With the Bulls down three, Luol Deng bricked a three point shot from the top of the key, giving the Bulls their third loss in a row, as they fell to the Milwaukee Bucks 96-93.

The Bulls, who were down 17 points at one point in the first half, made it a two point game when Brad Miller stroked a three pointer to make it a 93-91 game. The Bulls would then come up with the stop, but Derrick Rose was called for a charge, giving Milwaukee the ball back. The Bulls forced Charlie Bell to miss, but no one put a body on Hakim Warrick, and he slammed it home to give the Bucks a 95-91 lead.

The Bulls quickly called a timeout and advanced the ball past half court. The Bulls found Rose on a curl, and the Bucks gave Rose an easy layup, making it a 95-93 game. It seems like a pretty dumb decision for the Bucks to just give Rose the layup like this. If they had played tough defense on Rose, they could have easily forced him to pass it or forced him into a bad shot. If the Bulls had missed there without a quick putback, the game would have been pretty much over, and by allowing Rose to make this shot so fast, they gave the Bulls a chance to tie, as Michael Redd split a pair of free throws to make it a 96-93 game with 8 seconds left.

On the final play, John Salmons got the ball. He opened up a clear shooting path after getting his man on the pump fake, but opted to pass the ball to Luol Deng, who bricked the potential game tying three.

This was pretty much a mirror image of what happened last game against the Charlotte Bobcats. John Salmons had the ball in pretty much the same spot, and decided to pass the ball to Derrick Rose when he was in the air. Rose of course bricked the shot and the Bulls lost the game. In both instances, Salmons opted to pass the ball to guys who are known not to take three point shots.

It is these situations where the Bulls are down three and need to tie the game where they really, really miss Ben Gordon. Derrick Rose who is the one guy who has an ability like Gordon to create his own shot, and Rose can’t make three point shots. Luol Deng, who moves well off the ball to get open for shots, also is not known to make three point shots. Kirk Hinrich has difficulty creating his own shot, and is terrible when contested on a shot, and he is also terrible in the clutch, even when he is wide open.

So that leaves the Bulls to go to John Salmons in these type of situations, and Salmons lacks that killers edge that Ben Gordon possessed. Ben would just go up for the shot confidently, he knew it was going in. Salmons appears unconfident in these situations, hesitating on his shots, and passing the ball out to teammates after pump faking or while in the middle of his shot. The Bulls are better off with Salmons just jacking up a shot in these situations than passing it out to teammates.

In the future, when the Bulls are down three, Vinny should probably go with a lineup of Jannero Pargo, Kirk Hinrich, John Salmons, Luol Deng, and Brad Miller, with Brad Miller popping out to the three point line as the first option, and Jannero Pargo as the second option, as at least these two guys will just go up and shoot the ball confidently.

One of the main proponents in the Bucks win was Andrew Bogut, who played great in the first half, as well as in the stretch run of the game. Andrew Bogut finished with an impressive 27 points, 13 rebounds, and 6 blocks. Bogut did most of his damage against Joakim Noah, who was just too weak to guard Bogut, as Noah ceded ground too easily whenever Bogut backed him down in the post.

Michael Redd was also big for the Bucks, finishing with 24 points on 8-16 shooting and 8 rebounds. Redd really came alive in the second half, hitting big shots to keep the Bucks in the game.

Derrick Rose led the Bulls in scoring with 25 points, but he did it inefficiently, taking 25 shots to score those 25 points. The Bucks did a good job of keeping Rose away from the basket. When Rose did get near the basket, the Bucks were set for charges (a trademark of a Scott Skiles’ defense) and Bogut blocked many of Rose’s shots. Rose also had 9 assists and 5 rebounds in the game.

Outside of his defense on Andrew Bogut, Joakim Noah was solid, finishing with 10 points and 18 rebounds.

Luol Deng finished with 13 points and 7 rebounds and Kirk Hinrich finished with 12 points and 6 assists.

