The Chicago Bulls defeated the Charlotte Bobcats 93-90 at the United Center Saturday night in an impressive come from behind victory.

The hero of the game for the Bulls was Joakim Noah, who finished with 21 points, 16 rebounds, and 4 blocks. Joakim Noah was huge on the glass, and altered shot after shot. He scored the ball well too, getting putbacks, scoring off of setups from his teammates, and also off of the hook shot.

Noah is currently showing what the value of a dominant defensive interior big man can do for a team. Noah has been the anchor to the Bulls defense all year, and he has played great defense, which has allowed the Bulls as a team to have a great defense this year.

The other star of the game for the Bulls was John Salmons, who finished with 27 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists. It is good to see Salmons have a game scoring the basketball like this. If Salmons can step it up and score the basketball at the same efficiency as he did last season from here on out, then the Bulls might be able to make some noise in the East, at least in the regular season, if their defense holds strong. Right now the Bulls defense has been so dominant that just a mediocre offensive showing will be enough to get the Bulls a lot of wins.

Luol Deng had a solid game, finishing with 14 points and 11 rebounds. He did a poor job scoring the ball, shooting 6-17, but as usual, he did a good job rebounding the basketball and playing great defense.

Kirk Hinrich was okay, scoring 9 points, dishing 7 assists, while racking up 4 turnovers. The nice thing that we saw Hinrich do this game was hit some big shots. Hinrich scored 6 of his points as part of that rally the Bulls put on in the third quarter in which they began to take control of the game.

Derrick Rose had another bad outing, scoring 14 points while racking up 7 turnovers. He was making terrible decisions when he was passing the basketball.

For the Bobcats, Tyson Chandler finished with 13 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 blocks. He was booed throughout the game.

Raymond Felton had a double double with 14 points and 10 assists. Boris Diaw led the Bobcats in scoring with 20 points and Gerald Wallace and Vladmir Radmanovic added 12 points apiece.

With the win, the Bulls improved to 4-2 on the young season.

Early in the ball game, it looked like Derrick Rose was going to be the star of the game, making his first 7 shots of the game.  But it turned out that Rose, who finished with a terrific 22 points and 7 assists, was only the opening act.

Ben Gordon was headlining this event, going for a thunderous 39 points, scorching the Bobcats from behind the three point line making 7 three point shots.

The Bulls defeated the Bobcats, who will be going fishing early this summer.

This one wasn’t an easy one for the Bulls.  The Bulls opened up a 10 point lead in the first quarter, but the Bobcats clawed their way back into the ball game, making it a 2 point game at halftime.

The Bobcats led the Bulls 83 to 78, but the Bulls would come back.  First Ben Gordon made two straight shots, then Kirk Hinrich nailed a midrange jumper.  Ben Gordon would then find Joakim Noah on the fastbreak for a monster dunk.  Ben Gordon would draw the foul on the fastbreak and make both free throws to make it a two point game.  And finally, the Bulls tied it up at 92 on a reverse layup by Brad Miller off of a baseline drive.

John Salmons then went on a scoring burst, with some help from Ben Gordon, to net the Bulls the victory.

The Bulls starting backcourt was impressive tonight, combining for 61 points.  Ben Gordon was just feeling it tonight, and it was nice to see him break out of his shooting slump as the Bulls near the playoffs.  Derrick Rose’s midrange jumpshot was on automatic tonight, and when he’s making that jumpshot, the Bulls are tough to beat.

John Salmons had a terrible first three quarters, but he had a great fourth quarter, scoring 11 points in the final 5 1/2 minutes in the ball game.  I really admire the never stop shooting attitude of guys like Salmons and Gordon.  Salmons had a tough first three quarters, but he didn’t let that shake his confidence, and just kept shooting, and eventually the shots start going in for these guys.

Joakim Noah was also very impressive tonight.  He finished with 11 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2 blocks.  Noah just did a little bit of everything tonight and passed the ball very well.  He was key in the Bulls’ victory tonight.

