The Chicago Bulls defeated the Washington Wizards at the United Center tonight 101 to 99 in a close one.

The Bulls really played up and down to the level of Ben Gordon tonight. In the first half, Ben Gordon scored 0 points and the Bulls trailed by 6 points at half time. Ben Gordon than came back in the second half with a monster third quarter, scoring 14 points and surging the Bulls back into the lead. Gordon had 7 points in the final 4 minutes, although he missed a free throw at the end that would have extended the Bulls lead to 3 points, although the Wizards had used all their timeouts and had to throw up a full court heave, so the Bulls hung on.

On the previous posession, Nick Young had made a three point shot to make it a 1 point game. That was after Derrick Rose found Kirk Hinrich cutting along the baseline for the easy layup to give the Bulls a 100 to 96 lead.

Ben Gordon came up big for the Bulls in the second half He finsihed with 21 points and 3 assists.

Derrick Rose also had one of his better games I thought. He finished with 12 points, 8 assists, and 5 rebounds. He didn’t shoot the ball very well, going just 6-15, but tonight he was a point guard, not a scoring guard. He was setting up his teammates, and that was encouraging to see from Rose.

John Salmons had a solid 19 points on 5-12 shooting. His shot wasn’t quite as good as it usually has been, but he drove to the basket and drove a lot of fouls, and then hit his free throws, going 8-8 from the line.

Joakim Noah finished with 9 points, 12 rebounds, 4 blocks, and 2 steals. Just a good all around effort energy wise from Noah tonight.

Antawn Jamison had a monster 34 point game. He took 27 shots to do it, but he still ended up with a pretty good efficiency. Tyrus Thomas simply can’t guard him. Jamison’s moves downlow are a little too crafty, and Thomas isn’t good at guarding guys when they’re playing out on the perimeter either. Jamison also had 12 blocks.

Andray Blatche had 15 points and 13 rebounds. Again, another big man killing the Bulls. Our front court is still lacking defensively against these bigger centers with some athleticism.

Javaris Crittenton had 18 points and 5 assists off the bench for the Wizards.

Brad Miller had a double double with 11 points and 10 rebounds off the bench.

Kirk Hinrich had 12 points, but on 5-14 shooting. He wasn’t playing good at all today. He looked disheveled when trying to run the team as the point guard and his shot wasn’t falling. He should bounce back though, this isn’t your typical Kirk.

With the win, the Bulls improve to 33-38 on the season. They now posess a 1.5 game lead over the Bobcats for the eighth spot in the East and trail Detroit, who they play tomorrow, by 2 games for the seventh spot.

Closing Comments

This was a good win for the Bulls. When the president came to watch the Bulls play the Wizards earlier this season, the Bulls got humiliated. The Wizards are one of the worst teams in the league, but that doesn’t mean that they are going to be an easy win, especially for a bad road team like the Bulls. But the Bulls managed to squeak out the win tonight and that’s all that matters.

Now the Bulls are in a prime position to make the playoffs. They have a 1.5 game lead with a relatively easy schedule. The Bulls are right in the mix for seeds 6-8 and maybe even the 5th seed. They have 2 more games against Detroit, 1 more game against Philadelphia, and 1 more game against Miami. All but one of the Detroit games are at home. The Bulls really do control their own destiny, as their ending schedule is made up primarily of teams either ahead of them or right behind them in the playoff race. The Bulls, I predict, will make the playoffs.

The Chicago Bulls embarassed themselves so badly tonight that the president of the United States didn’t bother to stick around for the finish, as the Bulls were blown out by the Washington Wizards 113 to 90.

A large part of the Bulls problems tonight came from their starting backcourt. Ben Gordon had 11 points on a horrific 3-14 shooting. He also had 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals. His shot was just off tonight, and he was getting blocked on some of his drives to the basket. Gordon had some difficulty guarding Nick Young in the second quarter. Derrick Rose only had 10 points, 3 assists, along with 5 turnovers. He, like Gordon, could never get anything going.

I think that those two had some problems as the result of the offense, or to put it more accurately, the lack of offense. The Bulls really never had a set offense in place tonight. They didn’t run that curl play for Gordon at all. Rather, the Bulls just moved around the perimeter, looking for their guards to create something. That’s not really a very effective offensive strategy. Del Negro has to step up his coaching.

John Salmons, however, off the bench played great. He had 25 points on 8-13 shooting. He was scoring in a variety of ways. He stroked it from long range, going 2-4 from three, and scored on some nice drives to the basket.

Unfortunately Salmons’ scoring outburst was no match for that of the Wizards’ Antawn Jamison. Jamison had 27 points and 11 rebounds and could not be stopped by any of the Bulls defenders.

The Bulls big men as a whole were terrible tonight on the defensive end. They provided little resistance in the paint and gave up 19 offensive rebounds to Washington.

Brad Miller had 9 points and 11 rebounds and Joakim Noah added in 9 points and 9 rebounds as both were solid overall tonight. Tim Thomas had 5 points on 1-5 shooting and Tyrus Thomas had 7 points on 1-6 shooting. Both played terribly tonight.

The Wizards just played all around great team ball tonight, having eight players in double figures. Jamison had 27 points, Caron Butler and Mike James had 14 points, Darius Songaila, Nick Young, and Andray Blatche had 12 points, and Dominic McGuire and JaVale McGee both had 10 points.

