The Chicago Bulls were blown out for the fourth straight game of the circus trip, losing to the Utah Jazz 105-86.

One of the key issues of the game was the Bulls’ lack of depth. The Bulls were without Kirk Hinrich, who was forced out with an injury to his hand. Without him, the Bulls are forced to play Jannero Pargo (or Lindsey Hunter) significant minutes, and neither of those options are conductive to winning basketball.

The other main problem with the Bulls last night was a complete defensive breakdown. The guards failed to close out on shooters, giving the Jazz good looks on their jumpshots. Additionally, the Bulls guards failed to stick with their men in motion. Up front, the Bulls were just as bad. Brad Miller, Taj Gibson, and James Johnson were often out of position, leading to Utah getting a lot of easy looks right at the basket.

The Bulls were completely dominated by the Utah Jazz front court. Carlos Boozer led the way, finishing with 28 points on 12-14 shooting, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 blocks. Mehmet Okur chipped in 14 points on 5-9 shooting, and Paul Millsap finished with 12 points on 6-8 shooting and 9 rebounds.

Conversely, the Bulls front court produced little. Joakim Noah had 6 points on 3-9 shooting and 9 rebounds, Taj Gibson had 8 points on 4-5 shooting, and Brad Miller had 0 points, and James Johnson had 10 points on 3-6 shooting, but all of those came in garbage time.

I think it is time for the Bulls to end the Taj Gibson experiment. He can hit the the midrange jumpshot pretty well, but he is too much of a string bean to compete on the low block.

If the Bulls are going to suck without Tyrus Thomas, which it looks like they will, they might as well take advantage of the opportunity to develop James Johnson. Because of his strength, Johnson is more apt to playing downlow than Gibson. Johnson also could open up the Bulls offense, as he shows a willingness to try to create his own shot, and Johnson would also improve the Bulls’ dismal fastbreak.

That was one of the Bulls biggest problems last night. They could not finish on the fastbreak. Multiple times last night, John Salmons tried to finish on the fastbreak by himself only to be blocked.

Salmons had another bad game, scoring just 9 points on 4-11 shooting.

Ronnie Brewer scored 15 points on the Bulls, many on easy baskets near the rim off of backdoor cuts.

The Jazz also won the point guard matchup. Rose finished with 19 points on 9-17 shooting, while Deron Williams finished with 21 points on 9-11 shooting, and 6 assists.

Luol Deng played pretty well last night, finishing with 26 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 steals. His scoring efficiency wasn’t the greatest, but he played hard all game.

Aaron Gray returned to the court last night for the Bulls.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 6-8 on the season, and their losing streak is extended to four games.

Closing Comments

It looks like the Bulls ship is sinking fast. It was always going to be a challenging season because of the Bulls’ offensive struggles, but now it looks like the season could become a shipwreck, because of their newfound defensive struggles. The Bulls, who were one of the elite defensive teams at the beginning of the season, have now fallen down to the 15th best defensive team, and they have been getting worse with each progressing game. If the Bulls can’t score or defend, this is going to be a very tumultuous season.

The most disheartening part of the game is the Bulls complete lack of effort. Luol Deng and Joakim Noah were the only two players showing any kind of hustle last night.

The other thing that needs to be considered is the extent that Kirk Hinrich. It is unacceptable for the Bulls to trot out Jannero Pargo and Linsdey Hunter for a prolonged period of time. Bulls fans should not accept it, especially when there is a bit of an Answer out there for the Bulls guard problems.

The Chicago Bulls defeated the Utah Jazz 102-101 on a James Johnson buzzer beater in London, at the O2.

James Johnson was phenomenal down the stretch. Johnson gave the Bulls a 100-99 lead after scoring on the fastbreak and converting an and one. The Jazz reclaimed the lead on a pair of Ronnie Price free throws. James Johnson tried to be the hero first, but he missed, but the ball went out of bounds on the Jazz.

Then it was Derrick Byars’ turn. He launched a three from the top of the key, which careened off the rim to the left. Johnson grabbed the rebound, flicked it up, and it was good. The entire O2 erupted in celebration.

In total, James Johnson finished with 18 points 8 rebounds and 2 blocks, a much better outing than his first preseason game with the Bulls. Johnson’s energy level was just a lot higher tonight. I think it might have helped Johnson to have Rose out of the lineup. In the first game, Rose really dominated the ball on the fastbreak, while in this game, Johnson was given more reign to show off his skills in transition. When Rose gets back in the lineup, he will have to adjust to Johnson’s great transition skills.

