The Chicago Bulls blew out the Detroit Pistons 120-87 to hand the Detroit Pistons’ their 13th straight loss. The win was the 2nd straight for the Bulls.

Most Bulls fans who bought tickets for this game probably did so to see the Bulls play against Ben Gordon. Those fans were left disappointed, as Gordon was only able to go for 6 minutes before being pulled for the rest of the game. Gordon suffered a thigh injury in the Pistons loss against the 76ers, and he re-aggravated the injury in the second quarter of tonight’s game. On a fastbreak, Gordon was running side by side with Jannero Pargo, and when Pargo made a burst towards the basket, Gordon was unable to keep up as his thigh tightened up. Gordon was then pulled from the game.

Without Gordon, the Pistons are a pretty pathetic team. Coming into this game, all five of the Pistons’ starters had a true shooting percentage of less than 50%. That changed coming into tonight’s game, as the Pistons were without Tayshuan Prince and Jason Maxiell was sent to the bench. Starting in their place, was Jonas Jerebko and Chris Wilcox, two players with scoring efficiencies greater than 50 TS%.

But the change to the lineup did very little, as the Pistons starting lineup, featuring Rodney Stuckey, Richard Hamilton, Jonas Jerebko, Chris Wilcox, and Ben Wallace is still pathetic. The Pistons fell behind the Bulls in the second quarter, and once the Bulls got up double digits, the Pistons seemed to quit exerting effort on both sides of the ball, allowing the Bulls to continue to pile on the points.

The Bulls took advantage of the Pistons’ lack of defense, converting easily on the good looks the Pistons were providing. Luol Deng led the way for the Bulls with 27 points on 13-18 shooting, and Derrick Rose had a great game as well, scoring 22 points on 11-13 shooting to go along with his 9 assists.

Joakim Noah got another double double, finishing with 16 points, 11 rebounds, and 4 assists. John Salmons gave the Bulls 17 points on 6-10 shooting off the bench. Salmons has just played great ever since being sent to the bench.

Jannero Pargo got some minutes tonight, first getting in the game during the second quarter. Pargo finished with 9 points on 4-10 shooting and 3 assists, and also turned the ball over 4 times. Pargo did a poor job managing the offense when he was out there, and turned the ball over a lot.

Richard Hamilton finished with 17 points on 6-11 shooting, and really frustrated Kirk Hinrich tonight, drawing foul after foul on him.

Jonas Jerebko finished with 15 points and 9 rebounds, starting in place of Tayshaun Prince. Jerebko is really active, moving off the ball, and going after rebounds.

Rodney Stuckey finished with 11 points, and Chris Wilcox had 10 points.

Charlie Villanueva really struggled tonight, scoring 4 points on 1-10 shooting.

James Johnson accomplished the impressive feat of fouling out in only 8 minutes.

The Bulls did a good job tonight of beating up on a bad team. The best stat of the game was that the Bulls shot 8-19 from the three point line. The more and more the Bulls make their threes, the more potent their offense will become.

With the win tonight, the Bulls improve to 16-20 on the season.

The Chicago Bulls defeated the Detroit Pistons 98-87 in Detroit, to extend their win streak to three games.

The Bulls took control of the game early behind Derrick Rose. Early in the game, Rose was making his jumpshots, and either finishing on the fastbreak, or drawing a foul on a Detroit player, and then converting at the free throw line. Rose did stall out a bit towards the end of the game, but overall, he played solidly, finishing with 22 points on 7-18 shooting, along with 4 assists and 4 rebounds.

Joakim Noah provided the Bulls a strong presence on the glass, grabbing 21 points. Noah also scored 15 points in the game, to put together another double double. One point of concern was Noah’s 8 turnovers, but when you are scoring and rebounding as Noah did tonight, the turnovers are forgivable.

The Bulls really started to pull away from the Pistons in this game behind John Salmons and Tyrus Thomas.

