The Chicago Bulls defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 93-85 to cap off a successful summer league.

James Johnson looked good once again. Johnson finished with 18 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists.

Johnson found most of his success scoring wise taking his man off the dribble, scoring with short shots, and also drawing fouls and hitting his free throws. His jumpshots were off once again.

His passing was crisp as well, often finding his teammates who were cutting to the basket, just at the right time.

Johnson had a great show of strength with 3:56 left in the second quarter. The Wolves had a 2 on 1 fastbreak, and Johnson was defending the break. Devin Green ended up being the guy getting to go for the layup, and Johnson went for the block, and he just knocked Green to the ground hard, even though he didn’t swing too hard into Green.

Demarcus Nelson looked good today as well, scoring 18 points on 7-10 shooting. He got a lot of points driving to the hoop, throwing in short runners and layups. I can’t see this translating into the regular season agains’t more legitimate shotblockers than what he is going up against in summer league.

Anthony Roberson had a solid game, scoring 15 points on 5-12 shooting.

Corey Brewer led the Timberwolves in scoring with 20 points.

Johnny Flynn came off the bench for the Timberwolves, and finished with 7 points, 7 assists, and 4 turnovers. Flynn’s athleticism is impressive, and the potential is definitely there for him to be a good point guard in the NBA. Flynn finished the game off with a windmill dunk that got the crowd excited. Flynn really struggled today, and Nelson’s strong defense was a big factor in this.

Taureen Green had 10 points an 8 assists off the bench for the Bulls, and Tyrell Biggs chipped in 12 points.

For the Timberwolves, Gary Siler finished with 12 points, and Wayne Ellington finished with 10 points.

With the win, the Bulls finish the 2009 Las Vegas Summer League with a 3-2 record.

The Chicago Bulls defeated the New York Knicks 90-84 in stunning comeback fashion.

The Bulls trailed the Knicks 81-71 with 4:59 remaining in the ball game, and appeared to be on their way to another loss, this time at the hands of the winless Knicks.

Instead of laying down and losing, the Bulls fought back. James Augustine tipped in a missed three by Brandon Costner to make it an 81-73 game. Then Demarcus Nelson made it an 81-76 game, after making a layup and getting fouled. Anthony Roberson then made it a 3 point game on a fastbreak layup of his own.

The Bulls would finally tie the game on a reverse layup by James Johnson, in which he drove past Jordan Hill.

The very next play, James Johnson blocked a three point attemt by Morris Almond. The Bulls recovered, and Roberson pulled up for a quick three, which bounced to the left hard, but Johnson made a great hustle play, saving the ball from going out of bounds, giving the Bulls another chance, which they capitalized on, as Costner hit a three to give the Bulls an 86-83 lead. The Bulls never relinquished the lead from that point.

James Johnson started off the game poorly, missing his first 9 shots, bringing back memories of Tyrus Thomas’ 2-17 night in Boston last season. However, Johnson pulled himself together, finishing with 20 points on 6-17 shooting, 6 rebounds, 3 assist, and 2 blocks.

Johnson was able to salvage this game, while Tyrus was not in Boston, because Johnson decided to start driving the ball once he realized that his jumpshot was off. The Knicks had difficulty stopping Johnson when he was driving to the basket.

Johnson was involved in a variety of highlight reel plays tonight, including throwing alley oop passes, and capping off an alley oop of his own.

Brandon Costner was impressive tonight, scoring 21 points off the bench. Costner is a big guy that can shoot, going 3-5 from three point territory. He didn’t do much else, but his shooting was impresive.

James Augustine had another solid night, scoring 8 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.

Anthony Roberson scored 12 points on 5-11 shooting, and Demarcus Nelson scored 15 points.

Nikoloz Tskitishvili, a famous draft bust, played in this game for the Knicks. He put up 14 points and 7 rebounds. He did okay today, but there is no way with his flimsy body that he could do anything against actual NBA competition.

Jordan Hill, the first round draft pick of the Knicks, finished with 16 points and 9 rebounds. He looks like a solid player. Not overly skilled, but he has a small set of post moves, which he is somewhat effective with because of his good athleticism.

Morris Almond also scored 16 points for the Knicks, Ron Howard added in 11 points, and Joe Crawford added in 10 points.

With the win, the Bulls improve to 2-2 in Las Vegas Summer League action.

The Chicago Bulls defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 80-74 tonight to capture their first win of the 2009 Las Vegas Summer League.

The game pitted two win-less teams against each other, which made for pretty ugly ball. The game was close for most of the game, with Oklahoma City making it a 3 point game at 70-67 with 3:22 remaining in the game.

From there, Anthony Roberson took over the game scoring 8 points in the final 2:27, leading the Bulls to victory.

Anthony Roberson might have saved his career with the Bulls tonight. He scored 24 points on 9-16 shooting, and 3-8 from three point land. This is a day after a 0 point performance on 0-5 shooting out of him.