Kirk Hinrich had an impressive day today. He finished with 11 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists. The best part of Hinrich’s game today is how efficiently Hinrich scored the ball. He finished the game with a 102.5 TS%. Hinrich gains the distinct honor of being the first Bull to score over 10 points in a game on over 100 TS%.

The London favorite, Luol Deng, finished with 18 points, 5 assists, and 2 blocks. This was a fitting game for Deng to have in London. In his time with the Great Britain National Team, Deng always finished with point and assist totals similar to what he did today. It’s nice to see Deng moving around the court so well again. It looks as though he is finally completely healed from not only his stress fracture, but the Achilles and back injuries that hindered him in the 07-08 season as well.

Jannero Pargo finished with 16 points on 6-17 shooting and had 5 assists. Pargo chucked up shots in a disgusting display of shot selection, which could make one long for Larry Hughes even. The one big positive of Pargo’s game tonight is that he was 3-6 from three. If Pargo can hit threes at a 40-50% clip this season, he will have a very valuable place on this team, as three point shooting is key in winning NBA games.

Joakim Noah was good today, scoring 10 points, grabbing 3 rebounds, dishing 4 assists, and blocking an astonishing 6 blocks. You would like to see Noah get after it on the boards better, but his shotblocking was great tonight. We know Noah will rebound come regular season time. What’s especially nice about Noah’s first two games this pre-season, is that you know he was serious when saying he worked hard.

Taj Gibson had another solid showing with 10 points and 5 rebounds. Brad Miller had 8 points and 5 rebounds in his pre-season debut, while showing great fire. Derrick Byars had 7 points on 6-7 shooting.

Deron Williams had 16 points and 3 assists for the Jazz. Paul Millsap had 18 points and 6 rebounds. Wesley Matthews also had 16 points for the Jazz.

The Bulls were without Derrick Rose, John Salmons, and Tyrus Thomas.

Carlos Boozer had a quiet 6 point and 5 rebound night.

With the win, the Bulls improve to 2-0 in pre-season action.

Closing Comments

The NBA needs to make the Bulls vs. Jazz in an obscure location an annual event. Last year, in Assembly Hall, Ben Gordon (13 points in the fourth quarter) and Andres Nocioni (8 points in the fourth quarter) hit clutch shot after clutch shot, and clutch free throw after clutch free throw to lead the Bulls to an exciting 108-105 victory. This year, both are departed, but the results were the same. Different player, different place, same result. It was James Johnson’s turn this time around as he downed the Jazz in the O2 in London.

The Bulls just have a knack for downing the Jazz in an exciting fashion, even in the regular season. Last season, Rose and Gordon combined for 50 points in a game against the Jazz, as they led the Bulls from behind to victory. In an earlier regular season game, Larry Hughes hit a game winner off a rebound, similar to what Johnson did yesterday.

And of course there are those game winners Michael Jordan hit in the finals, as well as those other monster performances.

The two Jazz games are on November 26th and March 9th. Mark your calendars, because they’re going to be good ones.

Also, it was cool to see how much support the Bulls got from the London crowd.

Go Bulls!

Utah Jazz forward Carlos Boozer has been the center of trade rumors this summer. MOUTHPIECESPORTS personality Jillian Jesk talks with Boozer about the possibility of playing in Chicago, his thoughts on Derrick Rose, and what the history of the city means for him as a basketball player.

According to Marc Stein and Chad Ford of ESPN.com, the Bulls would like Jerryd Bayless going to Chicago as part of that rumored three way trade for Carlos Boozer.

One source close to the process on Friday identified two main obstacles to the aforementioned three-way deal. Concerned about the quality of its backcourt rotation if it has to surrender Hinrich with Thomas after losing Ben Gordon in free agency, Chicago would insist that the Blazers surrender young guard Jerryd Bayless, which Portland is reluctant to do.

If it can’t get Bayless, Chicago might still be willing to substitute Tim Thomas for Tyrus Thomas in the deal, but sources say Utah would likely balk if Tyrus Thomas is not included.

I don’t think the Bulls should make it an absolute sticking point to get Bayless back in a trade. The trade, as is, is a good deal for the Bulls. Getting Bayless back on top would just be gravy.

Bayless only averaged 4.3 points a game this past season on 48.7 TS%. That is not the type of player that you hold up a trade of this magnitude for. Bayless was highly heralded coming out of college, but when players do as poorly as he did in his first NBA season, they usually don’t end up amounting to anything significant.