John Salmons finished with 17 points on 6-10 shooting, to put together one of his better games of the season.

Tyrus Thomas was the main difference maker in the game. Thomas attacked the Pistons defense relentlessly, drawing foul after foul on the Piston’s players. Thomas finished the game with 19 points and 7 rebounds. Thomas should have earned a place back in the starting lineup after this game.

The Bulls are now 3-0 since getting Tyrus Thomas back in the lineup, and seem to be improving as a team. The Pistons on the other hand, are going in the opposite direction, losing their ninth straight game.

The Pistons problem is that they have no clear pecking order of who the offense should run through, and they have too many selfish players who are ineffective on the offensive end, notably Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, and Charlie Villanueva.

Hamilton finished with 7 points on 2-13 shooting, Prince 11 points on 5-16 shooting, and Villanueva 10 points on 4-14 shooting.

The best solution to the Pistons’ problems would be to bench Richard Hamilton, and move Ben Gordon into the starting lineup in his place. Gordon is so much better than anyone else on the Pistons, that it is just silly to watch him continually coming off the bench for inferior players, such as Rip Hamilton. The Pistons should then run their offense through Gordon, as he is the one player they can depend on to draw double teams, while also scoring the ball efficiently.

Gordon finished this game scoring 21 points on 59.1 TS%.

Gordon got some help from Rodney Stuckey scoring the ball. Stuckey scored 22 points on 53.3 TS%, while fighting through ankle injuries. Stuckey rolled his ankle twice in the game, but continued to play through the injuries.

Kirk Hinrich struggled scoring the ball once again, shooting 1-6, but he did grab 6 rebounds and 6 assists, and played good defense on Ben Gordon for some short stretches.

Luol Deng was largely invisible, scoring 7 points on 3-10 shooting.

Former Bull Ben Wallace finished with 9 rebounds and 2 blocks in just 21 minutes, while playing through an ankle injury. The Piston’s defense looked noticeably worse when Wallace was out of the game.

With the win, the Bulls improve to 13-17 on the season.

Ben Gordon appeared on ESPN First Take to discuss him signing with the Pistons. Here is a recap of what he said in the interview.

• The Bulls didn’t pursue him much once free agency started.  Once free agency started, Detroit showed him the most interest.
• Him and Charlie Villanueva visited together, and right form the jump, they realized that Detroit was the place to be.
• It is accurate that the Bulls never made an offer.
• He is not sure why the Bulls never made an offer.  It is what it is.  He’s moving on and happy with his decision.
• He wasn’t surprised that Chicago didn’t make an offer,after how things went the last two summers.  His whole goal this offseason was to get things wrapped up and move on from this issue.  It just so happened that the team he was most excited about palying for also pursued him the hardest.
• He would probably choose Detroit over Chicago, even if the Bulls had made an offer.
• His decision was about winning, not about money.  It was about trying to put himself in a position to win a ring.  Just watching Joe Dumars over the years and how he assembled teams, Ben thinks he is one of the best, if not the best, at putting together a team full of guys who can really play.  Trying to compete for a championship is definitely one of his priorities.
• It was fun having Charlie there.  It reminded him of when Charlie came for his recruiting trip to UConn.  Kind of like the same thing all over again.  He has known Charlie since they were 12 and 13, playing basketball in Detroit.
• He is not going to ask Joe Dumars to let him wear #4, which is retired for Dumars.  He is going to stick with #7 in Detroit.  It’s a coincidence that his old number is  retired wherever he goes.

The Chicago Bulls defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 117 to 102 at the United Center tonight to move into the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference.

Ben Gordon was the real star tonight, finishing with 34 points, 7 assists, and 4 steals. Just a great overall game. Gordon really got going in the second quarter, hitting three after three en route to 21 first half points. Gordon went 4-6 from three point range, and is just 23 three pointers away from breaking Nick Van Exel’s record for most threes by a player in their first five years in the NBA.

