Just a day after blowing a 35 point lead, the Bulls attempted a daring comeback of their own, whittling a once 22 point Knicks lead down to one point with 1:41 remaining in the game.

The Bulls comeback, unlike the Kings, came up short, and the Bulls lost the game 88-81.

The Bulls had their opportunities down the stretch, but once again failed to come up in clutch situations.

First, with the Bulls down three, Kirk Hinrich ignored the inbound play called by Vinny Del Negro, instead attempting an idiotic alleyoop to Joakim Noah, but the Bulls got the ball back.

Derrick Rose then bounced a pass that was meant for Taj Gibson out of bounds. It was a good idea for the Bulls to get a score, as Taj Gibson was standing there wide open. The problem of course is that Gibson is a string bean who can’t hold position in the post, which forced Rose to do a bounce pass (which Gibson wasn’t able to catch for whatever reason) instead of a regular pass for the easy dunk.

Even then, I don’t like the idea of passing it into Gibson at that point in the game. At that point, the Bulls were down by 3 points with 29.8 seconds left. The score would have been quick, and would have allowed the Bulls to go for the stop, and try to get the win with a one point game instead of playing the foul game, but the Bulls still would have had to score once more, likely with only a few seconds left, as the Knicks probably would have burned down the clock. You have to play to tie the game in situations like this, not to put yourself down 1.

Of course early on, it didn’t look like the Bulls were even going to be in late game pressure situations, as they were getting blown out early. But Derrick Rose led a comeback, scoring 16 points in the third quarter. Rose finished the game with 26 points.

Once Rose got the comeback started, Deng helped out a bit, getting going himself. Deng finished with 23 points on the game, although he took 23 shots to do it.

The Bulls defense was fine in the second half of this game, holding New York to only 35 points. But the Bulls continue to lose because they cannot score the ball.

Everyone in this game, except Derrick Rose and Taj Gibson, had poor scoring efficiencies. When only 34 of your team’s points are coming from efficient scoring, you’re offense is going to be terrible, as the Bulls offense was last night, and you are going to lose a lot of games, as the Bulls have been doing all season long.

The game saw some big rebounding numbers from Joakim Noah and David Lee. Noah finished the game with 10 points and 21 rebounds. Noah struggled scoring the ball, going 4-13 from the field.

However, David Lee outplayed Noah, finishing with 18 points and 21 rebounds. Lee hit the shot to put the Knicks up five points with 5 seconds remaining in the game.

John Salmons and Kirk Hinrich continued their poor play. Salmons finished with 7 points on 2-9 shooting, and Hinrich finished with 5 points on 2-7 shooting.

Del Negro actually decided to bench John Salmons and Brad Miller to start the third quarter. Both players have played horribly for the entire season.

Danilo Gallinari finished the game with 11 points on 2-13 shooting, but also had 3 blocks. I think Gallinari is a guy that a 2010 free agent like Lebron might want to play next to. He seems like a good fit next to a ball dominant player because of his ability to make the three point shot.

Al Harrington gave the Knicks 20 points off the bench, and Wilson Chandler added 16 points. Jared Jefferies finished the game with 10 points.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 10-17 on the season.

The Chicago Bulls fell to the Portland Trail Blazers 109 to 95 for their second loss to the Blazers this season.

The Bulls problems were clear tonight, three of their perimeter players did not play appropriate defense. Derrick Rose lethargically chased Steve Blake around, leaving him open for threes. Luol Deng, like Rose, lethargically chased around Travis Outlaw, leaving him open for threes. And Andres Nocioni, while energetic on defense, ignores his defensive assignment, and goes and doubles someone elses man.

Steve Blake hit four threes in the game, and finished with 16 points and 10 assists. But Travis Outlaw was the real killer, coming off the bench for 33 points, making four three pointers.

