The Chicago Bulls defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 110-96 at the United Center tonight, ending the Bulls three game losing streak.

The Bulls opened up a double digit lead on the Timberwolves in the third quarter, and coasted to an easy victory.

Joakim Noah led the Bulls, scoring 20 points and grabbing 9 rebounds. Kirk Hinrich also scored 20 points and dished 7 assists. The most encouraging thing about Hinrich’s performance tonight was that he went 4-9 from three point shooting. If guys like Hinrich and Salmons start hitting their three point shots again, the Bulls will find it much easier to win.

Taj Gibson also had a nice game, finishing with 13 points an 9 rebounds. Gibson started the struggling with his shot, but he found his stroke after having a shot bounce off the top of the backboard and into the basket. This game helps to further cement Gibson’s spot in the starting lineup with this performance, and Tyrus Thomas’ struggling performance. Thomas does a lot of positives on the court, finishing with 9 points, 5 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2 steals, but he continuously screws himself out of a starting spot by mixing the good with a lot of bad, boneheaded plays, as evidenced by his 6 turnovers tonight.

The Bulls got good performances off the bench from Brad Miller and John Salmons. Brad Miller finished with 12 points and 5 rebounds. Miller has been having a lot of success with his slow motion drives the past few games. John Salmons had 14 points on 6-10 shooting.

James Johnson also had a pretty good game. Nothing eye popping, as he finished with 6 points on 2-2 shooting, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists, but it was still the best that he’s looked in a game this year in my opinion. He showed flashes of his talents in leading some Bulls’ fastbreaks.

Derrick Rose finished with 8 points and 7 assists, and Luol Deng also finished with 8 points.

For the Timberwolves, Johnny Flynn had 14 points and 8 assists, and Corey Brewer and Al Jefferson scored 12 points each. Kevin Love had 9 points and 10 rebounds.

Ryan Gomes led the Timberwolves in scoring with 15 points off the bench.

The Bulls did what they were supposed to do tonight in taking care of business against a terrible Minnesota Timberwolves teams. The only team worse than the Timberwolves are the Nets, so this is the type of game that is a must win, and the Bulls did that tonight.

With the win, the Bulls improve to 15-20 on the season.

The Chicago Bulls defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 94 to 90 at the United Center last night.

Tyrus Thomas was huge in this game, finishing with 22 point, 13 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Tyrus did exactly what you want out of him last night. He was active on the boards, and he was aggressive attacking the basket. When Tyrus attacks like this on offense, he usually scores. Nice to see Tyrus Thomas go and put up a 22/13 game a day after saying he could average 20/10 for the season.

Taj Gibson scored 14 points and grabbed 6 rebounds. He continues to put up solid game after solid game.

James Johnson had a solid 10 points on 4-8 shooting. Joakim Noah added in 8 points and 5 rebounds.

Jannero Pargo had 13 points and 7 assists. He looked to pass more tonight than he had in previous games, and the results were good. It also helps to have another finisher out there in Tyrus Thomas.

Al Jefferson finished with 10 points and 16 rebounds for the Timberwolves. Corey Brewer had 20 points and Johnny Flynn had 10 points an 8 assists.

Kirk Hinrich finished with 12 points on 3-11 shooting and 5 assists. Not a great shooting game for Hinrich, but he helped to mitigate the bad shooting day by getting to the line five times, which is nice to see.

Luol Deng had another bad game, scoring 6 points on 2-7 shooting. This is a disturbing trend. Through six preseason games, he is shooting 50.2 TS%. If he continues to do that in the regular season, he needs to be benched in favor of James Johnson, and the Bulls should look to trade him for any expiring contract available. There is no guarantee that any team would offer an expiring contract for Deng. You can’t have players scoring this inefficiently in your starting lineup, or off your bench, if you want to be a great team.

With the win, the Bulls improved to 5-1 in preseason play.

Closing Comments

The Bulls have done nothing yet in the preseason to get you too excited for the regular season. All the teams that they have beaten in the preseason thus far have been mediocre to bad. However, there is reason to be excited because of the play of the Bulls’ front court. Joakim Noah, Tyrus Thomas, James Johnson, and Taj Gibson have all looked good. If they can continue the good production into the regular season, the Bulls should be able to make the playoffs, as they will get good perimeter play out of Kirk Hinrich, John Salmons, and Derrick Rose.

Hopefully the Bulls frontcourt continues to play this way into the regular season, because we will be good if that’s the case.

John Paxson appeared on Monsters in the Morning to discuss a lengthy list of topics regarding the Chicago Bulls.  Here is a recap of what was said in the interview.