Kirk Hinrich played well off the bench, scoring 10 points on 4-5 shooting.

D.J. Augustin had an alright night, scoring 15 points and dishing for 8 assists.  Raymond Felton helped out too with 26 points and 7 assists, but he turned the ball over 5 times.

Emeka Okafor had 13 points, 14 rebounds, and 2 blocks.  He had nice stats, but it didn’t really seem that he was impacting the game all that much.  Okafor has the talent, he just needs to learn how to impose his will on the game more.

Boris Diaw had a double double with 24 points and 10 rebounds.  Gerald Wallace had 13 points.

Tyrus Thomas finished with 9 points, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 2 steals.  He really didn’t have a good game at all, shooting 3-10.  His head didn’t seem to be in the game very much.

With the win, the Bulls improve to 40-40 on the season.

Closing Comments

It was nice to see the Bulls get the hard fought win over the Charlotte Bobcats tonight. The Bulls are now 40-40 on the season, which puts them back at .500. I am glad that the Bulls are back at .500, and hope they can maintain that, or even finish above .500 on the season. It is nice that the Bulls are no longer a losing team!

The Bulls now have a simple scenario left to secure at least the seventh spot in the Eastern Conference. If they beat the Pistons on Monday, they are the 7th seed, it’s that simple. They need Philadelphia and Miami to keep losing if they have any hope of finishing in the 5th or 6th spots.

The Bobcats are an interesting team to watch. I don’t think they have a whole lot of talent, and are set up for longterm mediocrity, but the one thing that the Bobcats can hang their hats on is that they are a well coached team. Larry Brown has done a good job coaching the team.

Good win for the Bulls tonight, now they just need to go out and beat Detroit on Monday to keep the dream of the fifth seed in play.

Go Bulls!

The Charlotte Bobcats defeated the Chicago Bulls 96 to 80 in Charlotte tonight.  The game was just a complete debacle by the entire Bulls team.  No one on the Bulls really played well.

The highlight of the game for the Bulls was in the final minutes, when Alexis Ajinca elbowed Aaron Gray.  The toothpick sized arms connected to the paper thin body of Ajinca did not move Gray one bit, and following, Gray proceeded to push the twig like object a few feet.

As said, no one played too well for the Bulls tonight, so here is just a quick rundown of everyone.

Ben Gordon had a bad game, finishing with 14 points on 6-15 shooting, 4 assists, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, and 5 turnovers.  Gordon started off the game shooting well, cooled off some, had a nice little run in the third quarter before being taken out, and then couldn’t hit anything in the fourth.  Gordon had some questionable turnovers on offense, in particular a travel as he was swarmed by three defenders on a fastbreak and an offensive foul on a post up.  The fastbreak didn’t look like a travel, and the post up seemed like a bit of a flop by D.J. Augustin.  Gordon has had some trouble measuring up the three point line, leading to him taking some really long two point shots.

Derrick Rose had a poor game, scoring 13 points on 3-11 shooting, 5 assists, and 4 rebounds.  He looked passive most of the game, passing out when he drove, instead of attacking the rim.  He did get to the line a decent amount tonight though, that was a positive.  Rose’s defensive effort was non-existent.

Two Bulls front court players, Tyrus Thomas and Brad Miller, were the only guys who really played any good.  Thomas had 14 points, 12 rebounds, 3 steals, and 3 blocks.  He did most of his offensive damage earlier in the game, and didn’t do too much offensively in the latter parts of the game.  Brad Miller had 13 points an 8 rebounds.  7 of his rebounds were offensive, giving the Bulls more scoring opportunities on a night when the offense wasn’t going.

John Salmons was bad, scoring 9 points, going 4-13 from the field.  He just couldn’t hit a shot.

Joakim Noah had 4 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 blocks.  His shotblocking was pretty good, but he just doesn’t have the strength to bang around with Emeka Okafor downlow.

Kirk Hinrich was mediocre scoring 10 points on 10 shots.

