The Chicago Bulls have been blownout in two consecutive games. First Friday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers, 101-87, and then last night against the Toronto Raptors

Cleveland Cavaliers 101 vs. Chicago Bulls 87

In this first game, the Bulls held tough with the Cavs in the first half, trailing by only 1 point at the end of the first half.

The Bulls were able to hang tough with the Cavs because of a strong first half from Taj Gibson, who finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds.

In the second half, it was all Cavs as they went on to the easy victory. The victory was so easy for the Cavs, it caused Lebron James to begin dancing in the middle of the game.

This caused a verbal altercation between Joakim Noah and Lebron James, in which Noah shouted to James, according to Ric Bucher, “This is so ****ing old, you’re a b**ch.”

It is good to see this type of fire in Joakim Noah, and to stand up for his team.

Lebron James had a good game as usual, finishing with 23 points and 11 assists. James made it difficult for Deng to find open shots, limiting him to 11 points on 4-9 shooting.

Daniel Gibson finished with 15 points on 7-9 shooting.

There were bad games all around for the Bulls. John Salmons finished with 12 points on 5-12 shooting, Derrick Rose had 13 points on 5-16 shooting, and Joakim Noah had 7 points on 2-7 shooting and 10 rebounds.

For the Cavs, Shaquille O’neal had 8 points on 4-5 shooting, Mo Williams had 15 points and 7 assists, and Anderson Varejao had 10 points.

With the loss, the Bulls fell to 7-10 on the season.

Toronto Raptors 110 at Chicago Bulls 78

Vinny Del Negro rested his starters in the fourth quarter against the Cavs, but that proved to be useless as they were getting outplayed badly from the get go by the Toronto Raptors.

Joakim Noah played well, scoring 9 points on 3-3 shooting and grabbing 7 rebounds in 18 minutes. He was ejected in the third quarter after receiving his second technical foul.

I think this will be a hard season for Noah, as the Bulls are going to get embarrassed in a lot of their losses as a result of a lack of ability to score the ball, and I think Noah is going to take it hard.

John Salmons was solid too, scoring 13 points on 6-12 shooting, but the rest of the team played poorly. Derrick Rose had 9 points on 3-9 shooting, and Luol Deng had 9 points on 4-9 shooting.

Chris Bosh was dominant for the Raptors, posting 25 points and 12 rebounds.

Four other Raptors scored in double figures. Demar Derozan finished with 11 points, Marco Bellinelli with 15 points, Antoine Wright with 10 points, and Rasho Nesterovic with 12 points.

The most embarrassing moment of the game came for the Bulls at the third quarter, when Jarrett Jack decided to pick up the ball and tie his shoe. None of the Bulls made any attempt to steal the ball from Jack.

With this embarrassing loss, the Bulls fall to 7-11 on the season.

Closing Comments

This season looks like it is going to take a dip towards the ugly. The Bulls are a team that does nothing well on the basketball court. They can’t score, and after a strong defensive start, their defense can no longer stop anyone. Following the loss to the Raptors, the Bulls were ranked 27th in Offense and 19th in Defense, down from 15th in Offense and 18th in Defense last season. In losing Ben Gordon, the Bulls made themselves one of the worst offensive teams in the league while also making no improvements on the defensive end. That is a recipe for disaster, and that is the exact word that can be used to describe the Bulls season thus far.

The Chicago Bulls let a victory slip away tonight in Indiana.  The Bulls had a sizeable lead in the fourth, but Indiana stormed back, and took a 105 to 103 lead on a Danny Granger three.  Ben Gordon then came back down and hit a tough guarded shot to tie the game up at 105 a piece.

The Pacers then ran down the clock and T.J. Ford drove on Derrick Rose and fell back for a tough fade away jumper which he swished through the net.  The Bulls tried to answer with Ben Gordon, who was covered tightly by Danny Granger.  Gordon pushed off Granger with his left arm and lifted for a jumpshot, but came up short of the rim.  Tyrus Thomas could have potentially tipped it in if he wasn’t bumped by Brad Miller.

The Bulls lost for two main reasons.  Firstly, Ben Gordon couldn’t make his shots.  Secondly, the Bulls didn’t play any defense.

Ben Gordon just had one of those nights in which nothing went in.  The announcers mentioned that Gordon had a wrist injury, that could have been why.  He missed quite a few wide open threes, all of which would have been the difference in the game.  He finished with 12 points on 5-18 shooting.  Really bad game from Gordon.

