The Bulls came up big in the first game of the season yesterday, defeating the San Antonio Spurs 92-85 at the United Center.

The Bulls won in a total team effort, depending on a strong team defense and an even distribution of scoring.

Tim Duncan destroyed the Bulls, going for 28 points, 16 rebounds, and 3 blocks. That was okay, as the Bulls shutdown every other key player on the Spurs. Richard Jefferson only had 9 points on 3-9 shooting, Tony Parker had 8 points on 4-11 shooting, Manu Ginobili had 12 points on 3-11 shooting, and Antonio McDyess had 1 point on 0-4 shooting.

The Bulls effort was led by Luol Deng, who scored 17 points on 8-13 shooting. This is an encouraging start to the season, and if Deng can keep it up, the Bulls could push into the mid to high 40 in wins. However, I don’t think Deng can keep it up. In last night’s game, only 2 of Deng’s makes were near the basket. He was making his long jumper last night, and that is why he was so successful offensively last night. He did the same thing during the 2006-2007 season. This is why it’s a little hard to get too excited about Luol’s game tonight, he didn’t display any new ways he can score. If his midrange shot isn’t elite, like it hasn’t been for every year except 06-07, then Deng is going to score inefficiently, and be a hindrance on the offense.

On the flipside, John Salmons struggled, scoring 10 points on 3-15 shooting. He will have a lot better shooting nights than he did tonight, just a bad game for him.

The Bulls got terrific play at the point guard spot from Derrick Rose and Kirk Hinrich. Derrick Rose finished with 13 points, 7 assists, and 7 rebounds and Kirk Hinrich scored 14 points. Kirk Hinrich is easily the best backup point guard in the game, and the Bulls should be one of the top teams in the league in point guard production for the year.

The major reason that the Bulls were able to knock off the Spurs was because of the play of their front court. The Bulls got good production from their main three big men. Tyrus Thomas was impressive with 13 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Joakim Noah had 10 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 blocks, and Brad Miller had 9 points.

With the win, the Bulls start the season 1-0. They play the Boston Celtics later tonight in the early ESPN game.

Closing Comments and Season Outlook

The Bulls looked great in their season opener. Is this a sign that the Bulls are going to be a great team this year, and maybe take the fourth seed in the East? It could be, but I don’t think so.

The reason I don’t think so is because I don’t foresee Luol Deng playing like this every night, and even with good defense, other teams will score better than the Spurs did. Good offense beats good defense. I think what the Bulls will get out of Luol Deng is great defense, but very poor offensive production, and because of Deng’s lack of a three point shot, I think he might muddle up the offense a bit.

I think the big question of the season is how do the Bulls big men perform. That is, how do they perform on the defensive end of the court. If the Bulls big men step up, and play good interior defense, than the Bulls can be a good team, and challenge for the fourth seed in the East. If the Bulls big men play like they did last year, then this will be a forgettable year for Bulls fans.

Unfortunately, I don’t see the Bulls big men playing at an elite level on the defensive end all year. I think they will be better than last year, but the loss of Gordon will far outweigh the gains the Bulls make on the defensive end.

Where does this leave the Bulls? They won’t be a bad team, but they won’t be a very good team either. From what I have seen around the web, there is a general consensus that the Bulls will finish somewhere in this 35 to 45 win range. Las Vegas set 41.5 as the over/under for the Bulls record this season.

My personal prediction before last night was 38-44, but I’m going to ammend that to 39-43, because I didn’t think the Bulls would beat the Spurs last night. 39-43 is my prediction for the Bulls record this season, just missing out on the playoffs with the 9th seed. Hopefully I’m wrong.

Eastern Conference

1. Cleveland Cavaliers
2. Orlando Magic
3. Boston Celtics
4. Detroit Pistons
5. Miami Heat
6. Atlanta Hawks
7. Toronto Raptors
8. Washington Wizards
——————-
9. Chicago Bulls
10. Philadelphia 76ers
11. New York Knicks
12. Milwaukee Bucks
13. New Jersey Nets
14. Indiana Pacers
15. Charlotte Bobcats

Western Conference

1. Los Angeles Lakers
2. San Antonio Spurs
3. Dallas Mavericks
4. Portland Trail Blazers
5. Denver Nuggets
6. Phoenix Suns
7. Utah Jazz
8. New Orleans Hornets
——————-
9. Golden State Warriors
10. Los Angeles Clippers
11. Memphis Grizzlies
12. Oklahoma City Thunder
13. Minnesota Timberwolves
14. Sacramento Kings
15. Houston Rockets

Eastern Conference First Round

1. Cleveland Cavaliers over 8. Washington Wizards (4-1)
4. Detroit Pistons over 5. Miami Heat (4-2)
3. Boston Celtics over 6. Atlanta Hawks (4-2)
2. Orlando Magic over 7. Toronto Raptors (4-0)