• The trade deadline passed and Paxson is still here, therefore the rumors weren’t true.  Paxson is always going to be loyal to the Bulls.  As long as Jerry wants to keep him around, he will be here.  Will always have some position in the organization.
• The job is getting bigger and bigger.  You don’t just have a GM, you have other people who carry a lot of responsibilities.  Gar Forman is the player personnel director.  Irwin Mandel has been the cap guy for years.
• The league is going in a different direction.  There are some issues that the league is going to be facing in the next year or two.  The star players are always going to get paid waht they deserve.  In the last CBA, the average player got paid more than they probably should have.  The MLE has probably ballooned some salaries.  These are some things in the next CBA that might be addressed.
• When you have to make a deal, you’re matching salaries.  You have to take on a player you maybe don’t want to in order to make the deal.  Lots of things prohibit trades, such as trade kickers.
• Lots of teams dancing under the tax.  The teams under the tax receive a portion of the tax money from the teams that are over and pay.  There are a lot of teams out there that are losing money.  He doesn’t care how much money certain owners have, you don’t want to conduct your business in a manner where you lose money.
• Gets emotional when he sees the team play and that’s why he can never coach.  He gets frustrated with himself and everybody, but that’s in the moment of watching the game.  He doesn’t get frustrated with individuals, but how they play as a group.  Would like for the Bulls to compete hard every night, defend, and share and move the ball better.
• He thinks that they are a better team than they were 2 weeks ago.  John Salmons is a very good player.  Their pro personnel guy was on him all year.  They took on a little more money next year to make it happen.  Going to be looking to sign some free agents or make some trades, pointing out Tyson Chandler getting traded.
• It was Paxson, not Skiles, who made the decision to send Tim Thomas home last time.  Thomas had a personal issue with his wife in an acident.  Just made the decision, since Thomas was in the last year of his deal, that they were just going to use him as a trade chip at the deadline, and play the young players, that Thomas should stay home.  So far, Thomas has been great.
• All players get a little antsy at the trade deadline, more so now than ever.  Back in his day they didn’t have the internet.  Now when these rumors come up, they have their friends and agents calling them.  He doesn’t know how it doesn’t affect them.
• Luol Deng had an MRI yesterday and it came back negative.  He’s day to day.  He was battling the injury for awhile and was wearing a sleeve on his shin.  He felt something a little bit different when he came down in the Houston game.  The X-ray showed what could have possibly been a line.  The MRI showed it being soft tissue.  Stress fractures take a little time to show up, so the Bulls are going to monitor it.  They won’t know for awhile.
• Talks to Vinny Del Negro about things.  It’s a team game, bt Derrick Rose is a big part of what they’re going to be doing in the future.  They have discussed some of the end of game playing time issues.  In Houston, Rose played and was phenomenal.  He’s going to have some successes and failures.  Even Michael Jordan missed some shots once in awhile.  Rose has to be in there to continually learn.
• Paxson has a very good relationship with Del Negro and they are on the same page.  The whole purpose is to help Vinny and maybe offer thoughts that he hasn’t had.  They knew when they gave Vinny the job that he never coached before, so he was going to make mistakes.  That’s the reason why they got him a really veteran staff to help him organize practice and game situations.  Vinny has a very open mind about everything.  He’s learning that the hard part when you’re on the outside is you have so many ideas, but you can’t implement them all.  For him, less is more.  When he just focuses on a few things, what he wants to be as a coach, that will come in time.
• Young guys need consistent minutes.  Right now, Joakim Noah and Tyrus Thomas are getting consistent minutes and now they’re seeing who those players are.  Getting some real consistency out of them.  Thought that Joakim Noah played very well at the end of last year, but was set back this year with a couple injuries.
• Does not fall in love with the guys that he drafts.  Everybody istalked about in trade talks.  He just doesn’t want to make a bad trade.  Lots of times he talked about certain players, the trades made absolutely no sense to him.
• The Kobe Bryant thing came about from a youtube video where the Bulls got mentioned.  With Paul Gasol, the Bulls didn’t have the expiring contracts that Memphis wanted.  With Kevin Garnett, look at what Minnesota got for Garnett in Al Jefferson, and Paxson says he’d be pretty happy if he was them.
• Ben Gordon knows that Derrick Rose is a great point guard.  Gordon is such a unique player, he can help you win games by putting the ball in the basket.
• Would love to see the ball in Derrick Rose’s hands off of rebounds.  Thinks that they will be a better running team with some of the moves they made.  Thinks that it’s evolving, the mindset always looking for Derrick on the outlets and getting the other guys to run.
• The league changed the contact rules and that’s why you see so much of the screen and roll action because you really can’t do anything to contain a good point guard’s speed.  The mantra in the league office is freedom of movement.  The new game evolved from the game getting too physical and also from scoring going into the low 90’s.
• The Bulls will not be active in this summers free agent market.  Starting to position themselves to have some flexibility for 2010.  Hard to get the good players to leave their own team since they can make significantly more money with their own team.  Don’t see the great players moved that often.  Lots of it has to do with whether they’re winning.
• The Bulls still need an inside scorer.
• Thinks that Rose can be the go to guy.  Thinks the Bulls need more than one though.  Derrick’s getting that midrange shot because of his ability to drive to the basket.  It’s not a signature shot, but that little floater in the lane is effective for Rose.
• 72% of fans said No to question, “Should John Paxson resign as GM?”
• Paxson’s son Ryan told his mom that he was joining the marines before him.  He waited to tell John until after the trade deadline, and wrote down his intentions for his father.
• Most of the players who don’t get iit don’t have the right counsel around them.  Paxson is in the best interest of the players, but a lot of times the players think that management is out to hurt them.  There is a natural conflict between agents and management.  Some great relationships with agents.  Some not so great relationships with agents when things get unrealistic or you can’t do anything, things can get pretty heated.  The dollars have gotten so big and everyone wants a piece of the pie.
• Thinks that Mike D’Antoni felt a little bit underappreciated in Phoenix.  New York threw so much money at him, that we all would ahve taken that offer over night.
• Norm Van Lier was a unique character.  He was a tough minded, hard playing guy.  Listening to him was the treat.  He would tell it like it is.  It was all born out of that he wanted the Bulls to do well.  Just really sad that he went so unexpectedly.
• Johnny Red Kerr was sick for a long time.  Insiders knew how bad he was.  He lived every day and had a lot of fun.
• Paxson was only bothered by the booing at Johnny Red Kerr’s ceremony because of what the night represtented.
• Michael Jordan was once playing blackjack against the entire team on a plane trip.  John was betting like $5 while the other guys were betting big money.