Despite that, the Bulls were still in the game.  The problem was that the Bulls didn’t play any defense.  The Pacers were just getting whatever they wanted against the Bulls non-existent defense.  If Gordon was on his game today, the Bulls offense would have been more than enough to make up for the Bulls lack of defense, but he wasn’t, and their defense really hurt them tonight.

Danny Granger ripped the Bulls for 31 points.  This one isn’t too bad, because Danny Granger is a great scorer, and the Bulls were playing Kirk Hinrich heavily at the small forward position.  But T.J. Ford, who finished with 22 points and 9 assists.  Derrick Rose has to put more effort into defense, and actually make a guy work for his points.  T.J. Ford was able to get wherever he wanted on the court, which allowed him to either score at ease, or set up his teammates for easy baskets.

Josh McRoberts had 10 points in the game, which is unacceptable.  He is horrible.  When you’re giving up that many points to McRoberts, you know your team has defensive problems.

For the Bulls, Derrick Rose was great on the offensive end.  He asserted himself from the beginning tonight.  He finished with 24 points, 6 assists, and 11 rebounds.  Very nice offensive and rebounding effort from Rose tonight.  Hopefully he comes out with this type of aggressiveness more often.

Kirk Hinrich played pretty well too.  He finished with an efficient 20 points, 7 assists, and 7 rebounds.  Overall good game from Kirk.  He could have done a little bit better job on Granger, make him work a little harder for his shots, but you can’t really single Kirk out for this when the entire team played poorly defensively and Hinrich was guarding a bigger player.  But then you look at it again and realize that Kirk Hinrich is the defensive leader of this team.  If you’re leader is mailing it in on the defensive end for the night, the other players will probably follow, especially on a team like the Bulls.  Hinrich also missed 2 clutch free throws that would have helped the Bulls in getting the win.

Tyrus Thomas had 20 points and 2 blocks, but only had 1 rebound.  Thomas needs to rebound the ball.  That goes for the Bulls as a whole.  They let the Pacers get a second chance after they failed to secure a rebound, which set up another posession for the Pacers in which Ford hit the game winner. The Bulls have had quite a few games where they gave the other team a second change to beat or tie them, and this is really costing them.

Brad Miller had a nice little game.  14 points and 8 assists.  He was setting his teammates up well.

Tim Thomas had 11 points on 4-6 shooting off the bench.

Brandon Rush had 11 points and Jarrett Jack had 10 points.

Joakim Noah only played 19 minutes from some unknown reason tonight.

The Bulls were without John Salmons tonight.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 36-40 on the season.

Closing Comments

The Bulls blew this one tonight. Missed free throws, lack of rebounding, and lots of missed shots by one particular player, and a lack of defense from everyone tonight cost us. These are the games we have to win. Yes, it’s a road game, but it’s a team who has been effectively eliminated from the playoffs, so you need to win. The Bulls probably would have won with John Salmons tonight, but that doesn’t matter, because he didn’t play, and other players had to step up. Now the Bulls are only 1 game ahead of the Bobcats, who beat the Lakers tonight, and their playoff spot is in question. The Bobcats have the tiebreaker against the Bulls as a result of winning the season series. This is a little unfair, as it penalizes the Bulls for only playing the Bobcats once at home this season, while the Bobcats got two home games against the Bulls.

What do the Bulls have to do now? Take matters into their own hands and win. Beat a bad New Jersey team at home, beat a bad New York team at home. Beat Philadelphia at home. And they most definitely better beat the Charlotte Bobcats at home. Who knows, maybe when they’re playing the Bobcats they will have the chance to knock them out of the playoff picture. Then go out and beat the Pistons on the road. And then they have the Raptors at home to end the season. Win that game, don’t blow the season then and there.

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Tonight was an example of why I like John Salmons on the Bulls so much. Ben Gordon will have bad nights, although not usually like this. It is tough for the Bulls to win when Gordon has a game like this. But with Salmons out there scoring, the Bulls can usually weather a bad game like this from Gordon as long as Salmons is on his game.

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The main reason for this loss is the defense, and that can only be blamed on the coach. The Bulls defense seems to get worse and worse with every passing game. You’re defense isn’t this bad this late in the season if it’s not for bad coaching.

It looks like I am going to be calling for the firing of Vinny Del Negro after the season. I made the challenge to Del Negro a few weeks ago that if he doesn’t get the Bulls to .500, or win a playoff series with a losing record, then he deserves to be fired. Both don’t appear to be happening this season, therefore, Del Negro will probably deserve to be fired.

Bad loss from the Bulls tonight that mainly stemmed form bad coaching from Del Negro.

The Chicago Bulls took on the Indiana Pacers at the United Center today in a matinee game.

