The Chicago Bulls defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 110-96 at the United Center tonight, ending the Bulls three game losing streak.

The Bulls opened up a double digit lead on the Timberwolves in the third quarter, and coasted to an easy victory.

Joakim Noah led the Bulls, scoring 20 points and grabbing 9 rebounds. Kirk Hinrich also scored 20 points and dished 7 assists. The most encouraging thing about Hinrich’s performance tonight was that he went 4-9 from three point shooting. If guys like Hinrich and Salmons start hitting their three point shots again, the Bulls will find it much easier to win.

Taj Gibson also had a nice game, finishing with 13 points an 9 rebounds. Gibson started the struggling with his shot, but he found his stroke after having a shot bounce off the top of the backboard and into the basket. This game helps to further cement Gibson’s spot in the starting lineup with this performance, and Tyrus Thomas’ struggling performance. Thomas does a lot of positives on the court, finishing with 9 points, 5 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2 steals, but he continuously screws himself out of a starting spot by mixing the good with a lot of bad, boneheaded plays, as evidenced by his 6 turnovers tonight.

The Bulls got good performances off the bench from Brad Miller and John Salmons. Brad Miller finished with 12 points and 5 rebounds. Miller has been having a lot of success with his slow motion drives the past few games. John Salmons had 14 points on 6-10 shooting.

James Johnson also had a pretty good game. Nothing eye popping, as he finished with 6 points on 2-2 shooting, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists, but it was still the best that he’s looked in a game this year in my opinion. He showed flashes of his talents in leading some Bulls’ fastbreaks.

Derrick Rose finished with 8 points and 7 assists, and Luol Deng also finished with 8 points.

For the Timberwolves, Johnny Flynn had 14 points and 8 assists, and Corey Brewer and Al Jefferson scored 12 points each. Kevin Love had 9 points and 10 rebounds.

Ryan Gomes led the Timberwolves in scoring with 15 points off the bench.

The Bulls did what they were supposed to do tonight in taking care of business against a terrible Minnesota Timberwolves teams. The only team worse than the Timberwolves are the Nets, so this is the type of game that is a must win, and the Bulls did that tonight.

With the win, the Bulls improve to 15-20 on the season.

The NBA has sent out a release announcing that Derrick Rose has been named the Eastern Conference Rookie of the Year.

NEW YORK, Apr. 3, 2009 – The Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Rose and the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Kevin Love today were named the Eastern and Western Conference T-Mobile Rookies of the Month, respectively, for games played in March.

Rose ranked first among rookies in assists (5.9 apg) and minutes (38.7 mpg), second in scoring (16.9 ppg) and third in free throw percentage (.851). The first-year guard led the Bulls in scoring three times, rebounding twice and assists 11 times. Rose posted seven games with at least 20 points and 10 games with six or more assists.

Here is a recap of the month for Rose:

Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls
# March 6 vs. Milwaukee: Recorded a career-high 27 points to go with six rebounds and two steals, in a 117-102 win over the Bucks.
# March 9 @ Miami: Tallied 23 points and nine rebounds in a 130-127 double-overtime loss to the Heat.
# March 18 @ Oklahoma City: Registered 25 points, six rebounds and three assists in a 103-96 win over the Thunder.
# March 31 @ Indiana: Posted 24 points in addition to a career-high 11 rebounds and six assists in a 107-105 loss to the Pacers.

Source: Bulls.com

Good month for Derrick. I think with the way he finished so strongly to end the month, and the Bulls playoff chances looking very good, that Derrick Rose will be this year’s NBA ROY.

The Chicago Bulls fell to the Minnesota Timberwolves 109 to 108 tonight in overtime.

This loss was especially bad for the Bulls because they blew a large lead. The Bulls led by 16 points in the first quarter, but when Kirk Hinrich came in and played point guard, the offense stalled out, allowing the Timberwolves to charge back into the game.

Derrick Rose had two shots to win the game for the Bulls, but missed on both. On the first, at the end of regulation, Derrick Rose missed a contested jumpshot, bringing the game into overtime. At the end of overtime, with the Bulls down one, Rose careened a bankshot off the rim. Aaron Gray and Luol Deng tipped the ball up, but neither could get the ball in the basket. Minnesota victory.