The Chicago Bulls fell to the Minnesota Timberwolves 109 to 108 tonight in overtime.

This loss was especially bad for the Bulls because they blew a large lead. The Bulls led by 16 points in the first quarter, but when Kirk Hinrich came in and played point guard, the offense stalled out, allowing the Timberwolves to charge back into the game.

Derrick Rose had two shots to win the game for the Bulls, but missed on both. On the first, at the end of regulation, Derrick Rose missed a contested jumpshot, bringing the game into overtime. At the end of overtime, with the Bulls down one, Rose careened a bankshot off the rim. Aaron Gray and Luol Deng tipped the ball up, but neither could get the ball in the basket. Minnesota victory.

The Bulls really need to start running some end of game plays for Ben Gordon. He is proven in that department, Derrick Rose is not. Teams simply aren’t going to give Rose the lane at the end of games, leaving a poor jumpshooter with a contested jumpshot. Giving the ball to Gordon, who they might give the drive to, but who is also the Bulls best jumpshooter, is a much better option at the end of games.

Ben Gordon actually had a real nice game tonight, scoring 23 points on 10-20 shooting. Gordon’s game was pretty good all around, except for his third quarter. Gordon looked more aggressive tonights, and created some offense.

Luckily for Bulls fans, Kirk Hinrich played so bad that there was no way that Vinny could justify keeping Kirk in late in the fourth. Hinrich had 1 point on 0-7 shooting, with 3 turnovers. The Kirk Hinrich of old was back. The one who just dribbles around and around without meaning. His defense wasn’t very good either. That Kirk Hinrich should not be playing any kind of meaningful minutes in the NBA. I hope this Kirk isn’t back to stay, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he reverted into his non 2006-2007 form.

Gordon had 9 points in the fourth quarter and overtime. Overall, Gordon did a nice job during the clutch, although he did miss a potential go ahead jumpshot from the corner. Hopefully Vinny has learned that Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon should always be the Bulls backcourt during crunch time.

Derrick Rose looked good early in the game, but played himself into a very poor outing. Rose scored 18 inefficient points, and dished 7 assists, but had 5 turnovers. Rose needs to step his game up. The Bulls were playing better early in the season because they had both Rose and Gordon going. Rose hasn’t been able to get it going this entire month, and as a result, the Bulls are struggling.

Luol Deng had a nice game, finishing with 22 points and 8 rebounds. Deng was just sticking his jumper and making some nice cuts to the basket. When Luol does that, he is a very good player to have.

Al Jefferson just completely dominated the Bulls front court. He scored 39 points and grabbed 9 rebounds, while forcing Joakim Noah into foul trouble. The Bulls had nothing to stop Jefferson, and Jefferson hit big shot after big shot, including the tip in that brought the game into overtime. Noah actually had an outstanding 7 blocks, but he was still no match to stop Big Al.