The Bulls started off looking good, keeping it a tie game at 12 going into the first timeout. But in the first quarter, Brandon Rush started heating up, hitting shot after shot as the Bulls stalled out. The Pacers would pull away with a double digit lead.

But then Ben Gordon came back into the game and answered Rush’s scoring attack to get the Bulls back into the game. Then Brad Miller joined in with a scoring tear of his own as the Bulls reclaimed the lead. The Bulls trailed going into the half 58 to 54 after T.J. Ford hit a falling scoop shot at the buzzer.

The Bulls would pull away a little bit, but the Pacers would reel them back in and even take a small lead. But behind two clutch three pionters from John Salmons, the Bulls were able to seal the win and get out of this game with a win, beaing the Pacers 112 to 106.

Ben Gordon led the Bulls in scoring with 25 points. Gordon also had 5 assists, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals. He just played a nice overall game, and he was key in getting the Bulls back in the game.

John Salmons had a steady 22 points. He played good throughout the game and came up big in the clutch.

Tyrus Thomas was probably the best overall Bull today, finishing with 18 points, 8 rebounds, 7 blocks. However, he did come up 2 rebounds and 3 blocks short of Reggie Miller’s desired triple double. He was blocking a lot of shots, and those blocked shots really saved the Bulls today in this close game. He really didn’t make any mistakes today.

Derrick Rose was also close to a triple double, finishing with 16 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists. He of course isn’t expected to average a triple double by Reggie Miller, so unlike Thomas, this game isn’t a disappointment for Rose. Rose didn’t seem to be overbearing in the game, it was really a quiet near triple double.

The Pacers got all of their scoring from the pair of Danny Granger and Brandon Rush. Danny Granger led all scorers in the game with 32 points and Brandon Rush added in 29 points. That was a career high for the rookie. It wasn’t that they were picking apart the Bulls, they were simply just making their shots.

Brad Miller had 17 points. He abused the Pacers’ big men with his crafty moves.

T.J. Ford had 14 points and 6 assists off the bench. Jarrett Jack, who got the start at point guard had 10 points and 9 assists.

Jeff Foster had 18 rebounds in the game. Foster had a really nice screen on Ben Gordon that sent Gordon to the ground. Of course this worked to Indiana’s detriment when Gordon was able to knock the ball to create havoc that led to an Indiana turnover, and then Gordon got off on a fastbreak in which the Bulls scored.

With the win, the Bulls improve to 36-38 on the season.

Closing Comments

The Bulls continue to improve their playoff odds with every passing day. The team is playing hard and beating the teams that they are supposed to be. The Bulls need to continue to go hard for the rest of the season, not just to secure their spot in the playoffs, but to try to secure a better spot. There isn’t a remaining opponent for the Bulls that is a particularly good team. It’s just going to be a matter of the Bulls showing up and winning games they’re supposed to win.

Today was a very good win for the Bulls, hopefully they can keep this up against the Raptors tomorrow afternoon.

The Chicago Bulls fell to the depleted Indiana Pacers this morning 98 to 91 in Indianapolis.

The Bulls lost this game for two clear reasons.  Kirk Hinrich and the rebounding and defense of our big men.

Kirk Hinrich was terrible.  He scored 3 points on 1-7 shooting, and played horrific defense.  Hinrich gave up two straight baskets to Ford late in the fourth, putting the Bulls down 5 with 1:23 left in the game, a deficit they would never be able to overcome.  This is one of those head scratching coaching moves by Del Negro that makes you question whether he should be a head coach or not.  Hinrich should not have played 22 minutes in tonights game, and should not have been out there late in the fourth.

The big men’s defense and rebounding was not that great tonight. They allowed Indiana too many second chance attempts, and gave up too many points to Indiana’s big men.  Troy Murphy had a monster 27 point and 14 rebound game.  He was taking advantage of the Bulls switching on a lot of screens.

The Bulls big men actually were solid overall.  They just lapsed on some plays allowing Indiana to score to easily.  Thomas had 16 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 blocks.  He did pretty well outside of his rebounding today.  Joakim Noah had 5 points, 12 rebounds, and 2 blocks.  Him and Deng both left too many points at the free throw line.

Ben Gordon was by far the Bulls best player again today.  He had 28 points in the game.  22 of those 28 points were in the first half.  Early in the third quarter, Del Negro benched Derrick Rose for Kirk Hinrich, and then Hinrich proceeded to freeze Gordon out of the offense, knocking Gordon off his shot for the rest of the game.

