The Chicago Bulls were blown out by the Portland Trail Blazers 122-98 at the Rose Garden last night.

The Blazers built up a formidable 15 point lead at halftime, but the Bulls closed the lead down to 4, making it a 77-73 game with 3:53 remaining in the game. From there on out the Bulls would be outscored 45-25 en route to an embarassing blowout loss.

The Bulls really lost this game up front. The Blazers big front court was too much for the Bulls. Greg Oden especially gave the Bulls problems. Oden finished with 24 points on 7-8 shooting, grabbing 12 rebounds, and blocking 2 shots.

The highlight of the game for the Bulls was two posterizations of Greg Oden. First by Joakim Noah, and then by Derrick Rose. However, those plays just highlight the defense that Oden was playing last night. He was out there challenging shots, and that should be applauded, as his defense was huge last night.

LaMarcus Aldridge also had a big game, putting up 24 points and 13 rebounds.

The Blazers front court was simply too big for the Bulls’. This led the Bulls to get killed at both big spots. This brings up a question of whether Joakim Noah will be big enough to play the center spot longterm. I think that Noah has done a good job at center so far this year, but I think he would be better if he was allowed to play power forward, as he would then no longer be at a size disadvantage every game.

Luol Deng led the Bulls in scoring with 25 points on 9-14 shooting. This was probably Deng’s best game of the season. What stood out to most was that Deng went 2-2 from three point land in the game. If Deng actually can hit the threes, than he needs to start taking them in volume. It will raise his scoring efficiency, and it will improve the Bulls offense, by spreading out the defense.

John Salmons also had a good game, finishing with 22 points on 8-15 shooting. Salmons was very effective shooting the midrange jumper.

Derrick Rose finished with 14 points on 7-14 shooting.

For the Blazers, Brandon Roy put in 18 points, Andre Miller 16, and Rudy Fernandez 13.

Jannero Pargo gave the Bulls a bit of an offensive spark off the bench, scoring 15 points in 13 minutes.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 6-7 on the season.

Closing Comments

This is the Bulls’ third double digit loss in a row, but is there any reason to be concerned? All three losses were against good Western Conference opponents on the road. In addition to this, the Blazers have been a matchup nightmare for the Bulls over the past year or so, mainly because of the size and length of the Blazer front court. Last year, when the Bulls played the Blazers on the road, they suffered their worst loss in franchise history, losing by 42 points. When they met again at the United Center, the Bulls lost by 14 points. In reality, this was a game the Bulls were probably going to lose. It’s not time to worry yet. However, if the Bulls continue their losing into Milwaukee and against Detroit, then it will be time to worry.

According to TMZ.com, Derrick Rose is among a set of players that is suing Topps over only being partially paid.

NBA star Tracy McGrady’s autograph is over 16x more valuable than fellow baller Deandre Jordan’s — this courtesy of a lawsuit filed against a trading card company.

Nine NBAers — McGrady, Jordan, Brandon Roy, Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, D.J. Augustin, T.J. Ford, Antawn Jamison, Anthony Randolph and DeAndre Jordan — are suing Topps, claiming they were all only partially paid for their autograph deals.

The most interesting part … how much Topps paid per autograph.

McGrady — $50
Rose — $25
Roy — $18
Westbrook — $10
Jamison — $10
Ausgustin — $8
Randolph — $7
Ford — $6
Jordon — $3

It’s interesting that Tracy McGrady is getting paid the most out of these players for an autograph, even though a Derrick Rose or Brandon Roy autograph are likely more wanted. McGrady must have had a longer term deal with Topps to be making more than Rose.

Derrick Rose was named the NBA’s Rookie of the Year a few weeks ago, and this past Saturday, he was given a chance to celebrate it, at a party thrown by Adidas. At the party, Derrick Rose said that he had a good year.

Photo taken by Brian Kersey

Rose was also a unanimous selection to the NBA’s All Rookie First Team.

After celebrating his Rookie of the Year award, Rose got another award, as he was named the Sporting News’ 2008-2009 Rookie of the Year. The voting for the award was done by 231 players.

Rose dominated the voting, receiving 166 votes. O.J. Mayo finished in second, with just 24 votes.