Randy Foye had a poor outing, but hit the go ahead bank shot, which ended up being the game winner.

Andres Nocioni had 15 points in the game. Nocioni had some nice hard fouls which really got the T’Wolves heated.

Joakim Noah had 14 points and 10 rebounds and Tyrus Thomas had 11 points and 9 rebounds. Unfortunately the Bulls front court was horrible defensively. In addition to Jefferson’s 39 points, the Bulls front court gave up 19 points and 15 rebounds to Kevin Love.

Rodney Carney was great, scoring 13 points on 5-6 shooting. Carney finished the game with a true shooting percentage of 108.3%.

This is the Bulls fifth straight loss.

With this loss, the Bulls fall to 18-27 on the season. The Bulls were 18-27 at this point last season. This is the second straight season that the Bulls loss to the Timberwolves in their 45th game of the season.

Vinny Del Negro is currently doing worse than Jim Boylan, who went 19-26 in his first 45 games. Jim Boylan also didn’t have that Derrick Rose guy on his team. It’s hard to see the Bulls keeping Del Negro much longer if this poor play keeps up.

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.

Yesterday, the Chicago Bulls defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 85-75 in preseason play.

This win makes the Bulls 3-4 in preseason play. Minnesota is now 5-2 in preseason play after their loss.

The Bulls started off strong, holding a 29-9 lead at the end of the first quarter. Minnesota fought back, narrowing the lead to 6 points to end the third. The fourth quarter was a battle of attrition as the Bulls outscored the T’Wolves 13 to 9 and hold on to the win.

Larry Hughes did a good job next to Derrick Rose in the starting line up, scoring 21 points on 8-14 shooting. Unfortunately Hughes dislocated his right shoulder when he dived for a loose ball in the third quarter.

The injury, if it keeps Hughes out for an extended amount of time, will help Vinny Del Negro in coming to a decision on the Bulls guard rotation in the early months. Still, it is a real shame that Hughes got injured, given that he was outplaying Kirk Hinrich, who finished with 7 points and 3 assists and Thabo Sefolosha, who finished with 4 points.

Derrick Rose had another solid game, finishing with 17 points, 6 assists, and 5 rebounds. Rose had a high amount of turnovers at 5, but that is expected out of a rookie point guard.

Luol Deng’s struggles continue. Deng finished with 10 points on 4-12 shooting and 6 rebounds. The other small forward, Andres Nocioni, finished with 12 points and 6 rebounds. Del Negro will have to seriously consider starting Nocioni if Deng doesn’t shape up.

Al Jefferson finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds for Minnesota.

Tyrus Thomas missed this game because of an ankle injury he had against Dallas. Ben Gordon again didn’t play.

The Bulls final preseason game is on Friday against the Milwaukee Bucks at the United Center.

The Chicago Bulls fell to the Minnesota Timberwolves 96-86 in preseason play. This is the Bulls third straight loss and they now are 0-3 in preseason play. Minnesota improved to 3-1 this preseason.

The Bulls jumped out to an early lead, finishing the first quarter with a 30-13 lead. The Timberwolves went on a 23-5 run at the end of the second quarter and ended the half with a 46-45 lead.

It was smooth sailing for Minnesota after that. The Bulls were able to bring the game within 2 late in the fourth, but Minnesota finished the game on a 10-3 run to beat the Bulls.

Derrick Rose, who came off the bench, was impressive, scoring 9 points and dishing 7 assists. Rose connected with Andres Nocioni multiple times for threes. Nocioni was able to make use of Rose’s great passing by just catching and shooting the ball, rather than taking a dribble before shooting, as Stacey King alluded to during the broadcast. Nocioni finished with 18 points.

Drew Gooden was also impressive, scoring 20 points and grabbing 8 rebounds.

Luol Deng came on strong to start the game, scoring 8 points in the first quarter. However, Deng fell apart as the game went on, and shot 5-14 overall in the game. Deng has yet to get anything going so far in this preseason. It is becoming clear that Deng isn’t cut out to be a first option in the NBA. Deng could easily find himself as the fourth option on offense, behind Derrick Rose, Ben Gordon, and Drew Gooden.

For the first time in preseason, Aaron Gray had a poor showing. He did set some nice screens for Rose in the second quarter, but didn’t do a lot of other positive things on the court. Gray finished with 0 points and 0 rebounds. Gray came into the game as the Bulls’ leading scorer and rebounder in preseason play.

For Minnesota, Corey Brewer had 15 points and 9 rebounds. Al Jefferson chipped in 13 points and 7 rebounds.

The Bulls next game is Friday against the Utah Jazz. The game will be on CSN-Chicago. The game will be played n Champaign, IL and will be Deron William’s homecoming to Assembly Hall.