Drew Gooden led the Bulls in scoring, putting in 22 points and grabbing 9 rebounds. Gooden was completely overmatched by Greg Oden, who he was assigned to guard. Greg Oden burned the Bulls for the second time this season, finishing with 17 points and 13 rebounds. Too bad for Oden that he can’t play the league’s worst front court every game.

Derrick Rose had a good passing night, and that’s about it. Rose finished the game with 10 assists. Defensively, Rose was lazy, leaving Blake wide open for three many times throughout the game. Offensively, Rose finished with 13 points on 5-14 shooting. Rose had some nice drives to the basket, but he really struggled with his shooting.

One thing Rose is going to learn is that he has to practice hard to become the best. For almost the entirety of the pre-game shoot around, Rose was engaged in a lackadaisical one on one game with Drwe Gooden, in which Rose bricked almost all of his shots. Rose should take a hint from Gordon, and perform a serious pre-game shooting routine.

Ben Gordon had an alright game, finishing with 17 points and 3 assists. Gordon drove to the basket pretty well. Shooting wise, Gordon had a tough night, missing most of his shots in the fourth. Shooters have off nights, and this was an off night for Gordon. While Gordon had 4 turnovers, none of them were from mental lapses. One was from an offensive foul, one was a pass that bounced off Noah’s stone hands, one was a pass that Luol Deng should have caught, but sailed out of bounds because of Luol’s 2 inch vertical on his jump, and the other was a pass that Gordon just mishandeled. Still, Gordon needs to cut down on the handling turnovers.

Defensively, Ben Gordon did a pretty good job on Brandon Roy, and brought a lot of energy tonight. The new found defensive energy might be in response to Kirk Hinrich’s return, who Gordon will have to fend off to keep his starting spot.

Kirk Hinrich looked really good on the defensive end of the ball. He was playing great positional defense with a lot of energy. Hinrich looks to have returned to his All Defensive Team level of defense. Hinrich finished with 4 points and 3 assists in his return.

Luol Deng looked bad overall tonight, looking lethargic on defense, and shooting the ball poorly. Deng needs to bring more energy in the future. Tonight’s level of effort from Deng is unacceptable.

Thabo Sefolosha, who got the start at small forward, finished with 8 points and 8 rebounds. He looked good in his limited minutes, making some nice cuts to the basket.

Tyrus Thomas had an alright game. He didn’t really contribute much according to the box score, but his defense was pretty good. He played within himself, and didn’t try to take over on offense.

LaMarcus Aldridge and Rudy Fernandez both had 8 points for the Blazers.

With the return of Kirk Hinrich and Luol Deng, Larry Hughes was ushered into a new bench role. Del Negro only allotted 7 minutes for Hughes tonight, and that number likely would have been less if Gordon didn’t get in early foul trouble.

Portland general manager, Kevin Pritchard, was in attendance tonight.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 16-22 on the season.

ESPN.com is reporting that Mike D’Antoni will not play Eddy Curry in the Knicks season opener. here is what ESPN.com wrote.

New Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said he doesn’t plan to play Curry in the team’s season opener Wednesday against the Miami Heat, simply responding “no” when asked Tuesday if Curry would be part of his eight- or nine-man rotation.

After playing in four of the seven Knicks’ preseason games (including one DNP/coach’s decision), Curry was surprised by the news that he is not part of his coach’s regular rotation. “Definitely stunned, especially being that [D'Antoni] didn’t tell me that,” Curry said Tuesday. “I haven’t talked to him. I’m here with him every day. All he has to do is tell me. I’m definitely stunned to hear that.”

D’Antoni said minutes were earned during practice and the preseason, though he may make an exception for first-round draft pick Danilo Gallinari. Gallinari, who has a bad back, did not play in any of the team’s preseason games, but D’Antoni may give him some minutes in Wednesday’s opener. Such a scenario was not lost on Curry. “You can’t help but to think about that, especially [since] I feel like I’m in pretty good shape,” Curry said. “Hopefully I can contribute and, if not, I will cheer my team on and see what the Knicks’ plan is.”