Derrick Rose was great as well, finishing with 27 points and 6 assists. Almost all of Rose’s points came right at the basket on layups. Granted Milwaukee doesn’t have any shotblocking resistance inside, but Rose was finishing around the hoop better than he has all season long.

Kirk Hinrich had an interesting stat game tonight. He finished with 11 points on a super efficient 123.9 TS%. Well done.

John Salmons also did very well, scoring 21 points. He’s a much better starting small forward than Luol Deng.

Brad Miller went around in the first half like a drunken sailor, missing shots and fumbling the ball. He picked up his play in the second half though, and finished with 12 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists.

Tyrus Thomas was really bad tonight. He was taking a lot of bad shots, and not playing that good of defense. His counterpart, Joakim Noah, had another good rebounding game, finishing with 13 rebounds.

Thomas actually broke the Bulls franchise record for most consecutive games with a block. The new record is 24 consecutive games.

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute had 21 points and 11 rebounds for the Bucks. A lot of his points came inside, and were because of some poor inside help defense by our bigs.

Richard Jefferson scored 27 points, but he did it inefficiently, taking 23 shots.

Ramon Sessions had 20 points and 11 assists and Charlie Villanueva added in 19 points.

This was just a nice all around win for the Bulls. When you’re playing a team you are in direct competition for in a playoff race, you have to beat them, and the Bulls did that tonight. This was really a must win game, as the Bulls will embark on a tough set a games, where they will have to play rlando, New Orleans, Boston, and the Lakers, after this.

The win gives the Bulls the tiebreaker over the Bucks as well, as the Bulls win the season series against their old coach 3-1.

With the win, the Bulls improve to 29-34 on the season. The Bulls now are the sole possessor of the eighth spot on the East. Next up is catching Philadelphia at seventh. The Bulls are currently 2.0 games behind Philadlephia.

The Chicago Bulls defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 113 to 104 in a battle for the Eighth playoff seed. The Bulls entered the game 2.5 games behind the Bucks for the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference and left the Bradley Center trailing just 1.5 games.

The Bulls only had four players on their bench tonight: Lindsey Hunter, Aaron Gray, Thabo Sefolosha, and Kirk Hinrich. The small bench was a result of the Bulls trading Andres Nocioni, Drew Gooden, Cedric Simmons, and Michael Ruffin earlier in the day.

Kirk Hinrich played great in what might be his last game as a Chicago Bull. Kirk Hinrich had 31 points on 8-14 shooting, also going 5-8 from three point range. Hinrich really was the guy leading the Bulls to victory tonight, having a nice fourth quarter scoring the basketball. Hinrich also had 4 steals in the game.

The referees swallowed their whistles a lot tonight. A no call when Hinrich was hit by Charlie Villanueva when driving to the basket caused Hinrich to become heated. Hinrich used his anger positively, going on a scoring barrage just after this.

If Kirk Hinrich leaves the Bulls tomorrow, he was able to sneak in one last milestone. On his first three of the night, Kirk Hinrich passed up Scottie Pippen on the Bulls all time career three point list. Kirk Hinrich, who is at 669 three pointers as a Bull is now all alone at second, only behind Ben Gordon, who has 716 three pointers as a Bull.

Hinrich’s backcourt mates, Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon added in 18 points each. Rose had 9 assists to go along with his 18 points. Rose was really sloppy with the ball tonight, committing 7 turnovers.

Ben Gordon had his 18 points on just 6-15, making his offensive effort just mediocre efficiency wise. He had some nice moves to set up his shots, he just wasn’t hitting a lot of them tonight.

Luol Deng added in 21 points on 9-17 shooting. Deng started off the game strong, scoring 16 points in the first half, but really cooled off in the second half. The problem with Deng is a chucker. Like Nocioni, who was just traded, Deng puts a shot up nearly every time he touches the ball. Deng isn’t an offensive artisan like Ben Gordon, who works hard to get good looks to score the basketball. Deng instead just takes whatever shots he can get. When they’re going in, all is good. When they’re not, Deng looks like a scrub. This lack of good shot selection is the reason for Deng’s low true shooting percentage this season.