The reason it may save his career, is because of the way that he looked scoring these points. It was somewhat of a Ben Gordon-lite performance, with long range bombs, and explosive scoring in clutch time. As already evidenced by the signing of Jannero Pargo, the Bulls are looking for those guys who can heat up quickly and make some shots, and Roberson certainly fit that characterization tonight. Forman might just want to keep Roberson around as another option for Vinny to throw in there off the bench to stry to jumpstart the offense when all seems to be at loss.

James Johnson had an interesting game tonight. He wasn’t dominant, but he was very effective. He finished the game with 8 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists.

He did poorly scoring wise tonight, shooting 2-11. I noticed a few problems in Johnson’s offensive game that need to be fixed. The first problem is that he pump fakes too much. His pump fake is effective for now, it’s a really good pump fake actually, but it won’t continue to work in the NBA if he doesn’t prove that he can shoot. Too often he gets the ball with plenty of space to shoot, hesitates, then pumpfakes, to open up a drive to the basket. He has to mix it up some more between shooting and driving to the basket.

The second problem is that when he does drive to the basket, he brings the ball down, instead of keeping it high, which is the reason why the ball gets knocked out of his hands so often.

Defensively, Johnson looked a little better today. There was one moment where he just got completely lost in no man’s land on a pick and roll, leading to an easy basket for his man. Other then that, the defense looked much better tonight. However, the Thunder have yet to win in Las Vegas, so it just might be a case of their players not being any good, leading to no difficulty in defending their players.

Rebounding wise, he looked poor for most of the game, but he noticeably ramped up the effort on the glass in the fourth quarter, and did quite well with the increased effort.

Johnson’s passing is what really glowed for him tonight. He didn’t have any flashy passes that wowed you, or anything that really stood out really. What his passes were, were smart basketball passes. He made the right pass at the right time, leading to easy scores for his teammates. His court vision is excellent, and he seems to see the open guys, and delivers nice passes helping his teammates score.

James Augustine had another nice game tonight, scoring 9 points on 4-4 shooting, and grabbing 10 rebounds. I think he has proven so far this summer league that he belongs on an NBA bench somewhere next season. He doesn’t try to play a more important role than he can handle, and just stays to his abilities, and it works out well for him. Three games in summer league so far, and all three of them were good for Augustine.

Linton Johnson finished with 10 points and 5 rebounds tonight. It’s nice to see him looking like an actual NBA player out there again.

Demarcus Nelson had 10 points on 3-10 shooting. I can’t see him making any impact in the NBA. He has good size, but his skills just aren’t NBA caliber. The Bulls front office seems to think he has some upside, but I would have no qualms if he was waived following summer league.

For the Thunder, James Harden scored 20 points and had 5 assists. From what I’ve seen of him both in Las Vegas and in Orlando, Harden looks to be a pretty good shooting guard in the NBA going forward. Good pick by the Thunder at three.

DJ White added in 15 points and Robert Vaden added in 14 points.

B.J. Mullens, or Byron as he would like to be known, finished with 7 points on 3-9 shooting and 7 rebounds. He looked okay. He has some nice moves in the post, but can’t quite finish. He had quite a few shots blocked tonight. You can definitely see that there is potential there. It’s not like past Sonics picks, like Mohammad Sene, Johan Petro, or Robert Swift where you don’t see any potential in them of ever being good.

Taj Gibson did not play in today’s game because of plantar fascitis. That’s not a good start to Gibson’s NBA career. He will likely have to take some time off his foot for it to heal. We saw previously how Nocioni was never the same after suffering from plantar fascitis. This could make it a bad career from the start for Gibson, although he probably wasn’t going to have an illustrious career, even without being plagued by plantar fascitis throughout his career.

With this win tonight, the Bulls improve to 1-2 in Las Vegas Summer League competition. The Bulls next game is at 5 tomorrow against the New York Knicks.

The Chicago Bulls got routed by the Milwaukee Bucks 87-72 in their second game of the 2009 Las Vegas Summer League.

The Bucks built a 9 point lead in the second quarter, and held steady the rest of the game.

James Johnson was so so today, scoring 16 points, grabbing only 4 rebounds, and turning the ball over 6 times.

Johnson’s skill set was apparent again this game, with lots of good dribbling. However, when trying to execute dribble drive moves, it wasn’t uncommon for Johnson to get ahead of his dribble, leading to turnovers. Johnson was able to use his savvy dribbling to make dribble drive moves which force the defender to foul, leading to 11 free throw attempts for Johnson.

It was a tough shooting night for Johnson, going 4-15 from the field and 0-4 from three. He did show a nice pump fake though. Often times he would catch the ball at the three point line, execute an excellent pump fake, and then drive in.

Johnson needs to get after it on the boards more. The effort just isn’t at the level that it needs to be at. A common site is a shot going up, and Johnson just standing there, making no attempt to grab the rebound.