I would hope that John Paxson is at least inquiring about Eddy Curry. The guy is not in bad shape, much better than Aaron Gray. He would be that center that you could dump the ball into to create an inside game, and you really don’t lose anything defensively going from Gooden to Curry in the front court.

The Bulls would have two main options, Kirk Hinrich or Larry Hughes for Eddy Curry or Drew Gooden and filler for Eddy Curry.

It is an interesting option, and I would hope that John Paxson at least looks at this option.

Sam Smith is back with a vengeance in his writing for Bulls.com. When Smith said that the Bulls have no right of prior approval he was telling the truth, as he starts off by dropping two rumors in his first article. It is great to have Sam Smith back writing about the Bulls, and I look forward to his writing all season long.

The first rumor is about a potential Larry Hughes trade.

That injury to Larry Hughes was unfortunate. Of course, the joke going around with the Bulls crowded backcourt is the unfortunate part is it wasn’t longer. But it may have been unfortunate for a bigger reason. I heard the Washington Wizards, with Gilbert Arenas out probably half the season, have been looking for ways to hold it together until then and have interest in Hughes. There supposedly were some talks with Etan Thomas (scheduled to start the opener as a showcase?) leaving Washington. There’ll still be $6 million for the Wizards to make up, and perhaps that would include Darius Songaila, whom the Bulls liked when they had him. I heard the Bulls had talks this summer for the Wizards’ Oleksiy Pecherov in a multi-team transition, but that faded. This one makes some sense for both teams and might be workable if Hughes can return from his shoulder injury quickly. He has his beat seasons in Washington and remains close with Arenas. The Bulls desperately need to unclog their guard logjam to give Derrick Rose more opportunities. Thomas never has worked out in Washington and rookie JaVale McGee, the Chicagoan, has been a pleasant surprise for the Wizards.

This makes a lot of sense. I found the Bulls originally cutting Michael Ruffin to be very suspicious, and had the hunch that the Bulls had agreed to a trade but it fell apart at the last minute. Something like Larry Hughes for Etan Thomas, Darius Songalia, and another player (Oleksiy Pecherov) would have required the Bulls to have 2 open roster slots, which the Bulls created when they cut Ruffin.

The second rumor is in regard to Eddy Curry.

So the Bulls need a big man in the middle, a post presence who can draw a double team and just over a season ago was averaging about 20 points per game. Well, Eddy Curry can be had. Been there, endured that. The former Bull has been banished by new coach Mike D’Antoni, and few survive those banishments. One of D’Antoni’s major issues leading to leaving the Suns was his refusal to play much more than an eight-play rotation. Once he settles, he’s pretty much done. So Curry is. Plus, D’Antoni likes Jared Jeffries, injured again, and when he returns he’ll get the D’Antoni treatment by playing inside as D’Antoni enjoys showing his critics, who say he’ll never win, they don’t know what the heck they are doing as he believes Jeffries always played out of position on the perimeter.

Curry, surprise, surprise, hasn’t been well conditioned. The story going around the league is Curry sat on a medicine ball in camp and it exploded. I’m not sure I believe that. But I’m not saying it couldn’t happen, either.

The Bulls may be able to simply do something like Larry Hughes for Eddy Curry; or Kirk Hinrich for Eddy Curry. But if the Bulls wait a little longer, they could do something like Kirk Hinrich and Drew Gooden for Eddy Curry and Chris Duhon. I like this second trade, as it gets us Duhon, who is probably better suited for a backup point guard spot than Hinrich and clears out a power forward for a center, which should open up minutes for Tyrus Thomas.

Curry does not look too out of shape. He could definitely stand to lose a few, but he is in no way grossly out of shape. There is a difference between not being in shape to run in Dantoni’s offense and not being in shape for the typical NBA offense. Curry could give us that elusive low post option that we have been missing ever since he left.

It is no longer a no brainer to trade for Curry if he is available, but it is an option that you have to strongly consider.