Rose also received some praise from fellow Rookie of the Year recipients, Brandon Roy and Amare Stoudemire.  Amare Stoudemire spent time breaking down the things him and Rose had in common, will they be adding both being Chicago Bulls in common?

According to Bulls.com, Ben Gordon has been named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week.

NEW YORK, April 13, 2009 - The Chicago Bulls’ Ben Gordon and the Portland Trail Blazers’ Brandon Roy today were named the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for games played Monday, April 6, through Sunday, April 12.

Gordon led the playoff-bound Bulls to a 3-0 week, averaging 26.7 points on .475 shooting from the field, .520 shooting from three-point range and a perfect 11-for-11 from the foul line. Gordon’s best effort came on April 11, as the guard tallied 39 points on 7-of-12 shooting from distance as Chicago beat the visiting Charlotte Bobcats 113-106.

Roy led the Trail Blazers to a 4-0 mark, including three road wins and two wins over Western Conference playoff teams (San Antonio and L.A. Lakers). Roy averaged 22.3 points, 5.5 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 1.5 steals. He helped rally the Trail Blazers from 18-point and 19-point deficits, respectively, on April 7 at Memphis and April 8 at San Antonio during eventual Portland wins.

Here is a recap of the week for Gordon and Roy:

Ben Gordon, Chicago Bulls

* April 7 vs. New York: Tallied 17 points and five rebounds as the Bulls defeated the Knicks 110-103.
* April 9 vs. Philadelphia: Posted 24 points, seven rebounds and three assists during Chicago’s 113-99 win over the 76ers.
* April 11 vs. Charlotte: Poured in 39 points on 13-of-25 shooting as the Bulls beat the Bobcats 113-106.

Brandon Roy, Portland Trail Blazers

* April 7 @ Memphis: Collected 24 points, three rebounds, four assists and three steals in a 96-93 win over the Grizzlies.
* April 8 @ San Antonio: Tallied 26 points and six assists in a 95-83 win over the Spurs.
* April 10 vs. L.A. Lakers: Totaled 24 points, eight assists and four rebounds as Portland topped the Lakers 106-98.
* April 11 @ L.A. Clippers: Scored 15 points and added four assists, three rebounds and two steals in an 87-72 win over the Clippers.

Other nominees for the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week were Atlanta’s Josh Smith, Charlotte’s Raymond Felton, Cleveland’s LeBron James, Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry, Houston’s Luis Scola, Miami’s Dwyane Wade and New Orleans’ Chris Paul.

Good job Ben! Keep up the good work.

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.

The Chicago Bulls lost to the Portland Trail Blazers 116-74 yesterday at the Rose Garden.

The Bulls’ problem remains the same, their front court is horrible. Whenever the Bulls managed to get stops, which was seldom, the big men wouldn’t box out allowing Portland’s big men to get offensive rebounds giving Portland a second shot to score.

Joel Pryzbilla had 14 points, 9 rebounds, and three blocks. LaMarcus Aldridge had 11 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Greg Oden had 11 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 blocks off the bench.

Ben Gordon had a bad game again, scoring 11 points and 3 assists, but he was the best player for the Bulls today. Gordon started to get a little hot during the 2nd quarter of the game. Ben Gordon currently has a 27 free throw streak going.

For the first time in his career, Derrick Rose failed to score in double figures. Derrick Rose finished the game with 6 points, 1 assist, and 3 turnovers. Rose had trouble dealing with shotblockers and got 3 of his shots blocked. Rose adjusted on one possession, hitting a fall away floater in the third quarter.

Brandon Roy scored 20 points for the Blazers.

There is not a whole lot that can be read from this game, except the obvious, that our front court is horrible and that we need to make a trade for a good big men.

These losses on the circus trip should not be taken entirely seriously as we’ve seen Bulls teams bounce back from bad circus trips in the past few years. Our model using all of the post-Jordan years predicted the Bulls only winning one game on the circus trip. The model using just the Gordon-Deng years predicted that we would win just two games on the circus trip. The Bulls might just have some mental block that is keeping them from playing good ball on the circus trip.

The Bulls next game is Friday against the Golden State Warriors.