The Bobcat guards were really impressive tonight.  Raymond Felton had 18 points on 6-11 shooting and 9 assists.  Raja Bell had 18 points on 7-11 shooting and D.J. Augustin had 8 points on 3-4 shooting and 5 assists.  They just scored really efficiently tonight.  The amazing thing was that Felton and Bell were hitting some really tough shots that were pretty well defended by Hinrich and Gordon.

Emeka Okafor had a double double with 14 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 blocks.  Okafor is just too strong for guys like Thomas or Noah to stop.

Boris Diaw had 13 points and Gerald Wallace had 10 points.

Just a very bad loss from the Bulls tonight.  They need to start winning these very winnable games if they are serious about making the playoffs.  It seems at this point the Bulls have no confidence on the road, and are nearly certain to lose any road game right now.

Vinny had some weird lineups played tonight.  The weirdest was a four guard lineup that featured John Salmons at power forward.  Vinny also played a lot of three guard lineups.  You just aren’t going to win very often with three guard lineups, it makes you too small of a team.  You never see the really good teams use a gimmick lineup such as that, and the reason for it is because they’re not very effective.

Yes, Luol Deng and Tim Thomas were injured, but that was no reason for Vinny to panic.  Just play John Salmons (who only played 33 minutes) around 42 minutes at small forward, and call it a day.  That seems like it would have been the smart thing to do to me.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 27-34 on the season.

The Chicago Bulls fell to the Memphis Grizzlies 103 to 96 at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, TN.

The Bulls had the same problem that they always do, their front court was pathetic. Gooden had a solid stat game, finishing with 10 points and 13 rebounds, but his defense was atrocious as usual.

Darko Milicic had 13 points and Marc Gasol added in 11 points. Hakim Warrick ate up the Bulls inside on his way to a 21 point game. Rudy Gay and Michael Conley took advantage of the Bulls soft interior defense as well, driving to the basket. Rudy Gay finished with 29 points.

Ben Gordon was the Bulls’ best player. Gordon got off to a great start, scoring 18 points in the first quarter. However, he picked up his third foul early in the second quarter and only played 8 minutes in the first half. With Gordon on the bench, the Grizzlies fought their way back into the game and the Bulls never quite recovered. Gordon finished with 26 points on 8-15 shooting. The best part about Gordon’s game tonight was his 7 of 11 shooting from three point land. Gordon has struggled with his three point shot for most of the season, so if Gordon gets back to his usual great three point shooting, the Bulls will be much more difficult to beat than they currently have been.

Derrick Rose had a solid game, scoring 12 points and 11 assists. Rose was never able to take over scoring wise, but the Bulls added a new wrinkle into their offense, and that is the return to drive and kick basketball. Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon were very effective tonight in the kick and drive offense, Rose passing it to Gordon and Gordon converting for three.

One of the Bulls problems was that Luol Deng took too many shots in the fourth. It seemed as though Rose and Gordon hardly had the ball in their hands in the fourth to create offense. Luol Deng still had a solid game offensively, scoring 19 points on 7-17 shooting. Not great, but better than what he was doing. Deng had a lot of trouble guarding Rudy Gay and Hakim Warrick though.

Larry Hughes had another solid game, scoring 12 points on 4-7 shooting and playing within the offense for the most part.

The Bulls need to address the front court problem asap. They are not getting good offense, defense, or rebounding from the front court, which makes it clear that changes need to be made. When Michael Ruffin is back from his injury, they should work him into the rotation. Also, I would like to see if Thabo Sefolosha could play the power forward similar to Boris Diaw in Phoenix a few years ago. Sefolosha has always been a good rebounder, and his long arms might make this possible. Sefolosha could potentially create some mismatches offensively at the power forward position.

O.J. Mayo didn’t have a very good game, scoring only 14 points on 5-14 shooting. He was completely embarrassed by Ben Gordon in the first quarter on the defensive end. Mayo also struggled offensively. This was probably the result of having to expound extra energy to slow down Ben Gordon, as Mayo picked up his defense substantially in the second half.

With this loss, the Bulls fall to 10-12 on the season.