Bayless is a tough player to judge, because while his season average, and scoring efficiency are horrible, he did have some explosive scoring games throughout the season, so there is some reason to believe that he has the potential to be a good player in the NBA.

This article states that if the Blazers are not willing to give up Bayless, then the Bulls will no longer want to give up Tyrus Thomas to the Jazz. The only reason I could see this, is if the Bulls would like to keep Thomas going forward, and just want to use Boozer as a one year guy to keep fan interest up, in what otherwise would be a tough year, and then just let Boozer’s contract expire, while keeping Thomas, and signing a max free agent in 2010 with the rest of the cap space.

According to the Yahoo Sports twitter, the Bulls have not had any conversations in regards to Carlos Boozer.

Bulls haven’t had a “single conversation” about a 3-way deal Blazers and “have nothing going” with Utah about Boozer, Bulls source tells Y!.

Yahoo Sports seems to be the most well connected of all NBA news outlets, so their reports usually have the most credence. So according to this report, a trade looks much more unlikely than the recent ESPN report made it out to be.

According to Marc Stein of ESPN.com, the rumors regarding Carlos Boozer going to the Jazz are real and substantive.

Another major multi-team trade might be looming in the NBA with the Portland Trail Blazers, Utah Jazz and Chicago Bulls having discussed a deal that would be headlined by Carlos Boozer and Kirk Hinrich, according to NBA front-office sources.

Sources stressed to ESPN.com that no deal was imminent Thursday and that both Portland and Utah are still evaluating multiple trade scenarios. But two sources with knowledge of the three-team proposal confirmed that there have been substantive talks regarding a trade that would land Boozer in Chicago, Hinrich in Portland and Tyrus Thomas in Utah.

It looks like this trade has a good chance of actually being completed. It is a good trade for the Bulls, and I think it would have been much better if Gordon was still here.

How would the Bulls look going into 2010 following this trade? Using a $52 million salary cap (in between the high and low figures the NBA released in their recent memo), the Bulls would have $20.504 million in cap space, as Derrick Rose, John Salmons, Luol Deng, Joakim Noah, James Johnson, and Taj Gibson would count against the Bulls’ cap.

That gives the Bulls enough money to sign one max free agent, and then be able to offer a second free agent $5.377 million.

If John Salmons opts out, the Bulls would have $25.839 million in cap space. They could sign a player to the max, and hen offer a second free agent a contract starting at $10.712 million, which works out to a $62.1 million over 5 year ($12.4 million a year) or $81.1 million over 6 year ($13.5 million a year) contract.

The Bulls ideal situation would be for Salmons to opt out. They could then sign a guy like Dwyane Wade or Joe Johnson to the max, and hope the remaining cap would be enough to re-sign Carlos Boozer. There is no guarantee that Boozer would be able to be had at that price, as there’s going to be a lot of teams with cap space looking for a player to spend it on.

If the Bulls could end up with Derrick Rose, Dwyane Wade/Joe Johnson, Luol Deng, Carlos Boozer, Joakim Noah, James Johnson, and Taj Gibson going into the 2010-2011 season, they may be able to compete for a championship.

This depends on a lot of things falling in place. But it would put in place a better championship team building strategy than if the Bulls were to go into 2010 free agency with the roster as is.

There are rumors swirling on Utah radio stations saying that the Bulls may acquire Carlos Boozer in a three way trade that would send Kirk Hinrich to Portland. One of these stations, 1280 The Zone, tweeted about the potential trade.

There would probably be some other components to this trade. Tyrus Thomas going out from the Bulls and Steve Blake going out from the Blazers would be likely components to this trade, I would think.

The purpose of this trade would be to save Utah a lot of money (they would be taking back way less salary than they have going out), so they can re-sign Paul Millsap, while not being deep in the luxury tax.

The trade is a good one for the Bulls. The Bulls would finally have that lowpost scorer they’ve been looking for. The team would be a little thin in the back court.

I would have loved to do this trade, while retaining Gordon, as I feel the team would then have a outsider chance at contending for the championship next year. I think with this trade, the Bulls probably secure a place in the playoffs next year. I don’t think they will be anywhere close to the Cavaliers, Celtics, or Magic though.

The downside of Carlos Boozer, and the reason he is available, is because he has had trouble staying healthy. However, since Carlos Boozer is an expiring contract, the Bulls could essentially trade him in for another player in 2010 free agency.