When you allow eight players to score in double figures, you are most likely going to lose the game.

Kirk Hinrich had 7 points on a solid 2-5 shooting, and Luol Deng had 4 points on 2-8 shooting.

Anthony Roberson played his first game with the Bulls. He had 0 points on 0-3 shooting.

The Bulls wore black patches to honor Norm Van Lier and Johnny Red Kerr. The Wizards honored Kerr and Van Lier with a moment of silence before the game.

It’s hard to tell what exactly is wrong with the Bulls. Maybe the mix of Barack Obama being present and the deaths of Johnny Red Kerr and Norm Van Lier was just too much for them to handle. Maybe they just don’t have good chemistry after the trade, as they are now 1-3 with the new players in the mix.

But one thing is for sure, when you are playing a 13-44 opponent, and you’re trying to make the playoffs, you have to find a way to win the game. Losing a game like this is inexcusable.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 26-33 on the season. Luckily, they likely will not be affected in the playof race tonight as Milwaukee looks set to lose in New Orleans tonight.

Bulls Get Presidential

The president of the United States invited the Chicago Bulls to the White House yesterday. Barack Obama has been a long time Bulls fan. Tonight was Barack Obama’s first Wizards game since being elected president. He is the first president to attend a Wizards game since Bill Clinton. Joe Biden, his vice president, attended a Bulls game earlier this year at the United Center. The officials waited to start the game until Obama entered the stadium. Obama ended up in some courtside seats on the edge of the court. He left the game with a few minutes left to standing ovation as the Bulls were amidst in getting blown out.

The Chicago Bulls defeated the Washington Wizards 98 to 86 at the United Center for their second straight win.

The Wizards scored the first basket of the game, but the Bulls quickly took the lead and never looked back, jumping to an 18 point lead at the end of the first half. The Bulls went cold in the fourth, allowing Washington to get the game back within single digits, but the Bulls easily fended off the Wizards to escape with the win.

Ben Gordon had a decent game. He finished with 22 points and 5 assists. Gordon scored very efficiently, shooting 9-16, and passed the ball well, but he had a lot of mental lapses in tonights game. Gordon had 3 of his 4 turnovers early in the early minutes of the game, making two passes to no one and getting called for an offensive foul.

Gordon’s hot third quarter kept the Wizards from making this into a close game earlier in the game. Gordon went on a tear to end the third quarter, scoring 11 points in the quarter.

Derrick Rose had a solid game, finishing with 8 points and 9 assists. While Rose was poor scoring wise, he did very well passing the ball. Unlike a lot of games, where he just gets his assists from passing to a jumpshooter who hits a contested jumpshot, tonight, Derrick was actually creating great scoring opportunities for his teammates.

Tyrus Thomas continued his streak of great play. Thomas had 16 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks in the ball game. Thomas is making smart plays on the offensive end of the ball, which has greatly increased his scoring efficiency. On the defensive end of the ball, it looks like that Tyrus from 2006-2007 is back. Thomas is out there altering a lot of shots, and playing some of the best man defense of his career.

Thomas’ frontcourt counterpart, Drew Gooden, put in another nice game. Drew Gooden scored 16 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. The Bulls did a lot of pick and pop plays with Gooden, and Gooden knocked down the open jumpshots with ease. With other teams constantly double teaming Rose and Gordon with a big man, a big like Gooden, who can nail down jumpshots, is very valuable to this team. When the Bulls get good production from their front court, they are a much more difficult team to beat.

Nick Young shot the ball great. Young scored 28 points on 12-15 shooting. It didn’t matter if it was Rose, Gordon, or Hughes guarding him, he was scoring no matter what. It’s not like he did anything in particular to burn the Bulls guards, he just made his shots. He was the main reason why the Wizards were able to close the lead a little bit, but the Wizards went away from him, and the Bulls quickly pulled away again.

The Wizards struggled in a large part because Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler both struggled. Antawn Jamison had 12 points on 4-12 shooting and Caron Butler had 2 points on 1-8 shooting. When the Wizards only get 14 points on 5-20 shooting from Jamison/Butler, they’re not going to be winning many ball games.

Larry Hughes came into the game chucking, and really hurt the Bulls in the first half, shooting only 2-7. But in the second half, Hughes started to make some of his shots, and really helped the Bulls build their lead back to 20+ points. Hughes finished the game with 17 points.

Joakim Noah was really active when in the game, getting 6 points and 7 rebounds in 22 minutes. Noah’s problem is that he doesn’t have the necessary strength to bang with NBA centers and lacks the athleticism and instincts to be a great shotblocker. When Noah is in the game, he gives up a lot defensively, and for the most part, struggles offensively. Tonight wasn’t really one of those nights given Washington’s lack of quality big men.

Mike James had 11 points for the Wizards.

A win is always good, but the Bulls should be beating a team as bad as the Wizards by more than 12 points. There is no reason that the Bulls should have let Washington creep back into the game.

Andres Nocioni left the game with an injury in the first half, but returned in the second half.

Wizards head coach Ed Tapscott was ejected from the game after screaming at the refs about a carrying violation after the Wizards blew a 2 on 1 fastbreak.

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