo Sefolosha did a good job standing in for Deng. Sefolosha finished with 14 points. Larry Hughes also did alright, scoring 11 points. Hughes played more within the offense than he had been in the past few games.

Andres Nocioni is back to his bad play. He had 11 points and made some shots in crucial moments, but that doesn’t make up for his horrid defense.

Josh Smith had 24 points and 7 rebounds for the Hawks. Mike Bibby added in 17 points and Marvin Williams added 16 points.

Al Horford had a double double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

This is the Bulls’ third loss in a row. The Bulls are currently on their longest losing streak of the season.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 13-16 on the season.

The Chicago Bulls lost to the Miami Heat 90 to 77 at American Airlines Arena in Miami, FL.

The game was tied 64 to 64 going into the fourth quarter. From there on out, it was all Miami, as they outscored the Bulls 26 to 13 in the fourth.

The Bulls lost in part because of some poor coaching by Vinny Del Negro. Ben Gordon got off to a good start, scoring 11 points in the first quarter. Del Negro then benched Gordon for most of the 2nd quarter, assuring that Gordon would go cold. Del Negro needs to learn to leave in the hot hand. If the Bulls could have ridden Gordon’s hot hand in the 2nd quarter, the game may have had a better outcome.

Following the hot start, Gordon settled into a rather poor game. Gordon finished with 15 points on 6-16 shooting, 1 rebound, and 1 assist. There is not much to read into with Gordon’s low assist totals, as his teammates simply missed too many wide open shots off of Gordon passes for him to get assists. Gordon started out hot shooting wise, and was alright in the 3rd, but was cold in the fourth after having been frozen out of the offense in the 2nd half. Gordon did a good job handling the Heat’s constant double teams tonight.

Gordon and company did a nice job on Dwyane Wade, limiting him to 28 points 11-23 shooting, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists. The Bulls held Wade to less than his average on less than stellar efficiency. In addition, they did not let Wade have a big playmaking game, limiting him to 2 assists, well below his season average.

Ben Gordon is now one three point shot away from tying Scottie Pippen as the all time Chicago Bulls three point shooter.

The Bulls also found it difficult to win with Luol Deng leaving the game with an ankle injury. Deng had 8 points and 9 rebounds before leaving the game.

Derrick Rose had another poor game. Rose had 10 points on 3-14 shooting, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 5 turnovers. He did not look good at all, on either side of the ball, allowing Chalmers to get 16 points and 5 assists. When Rose is playing like this, he really hurts the Bulls.

Larry Hughes was the Bulls worst player though. Hughes had 13 points on 5-14 shooting. Hughes seems to be back to playing his selfish brand of basketball, and needs to be weaned out of the rotation if this selfish streak continues.

The Bulls got solid production out of Aaron Gray and Tyrus Thomas. Aaron Gray had 12 points and 11 rebounds and Tyrus Thomas had 6 points, 6 rebounds, 4 steals, and 1 block. The Bulls interior defense is improving a bit with Gooden out of the line up, but they’re offense appears to be worse with the absence of Gooden’s jumpshooting.

Michael Beasley played very good. Beasley had 14 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 blocks. He looked really good on both sides of the ball. Keeping Beasley on a tight leash to hold him accountable on defense seems to be paying dividends for the Heat.

Andres Nocioni scored 10 points in the game.

The Bulls fall to 13-15 with tonight’s loss and are now on the outside looking in on the playoffs.

The Chicago Bulls fell to the Detroit Pistons 104 to 98 last night in Detroit.

The Bulls lost in large part because of the referees. The referees chose to call ticky tack or non-existent fouls on the Bulls all night long. One gregarious call was a reach in call on Ben Gordon to give him his fourth foul, where Gordon got caught on a pick, putting Iverson out of his reach, making a reach in foul impossible.

Derrick Rose, Ben Gordon, and Andres Nocioni all fouled out.

Ben Gordon had a nice game, finishing with 18 points, 7 assists, and 7 rebounds. He did have 6 turnovers, but it wasn’t as bad as it looks when you take into account that some were on unfair offensive fouls, and one was on an inbounds pass where Gordon was the inbounder and no one went to go get the ball.

Derrick Rose was solid, finishing with 10 points, 5 assists, and 4 rebounds. Rose was frustrated with foul trouble all night long.

This was a game where Luol Deng should have stepped up with Rose and Gordon in foul trouble, but he didn’t. Deng shot 2-7 and only scored 6 points. If Deng doesn’t begin to turn it around, Paxson might need to look into trading Deng early on in his contract.

Tyrus Thomas, once again, had a good game. Thomas had 16 points, 12 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Hopefully this is Thomas starting to put things together. Thomas is a player that makes an impact on the game, so it is good to have him get going. The Bulls will still need to address the center position, and get a defensive anchor there, but the more we play Thomas over Gooden, the better our defense will be.

Larry Hughes and Andres Nocioni also put in good games. Hughes had 19 points and 5 assists and Nocioni added in 18 points.

Rodney Stuckey was completely unstoppable. Stuckey burned the Bulls for 40 points. It didn’t matter if it was Gordon, Hughes, Sefolosha, or Deng guarding him, he was going to score no matter what.

The Bulls held Allen Iverson to only 5 points, but Iverson did his damage to the Bulls in concert with the referees.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 13-15 on the season. If this is as good as the Pistons are with great help from the referees, than no team should fear them in the playoffs.