The Bulls really need to start running some end of game plays for Ben Gordon. He is proven in that department, Derrick Rose is not. Teams simply aren’t going to give Rose the lane at the end of games, leaving a poor jumpshooter with a contested jumpshot. Giving the ball to Gordon, who they might give the drive to, but who is also the Bulls best jumpshooter, is a much better option at the end of games.

Ben Gordon actually had a real nice game tonight, scoring 23 points on 10-20 shooting. Gordon’s game was pretty good all around, except for his third quarter. Gordon looked more aggressive tonights, and created some offense.

Luckily for Bulls fans, Kirk Hinrich played so bad that there was no way that Vinny could justify keeping Kirk in late in the fourth. Hinrich had 1 point on 0-7 shooting, with 3 turnovers. The Kirk Hinrich of old was back. The one who just dribbles around and around without meaning. His defense wasn’t very good either. That Kirk Hinrich should not be playing any kind of meaningful minutes in the NBA. I hope this Kirk isn’t back to stay, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he reverted into his non 2006-2007 form.

Gordon had 9 points in the fourth quarter and overtime. Overall, Gordon did a nice job during the clutch, although he did miss a potential go ahead jumpshot from the corner. Hopefully Vinny has learned that Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon should always be the Bulls backcourt during crunch time.

Derrick Rose looked good early in the game, but played himself into a very poor outing. Rose scored 18 inefficient points, and dished 7 assists, but had 5 turnovers. Rose needs to step his game up. The Bulls were playing better early in the season because they had both Rose and Gordon going. Rose hasn’t been able to get it going this entire month, and as a result, the Bulls are struggling.

Luol Deng had a nice game, finishing with 22 points and 8 rebounds. Deng was just sticking his jumper and making some nice cuts to the basket. When Luol does that, he is a very good player to have.

Al Jefferson just completely dominated the Bulls front court. He scored 39 points and grabbed 9 rebounds, while forcing Joakim Noah into foul trouble. The Bulls had nothing to stop Jefferson, and Jefferson hit big shot after big shot, including the tip in that brought the game into overtime. Noah actually had an outstanding 7 blocks, but he was still no match to stop Big Al.

Randy Foye had a poor outing, but hit the go ahead bank shot, which ended up being the game winner.

Andres Nocioni had 15 points in the game. Nocioni had some nice hard fouls which really got the T’Wolves heated.

Joakim Noah had 14 points and 10 rebounds and Tyrus Thomas had 11 points and 9 rebounds. Unfortunately the Bulls front court was horrible defensively. In addition to Jefferson’s 39 points, the Bulls front court gave up 19 points and 15 rebounds to Kevin Love.

Rodney Carney was great, scoring 13 points on 5-6 shooting. Carney finished the game with a true shooting percentage of 108.3%.

This is the Bulls fifth straight loss.

With this loss, the Bulls fall to 18-27 on the season. The Bulls were 18-27 at this point last season. This is the second straight season that the Bulls loss to the Timberwolves in their 45th game of the season.

Vinny Del Negro is currently doing worse than Jim Boylan, who went 19-26 in his first 45 games. Jim Boylan also didn’t have that Derrick Rose guy on his team. It’s hard to see the Bulls keeping Del Negro much longer if this poor play keeps up.

John Paxson appeared on the Mully and Hanley show on 670 the Score this morning. Paxson talked about the state of the team, the looming trade deadline, and addressing the roster logjams. Here is a recap of what he had to say:

• Doesn’t want for a young player, especially Derrick Rose, who is committed to winning, to be affected by the Bulls’ losing.  Points to Kevin Durant, with Oklahoma City, having only 5 wins and Kevin Love, in Minnesota, only having 10 wins.  You have to look at the individual and what they’re made of.  Derrick has a really good base.  While it’s a concern, Paxson doesn’t think that Derrick is the type that will let it affect him.  Will he get frustrated?  Absolutely, but in the long run, he will be okay.
• Recognizes that the roster is overloaded with guards and wings.  It has been difficult for guys to get a lot of consistent minutes, especially with all the injuries.  Would love to move some pieces to alleviate the logjam and give some guys on the roster the opportunity to play.
• Some players have spoken out and some are not happy in their roles.  That means that they’re not happy with the minutes they’re getting.  It bothers him that for these players, it’s not totally about the team and trying to win, but more about what the individual needs.
• At some point, and that days coming soon, he is going to clear some issues up by making a trade, or just saying to the players, “Look, these are the guys who are going to play.”  and having a tighter rotation and living with the consequences that brings.
• The defensive end of the floor has been very poor.  Vinny, the staff, and players have to get on the same page and work hard on it in practice.  Has had some excellent talks with Vinny about how to get better.  Vinny feels that they need to simplify what they’re doing out there.  They need to continue to hammer home the basic foundation on the defensive end.  The foundation has to be grounded on a daily basis on the practice floor.
• Paxson’s main concern is that they’re giving up to many easy baskets at the rim.
• Thinks the Bulls score the ball enough.  Thinks that they take too many uick shots and wants a little more discipline to not shoot the ball too quickly.
• Paxson thinks that a lot of Luol Deng’s struggles are attributable to the quick shots, as Luol is not a quick shot player.  Paxson sees Deng being at his best when the ball moves and Luol moves.  When the ball moves, Luol is a very good player.  He thinks when the ball starts moving more, Luol’s numbers will go up.
• First, he feels that right now, the ball is not moving on offense.  Secondly, the Bulls do a lot off the dribble in screen and roll action.  Thinks they will get better at what they do off the dribble and off the pass.
• Right now, Luol’s frustrated.  Paxson has talked to Luol about his body language and how people view him.
• Thinks that double teams should be effecting ball movement.  It’s simple basketball, as all of a sudden, you have 4 guys against 3.  That’s when you should move the ball.  That’s where Vinny and his staff have to keep demanding and getting the players to do that.
• When players take quick shots and are not moving the ball, that shows you what’s on their mind.  Because the Bulls have so many guys who think they should play 35 minutes a night, they feel that they need to shoot it right away.  That’s not a winning formula.
• Thinks that the defense suffers from the quick shots.  The defensive balance is always way off when you take a quick shot, and that leads to bad things.
• Lately, Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah have been getting big minutes.  There are times during games where Tyrus tries to do a little bit too much.  There is a fine line for Tyrus between helping the team and looking at the individual part of the game.  Thinks that Tyrus has played well.  Needs to see Joakim start playing.
• Is going to have to make decisions when they get everyone back.  He is trying to do some things to alleviate that.  As the team gets healthy, things will be addressed.

You can listen to the interview on 670thescore.com

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How low can they go? Tonight, the Chicago Bulls lost to the fourth worst team in the league, the Minnesota Timberwolves, 102 to 92.

Both teams came out showing their ineptitude, showing an inability to score at the beginning of the game. It took 4:15 into the game before Ben Gordon finally scored the first points in the game.

The Timberwolves didn’t win because they were particularly good tonight. They were just less bad than the Bulls.

It doesn’t look to get any for the Bulls either. Looking around the league at what the other interim coaches around the league are doing, the Bulls seem content to let Vinny finish out the year before going in a different direction. While an interim coach might not help drastically improve the Bulls, what Vinny is doing to the team has to stop. He is not properly developing Derrick Rose and is probably souring Ben Gordon on the Bulls, which might lead to Ben ditching the Bulls for greener pastures, even if the Bulls are competitive money wise.

Tonight, Derrick Rose started bad, but had a good second half. Rose finished with 22 points and 5 assists.

Ben Gordon had a bad shooting night, finishing 7-21. Those bad shooting nights will happen, so this is nothing to get worried about, especially since Gordon finished with 17 points and 6 assists.

Tyrus Thomas had a really nice game tonight. He finished with 15 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, and 8 blocks. It was really nice seeing Thomas being active on help defense. Unfortunately the Bulls other bigs man defense was horrendous.

Al Jefferson finished with 18 points and 14 rebounds and Kevin Love had 18 points and 12 rebounds. They weren’t completely killing the Bulls front court, but took advantage of it in a very methodical manner.

Ryan Gomes scored 19 points hitting clutch shot after clutch shot late in the fourth.

Derrick Rose struggled guarding anyone on defense. The Timberwolves backcourt had good games as well. Randy Foye scored 21 points and Sebastian Telfair added 18 points.

Aaron Gray had 10 points and 9 rebounds.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 14-20. It will be interesting to see what it will take to get Vinny fired during the season. Dropping the rest of this home stand, with the Bulls three next games against Sacramento, Washington, and Oklahoma City might just do the trick.