Eastern Conference Semi-Finals

1. Cleveland Cavaliers over 4. Detroit Pistons (4-2)
3. Boston Celtics over 2. Orlando Magic (4-3)

Eastern Conference Finals

3. Boston Celtics over 1. Cleveland Cavaliers (4-3)

Western Conference First Round

1. Los Angeles Lakers over 8. New Orleans Hornets (4-0)
4. Portland Trail Blazers over 5. Denver Nuggets (4-2)
3. Dallas Mavericks over 6. Phoenix Suns (4-3)
2. San Antonio Spurs over 7. Utah Jazz (4-1)

Western Conference Semi-Finals

1. Los Angeles Lakers over 4. Portland Trail Blazers (4-2)
2. San Antonio Spurs over 3. Dallas Mavericks (4-3)

Western Conference Finals

2. San Antonio Spurs over 1. Los Angeles Lakers (4-2)

NBA Finals

San Antonio Spurs over Boston Celtics (4-3)

Coach of the Year: John Kuester (Runner Up: Gregg Poppovich)
MVP: Lebron James (Runner Up: Dwight Howard)
Rookie of the Year: Tyreke Evans (Runner Up: Blake Griffin)
Sixth Man of the Year: Manu Ginobili (Runner Up: Leandro Barbosa)
Defensive Player of the Year: Dwight Howard (Runner Up: Ron Artest)
Most Improved Player: Brook Lopez (Runner Up: Michael Beasley)

The 2009-2010 NBA season is quickly approaching. Therefore, here are five bold, specific, quick hit predictions for the 2009-2010 NBA season.

1. The San Antonio Spurs defeat the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the NBA Finals behind a 17 rebound performance by Dejuan Blair. Tim Duncan wins the Finals MVP, while Manu Ginobili hobbles his wa through the Finals, retiring at their conclusion.
2. Brook Lopez makes his first Allstar game appearance and emerges as the top player from the 2008 Draft Class.
3. All four of the conference semi-final matchups (Cleveland vs. Detroit, Boston vs. Orlando, LA Lakers vs. Portland, and San Antonio vs. Dallas) will be epic playoff series.
4. Ben Gordon takes over the starting shooting guard spot from Richard Hamilton in November. At that point, Joe Dumars simultaneously trades Richard Hamilton for a center (it will be either Chris Kaman or Andrew Bogut). The Pistons combine one of the top producing back courts in the NBA with good interior defense to claim the fourth seed in the East. Ben Gordon has a better season than Derrick Rose and makes his first Allstar game. Gordon goes on to knock the Miami Heat out of the playoffs in Game 6 on a buzzer beating leaner along the baseline. The Pistons give the Cavs a hard fought series in the second round before being eliminated in six games.
5. Michael Beasley puts it all together as the Heat win around 46 games. Miami becomes the clear cut top free agent destination. Dwyane Wade re-signs with the Heat on the first day of free agency. The Heat also sign Lebron James or Chris Bosh on the first day of free agency.

With 33 seconds left, and down by 6, the Bulls needed perfection to pull off the win. The Bulls needed to make a quick three, and then get a stop on the other side of the ball. Within 2 seconds, the Bulls got the ball to Nocioni off the inbound play, and he was fouled by Parker. Nocioni made all three free throws. Bulls were now down 90 to 87. Now just to get the stop. The Bulls forced San Antonio down in the shot clock, Ginobili is in a bad situation, he pump fakes, gets Nocioni in the air, foul, three shots. Ginobili makes two free throws, and the Spurs win 92 to 87 at the United Center.

The biggest positive that can be taken away from tonight’s game is that it looks like the Bulls are back. The team has that same intensity that it did in 2006-2007. If the Bulls continue to play with this level of intensity, they will begin to steamroll the easier teams and get over .500 rapidly.

The shooting slump is over for Ben Gordon. He came out firing, hitting his first 5 shots in the game. Gordon finished with 20 points on 9-16 shooting and had 4 assists. The offensive performance was better than it looks from the box score, given that the Spurs were allowed to maul Gordon all game with no repercussions. Gordon also initiated some successful fastbreaks. On one, he had the ball in a two on one fastbreak, threw it up to Tyrus Thomas for the alley oop dunk. On the other, he found a cherry picking Luol Deng for the easy lay-in.

Derrick Rose had a really bad night, something that is becoming a trend. Rose finished with 12 points on 6-21 shooting and 8 assists. Rose has become an inefficient scorer, chucking up a lot of bad shots every game. He will make a pretty move, such as a spin into a layup over Tim Duncan tonight, that makes the fans forget about how bad he is doing on most offensive possessions. His assist numbers seem to just be the product of handling the ball so much, nothing special that he does in terms of creating for his teammates. His defense is an abomination. The only players that I’ve really seen that are as bad as Rose on the defensive end in the NBA are Adam Morrison and J.J. Redick. Comparing him to a rookie Gordon on the defensive end is just being nice.

If you are a Bulls fan, you have to be scared about what you’re seeing out of Rose. He is playing really bad basketball. He is an inefficient scorer and can’t defend a chair. Someone needs to hold him accountable for his poor play, and soon. Back in November, Rose looked like a near allstar and has since regressed a ton.