Derrick Rose had a mediocre game.  He only had 3 points on 1-9 shooting, but he also had 8 assists to only 1 turnover, and his defense was much better than Kirk Hinrich’s.

The Pacers guards were outstanding.  Jarrett Jack started the game off hot, scoring 12 points in the first half while abusing Ben Gordon.  But then Gordon figured Jack out in the second half, and held Jack to only 16 points on the game.  T.J. Ford mercilessly abused Kirk Hinrich for 19 points in the game.

All of the new Bulls looked pretty good.  Brad Miller had 6 points and 10 rebounds, and blocked on his first defensive play of the game.  His jumpshot was off tonight, but you can already see that Miller brings a different passing dimension to the Bulls.  While Noah and Thomas can make good interior passes, they don’t move the ball out to the perimeter very well.  Miller sees the perimeter players, and moves the ball out to them well.

John Salmons was good, scoring 12 points on 4-8 shooting.  He gives the Bulls another legitimate three point threat and spaces the floor.  It would be nice to see him get more minutes at the expense of Kirk Hinrich.

Tim Thomas only played 7 minutes, but was solid in them, scoring 5 points on 2-4 shooting. His three point ability makes the Bulls really versatile at the four spot now.

Marquis Daniels had 16 points for the Pacers, and Luol Deng had 13 points and 8 rebounds in the game.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 25-31 on the season, and fall a 1.0 games behind the Milwaukee Bucks for the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference.  The Bucks play later today.

Special Comment: Kirk the Cancer

One of the great things about the trades the Bulls made last Wednesday and Thursday was that they rid the team of a lot of on court cancers.  These are guys who may be okay in the locker room, but who are detrimental to winning team basketball on the court.  That is, Andres Nocioni, who plays no defense and just chucks up a lot of bad shots.  Drew Gooden, who does the same, and Larry Hughes, who also does the same thing.  Unfortunately, John Paxson has left one of these players on the team, and he goes by the name Kirk Hinrich.

Hinrich is a completely different type of on court cancer than Nocioni, Hughes, and Gooden were.  He is a much more dangerous breed of cancer, as he plays the point guard spot, and controls the entire flow of the offense.  What exactly is Hinrich’s problem?  He only cares about himself.

What Kirk Hinrich did today was the single most shameful act done by a Chicago Bull all season.  For some reason, two minutes into the third quarter, Del Negro decided to sub Kirk Hinrich in for Derrick Rose.  Once in the game, Hinrich froze Gordon out of the offense.  Ben Gordon, who had 22 points in the first half on 9-11 shooting, did not take a single shot in his original 5 minute, 21 second stint in the third quarter.

This is not the first time this has happened, it’s been going on all year.  Why does Kirk Hinrich choose not to pass to the Bulls leading scorer?  Because for Kirk Hinrich, the only thing that matters is Kirk Hinrich.

Yes Kirk Hinrich, all Chicago Bulls fans know that you wrote down that you wanted to be the starting point guard of the Chicago Bulls when you were younger.  But those days are over, Derrick Rose will be the starting point guard of the Bulls until you retire.  What we are seeing is a selfish Kirk Hinrich trying to keep his spot on the Bulls by making his competition, Ben Gordon look worse.

If the Bulls choose to keep Ben Gordon, which they would be insane not to at this point, then that means the end of Kirk Hinrich in Chicago.  Hinrich feels threatened by this, and continually freezes Gordon out of the offense.  What needs to happen going forward?  Kirk Hinrich needs to get over himself.

Chicago Bulls basketball isn’t about watching Kirk Hinrich dribble around in circles, until the seconds are waning down on the shotclock.  Chicago Bulls basketball isn’t about watching Kirk Hinrich take an inopportune jumpshot because he feels it would be a good idea.  Chicago Bulls basketball isn’t about watching Kirk Hinrich not pass to his teammate, even though that is what the offense calls for, just because Hinrich is in competition for minutes with that player.

Kirk Hinrich, everytime you ignore Ben Gordon and don’t pass him the ball, when that is what the offense calls for or he is wide open, you are disgracing the Chicago Bulls uniform. There is something you have yet to realize, and that is that Ben Gordon puts on a Chicago Bulls uniform too.  He is your teammate.  It would be wise for you to start treating him like he’s your teammate when you two are out on the court together.

John Salmons, Brad Miller, and Tim Thomas, who have only been Gordon’s teammates for a few days pass him the ball more than you do.  Ben Gordon had a better chance at receiving a pass from Larry Hughes, a symbol of selfish basketball, than he does from you.

Kirk Hinrich, for the sake of the team and the respect of Chicago Bulls fans everyhwere, start playing team basketball.