There was a point in the game where the ball got stuck behind the backboard. Johnson jumped up and grabbed to one of the basket supports, and pulled himself up to knock the ball free. There are a lot of players in the NBA who could not do that, and of the few that could, most would struggle. Johnson did it with ease. James Johnson is strong!

Taj Gibson finished with 12 points and 8 rebounds. His defense is soft, but he is a pretty solid rebounder. Gibson got in big foul trouble again, fouling 10 times tonight.

Brandon Jennings finished with 14 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds, and 3 steals. He looks like a nice prospect out there. He can play pretty good defense, and his height hasn’t been an issue so far in getting rebounds. He is a terrific passer. It seems he delivers the passes at just the right time, creating good looks for his teammates.

Also for the Bucks, Joe Alexander scored 18 points and Jodie Meeks added 16 points. The former Piston, Amir Johnson, finished with 17 points and 8 rebounds.

For the Bulls DeMarcus Nelson finished with 12 points, and James Augustine finished with 10 points and 7 rebounds.

Anthony Roberson finished the game with 0 points on 0-5 shooting. His days with the Bulls have to be numbered. The guy is terrible, it’s amazing that he was able to land a contract in the NBA last year. He’s just not a good player.

The Bulls next game is Friday against James Harden and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Chicago Bulls fell to the Golden State Warriors 95 to 83 in their first contest in the 2009 Las Vegas Summer League.

The Bulls fell behind early, as Anthony Randolph poured in 16 points in the first quarter. The Bulls would take control of the game in the second quarter, making it a one point game at half time, 46-45 in favor of the Warriors.

The Bulls took the lead, 63-62 with 3:45 remaining in the third quarter on a James Johnson jumpshot, but it was all Golden State from there.

The story of today’s game was Anthony Randolph of the Warriors, who finished the game with 42 points and 3 blocks. The 42 points tied a Las Vegas Summer League record. Randolph now joins Marcus Banks and Von Wafer for having the most points in a Las Vegas Summer League game. Randolph, with his combination of length and athleticism was a tough cover for the Bulls, forcing the Bulls to foul often, as Randolph went to the free throw line 21 times.

James Johnson was impressive in his Bulls debut, scoring 21 points on 9-13 shooting and grabbing 8 rebounds. There isn’t much that James Johnson can’t do on the offensive end, he is a very skilled player. Johnson was shooting the ball well, even hitting a three point shot near the end of the second quarter. Johnson had another three in the fourth quarter that just rimmed out.

Johnson handled the ball very well. There aren’t many players, if any in the NBA, who can handle the ball like he can. He handled the ball for the Bulls often in the half court, but also in the full court, where he led multiple Bulls’ fastbreaks, many of which were successful. He also showed the ability in the half court to take his man off the dribble, and finish off his dribble drive move.

The discerning part of Johnson’s performance tonight was his effort defensively and on the glass. His defense was subpar, and he didn’t show much effort on the glass, lazily going after rebounds, rather than viciously attacking the boards.

Taj Gibson was the opposite of Johnson defensively and on the glass. Gibson was in there fighting for every rebound. Gibson’s motor is excellent, and has the length to be a good rebounder. He looked as long as advertised in pre-draft measurements out there on the court.

Gibson finished the game with 14 points and 12 rebounds. He showed an ability to get out and run the court, which should be a good fit when he’s out there playing with Derrick Rose in the regular season.

The discerning part about Gibson’s game tonight was his 9 personal fouls. A lot of these fouls were on attempted blocks by Gibson. Gibson needs to learn to go straight up with his arm when attempting to block a shot. Not only will he avoid the foul, but he will get more reach, which should lead to more blocks.

Johnson and Gibson shared one really impressive tag team play in the second quarter. Jamal Sampson went up for a shot on the left block, and Johnson and Gibson simultaneously blocked the shot.

James Augustine scored 21 points and grabbed 7 rebounds in just 24 minutes. Augustine hit some jumpshots, and put in a lot of easy shots in the paint set up by his teammates.

Stephen Curry had a tough game, scoring 10 points on 3-15 shooting, but he did have 8 assists and 5 rebounds. Curry looked like a solid point guard, but doesn’t appear to have the skills to be an elite point guard if he isn’t scoring in bunches.

Anthony Morrow and Joe Ingles both put in 10 points for the Warriors as well.

Demarcus Nelson had a solid 14 point, 6 assist, 5 rebound game, while Anthony Roberson put on a brick fest, scoring 11 points, but shooting 3-13 from the field.

Closing Comments

A solid start to summer league for the Bulls. Yes, it was a loss, but in summer league, how you’re prized young players perform is more important than the game result. Tonight, both James Johnson and Taj Gibson showed exactly why the Bulls drafted them, and put on performances that should have Bulls’ fans excited about both players’ futures with the team.

Go Bulls!