Off the bench, Brad Miller scored 11 points and John Salmons had 10 points.

For the Bucks, Ersan Ilyasova had 13 points and 11 rebounds, Hakim Warrick had 11 points and 7 rebounds, and Luke Ridnour had 10 points.

Brandon Jennings struggled tonight scoring only 5 points on 1-9 shooting. Jennings also had 8 assists and 3 blocks, including a nice block on a driving Derrick Rose.

There was a little scuffle in the second half which started with Kirk Hinrich and Luke Ridnour being called for a double foul. Ridnour then tried to get away with a push on Hinrich, but was called for the offensive foul. Ridnour then picked up his third foul in 11 seconds on a Hinrich drive. After the foul, Hinrich pushed Hakim Warrick, which prompted Andrew Bogut to come over and get entangled with Kirk Hinrich. The fight didn’t escalate past that point.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 14-10 on the season.

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.

The 2009-2010 NBA season is quickly approaching. Therefore, here are five bold, specific, quick hit predictions for the 2009-2010 NBA season.

1. The San Antonio Spurs defeat the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the NBA Finals behind a 17 rebound performance by Dejuan Blair. Tim Duncan wins the Finals MVP, while Manu Ginobili hobbles his wa through the Finals, retiring at their conclusion.
2. Brook Lopez makes his first Allstar game appearance and emerges as the top player from the 2008 Draft Class.
3. All four of the conference semi-final matchups (Cleveland vs. Detroit, Boston vs. Orlando, LA Lakers vs. Portland, and San Antonio vs. Dallas) will be epic playoff series.
4. Ben Gordon takes over the starting shooting guard spot from Richard Hamilton in November. At that point, Joe Dumars simultaneously trades Richard Hamilton for a center (it will be either Chris Kaman or Andrew Bogut). The Pistons combine one of the top producing back courts in the NBA with good interior defense to claim the fourth seed in the East. Ben Gordon has a better season than Derrick Rose and makes his first Allstar game. Gordon goes on to knock the Miami Heat out of the playoffs in Game 6 on a buzzer beating leaner along the baseline. The Pistons give the Cavs a hard fought series in the second round before being eliminated in six games.
5. Michael Beasley puts it all together as the Heat win around 46 games. Miami becomes the clear cut top free agent destination. Dwyane Wade re-signs with the Heat on the first day of free agency. The Heat also sign Lebron James or Chris Bosh on the first day of free agency.

The Chicago Bulls take on the Milwaukee Bucks tonight at the United Center against the Milwaukee Bucks at 7:30 PM.

The Bulls finished off the preseason strong, winning three straight to finish 4-4. The Bucks on the other hand finished the preseason with three straight losses to finish 1-7.

The Bulls and Bucks finished the preseason by playing each other. The Bulls defeated the Bucks 112-104 in overtime, powered by Andres Nocioni’s 26 points. During the game, Andres Nocioni, Luke Ridnour, Kirk Hinrich, and Richard Jefferson were involved in a scuffle after Nocioni lightly fouled Jefferson. Perhaps tempers will fume again tonight.

Luke Ridnour, Michael Redd, Richard Jefferson, Charlie Villanueva, and Andrew Bogut are expected to start for the Bucks.

Derrick Rose, Thabo Sefolosha, Luol Deng, Tyrus Thomas, and Drew Gooden are expected to start for the Bulls.

While Sefolosha finished the preseason off with a solid game, he was horrible for the rest of the preseason. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to bring both Hinrich and Gordon off the bench in favor of Sefolosha.

The logic behind this move is that Del Negro wants more size in the back court because the front court is small. The problem is it likely won’t work. With a team like the Bucks with the fire power of Michael Redd, Richard Jefferson, and Charlie Villanueva, the Bulls could easily find themselves down early.

Betus.com has the Bulls rated as 6 point favorites over the Bucks.

The game is at 7:30 PM and will be on WGN and ESPN 1000.