Richard Jefferson scored 32 points in just 28 minutes tonight. Deng and Sefolosha really weren’t doing that great of a job guarding Jefferson. The Bulls were probably at their best defensively at the three spot when they went to the three guard line up and Hinrich guarded Jefferson.

Charlie Villanueva scored 17 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Villanueva made a lot of body contact with Bulls players tonight, but the referees just let a lot of that slide. Some would complain about the officiating, but that is good physical basketball.

The Bulls front court was solid tonight. Joakim Noah had 4 points 9 rebounds and 1 block. Tyrus Thomas had 8 points 4 rebounds 2 blocks and 2 steals. Nothing special tonight, but they played good interior defense.

Ramon Sessions added in 12 points for the Bucks.

Both Vinny Del Negro and Scott Skiles were hit with technicals tonight.

This is the Bulls final game before the trade deadline, which is tomorrow at 2 PM CT.

With this win, the Chicago Bulls improve to 24-30 on the season.

The Chicago Bulls fell to the Milwaukee Bucks 97 to 90 at the Bradley Center early tonight.

The Bulls got a great performance out of their perimeter tonight. Derrick Rose, Ben Gordon, Larry Hughes, and Luol Deng combined for 74 of the Bulls’ 90 points. Unfortunately, the Bulls only got 16 points out of their front court.

It should be clear what the team’s problem is. It’s definitely not Ben Gordon and likewise, definitely not Derrick Rose. It’s not Larry Hughes, and not really Luol Deng either, although he hasn’t been spectacular. It’s the horrible big men. Paxson needs to make some kind of trade soon, because the Bulls’ big men have few redeeming qualities.

Ben Gordon was especially spectacular tonight. He didn’t have a great overall game, but he scored 15 straight points for the Bulls in the third quarter to rally the Bulls back into the game by himself. Gordon finished with 22 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists. Gordon has been rebounding the ball very well as of late, similar to what Jason Kidd does, albeit, not as good. This might not be a bad thing, given how bad our big men are at rebounding. Gordon also did a solid job on Michael Redd, limiting him to 13 points on 6-11 shooting.

Scott Skiles did a good job adjusting to Gordon’s hot scoring. Skiles began to meet Gordon with double teams and switched Luc Mbah a Moute onto Gordon, which helped slow him down.

Luol Deng had a good game for the first time in a long while. Hopefully this wasn’t just a one time occasion, in which Deng wanted to have a big game against his former coach. Deng had 21 points on 9-14 shooting, although he did his usual fourth quarter disappearing act. Disappearing act or not, any production out of Deng like this is great. This is the player we expected Luol Deng to be all year. It is pretty simple, Luol Deng has to make his jumpshots to be an effective player.

Derrick Rose was solid tonight. Rose finished with 18 points, 9 assists, and 4 steals. Unfortunately, Rose was sloppy with the ball tonight, turning it over 5 times. A lot of Rose’s assists had nothing to do with anything he was doing, but rather he got them by passing to Gordon off screens who was on fire in the third. Rose did have two very nice alley-oop passes though; one to Deng and one to Thomas.

Larry Hughes had 13 points off the bench, and did a good job from long range, hitting 3 of 4 three point shots.

Luke Ridnour had a solid game for Milwaukee, scoring 12 points and dishing 10 assists. Richard Jefferson added in 21 points.

Charlie Villanueva and Dan Gadzuric tore up the Bulls front court. Villanueva had 23 points and 10 rebounds and Dan Gadzuric had 11 points, 14 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Gadzuric did a good job of altering some of Rose’s layup attempts.

As usual, the Bulls need major front court changes before they can be a consistently good team.

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.