For the first time since coming back, Kirk Hinrich really struggled on the offensive end, scoring 4 points on 2-9 shooting. I have strong doubts of Kirk being the highly efficient scorer that he looked like in his games this season. I think it will be the same inconsistent Kirk that we’re all used to.

However, Kirk’s defense was dynamite. He locked down Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili during his stints in the game. When he was on them, they couldn’t do anything. Kirk’s defense since coming back has been simply amazing. Kirk over the last few games has been better defensively than Ron Artest or Bruce Bowen at their best over the last decade. If Hinrich keeps up this defense all long, you have to call him the best defender in the NBA. Hopefully there is more great defense from Hinrich to come.

I think Vinny made a bit of a mistake during the stretch run with his Hinrich and Gordon subs. With Bruce Bowen in the game, the Bulls could have hid Derrick Rose on Bowen, put Hinrich on Ginobili, and Gordon on Parker, and get away with it. If Vinny didn’t think a three guard lineup was a good idea, than at the very least, Rose should have been the guard on the bench down the stretch.

Andres Nocioni had a really nice game, finishing with 17 points and 15 rebounds. His intensity was great, and he was actually playing smart defense, and attacking the boards. He played more within the offense. So the question has to be raised, why hasn’t he been doing this all year? Why was he just being a chucker and playing lazy, stupid defense for most of the year? It’s just not tonight, his defense has looked better in a few other games this week.

Luol Deng also had a solid game, putting up 12 points 10 rebounds. Not a spectacular game, but solid, which is better than what the Bulls have gotten out of Deng most of the season. He made some really good jumpshots which kept the Bulls close.

For the Spurs, Tony Parker had 20 points and 8 assists. He got whatever he wanted against Rose. Gordon slowed him a little, and Hinrich completely shut him down. But when Rose was on Parker, he really torched us.

Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan both had nice games. Ginobili had 21 points and Duncan added in 18 points and 14 rebounds. They just did what they usually do. With all three of the Spurs big three playing well, they are a tough team to beat.

Matt Bonner had 12 points and 11 rebounds. Michael Finley and Drew Gooden both had 11 points in the game.

I really hate moral victories, because to get a moral victory means that you lost the game. But this was a good moral victory for the team. Just getting the team to play with a lot of intensity against a great team for 48 minutes is a win at this point.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 18-23 on the season.

The best rookie in tonight’s game wasn’t Derrick Rose, but instead someone named George Hill. As you might imagine, with that reality, the Bulls lost tonight. The San Antonio Spurs downed the Bulls 98 to 86.

George Hill finished the game with 19 points, 11 rebounds, and 4 assists. Derrick Rose had trouble staying in front of Hill and when Gooden was at center, Hill met little to no resistance at the rim, allowing him to score easily.

The other rookie, Derrick Rose, finished the game with 10 points, 6 assists, and 6 rebounds.

Ben Gordon was the Bulls best player tonight, scoring 23 points on 9-16 FG, grabbing 5 rebounds, and dishing 3 assists. Gordon caught fire in the third to give the Bulls a small lead. However, against the San Antonio Spurs, you need multiple players to step up, as the Spurs are great at making in-game adjustments. The Spurs shifted the defensive focus to Gordon, meeting him with double teams, and no one else bothered to step up, causing the Bulls offense to stagnate for the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth quarter.

That is where the Bulls have problems with one of their top players being a rookie. Derrick Rose has been great so far this season, but he isn’t going to be able to step up every game, and this was one of those games where Rose didn’t step up and take over, only scoring 2 points in the second half. Rose by no means had a bad game, he just didn’t have a great game.

Larry Hughes was also a big component in our loss. Hughes finished the game with 8 points onf 4-14 shooting. Hughes wasn’t taking bad shots, they were all good looks, he just has trouble making his shots whether they are bad looks or good looks.

Andres Nocioni was dreadful tonight. He had 5 points on 2-6 shooting, and had a costly sequence where he got a flagrant foul and followed it up by a technical.

Drew Gooden had a solid game, scoring 20 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Unfortunately, Gooden’s interior defense was soft, and his help defense was non-existent.

Tim Duncan had 21 points and 8 rebounds. The game from Duncan was a lot better than it looks, as he let the other Spurs take over in the 2nd half. Duncan had 18 of his 21 points in the first half.

The Bulls played sloppy in the 2nd half. The Bulls only had 4 turnovers in the first half and played a nice controlled game. In the 2nd half, the Bulls turned the ball over 9 times.

Manu Ginobili had 15 points, and scored effectively for the Spurs.

Luol Deng had 10 points in the game on 4-7 shooting. That is a good indication that the Bulls might get something out of Deng in the future, but most of his scoring was in garbage time.

The Bulls are now 2-4 on the circus trip and 7-9 on the season. The Spurs are now 8-6 on the season.

The Bulls next game is against the Philadelphia 76ers.