I had to reflect on the game tonight for quite awhile. There was a lot to take in tonight. What was clear though, is we were treated to probably the best game of the entire NBA season. Unfortunately we came up short tonight, partly of our own doing, partly because we were playing against the best scorer in the NBA. But tonight was a special game to get to see.

The game fell into a marquee battle between Ben Gordon and Dwyane Wade. Ben Gordon was just amazing tonight. He scored the Bulls last 15 points of regulation, and making 5 three pointers in the fourth quarter to rally the Bulls back from 14 down to tie the game and bring it into overtime.

With the Bulls up by 2, Ben Gordon gets to the free throw line and missed the first free throw. He made the second, to put the Bulls up three. This is probably Gordon’s first clutch free throw miss of his career, and this one definitely hurt. If he made the free throws, the Bulls would have won in regulation, simple as that. You have to make your free throws in the clutch.

Following Gordon’s misses from the line, Dwyane Wade sank a nice three point shot over John Salmons to tie the game 104 to 104.

The end of regulation was disappointing in my opinion. The ball should have been in Gordon’s hands. Derrick Rose has proven that he can’t hit the big shot at the end of games. Same thing unfolded tonight, Rose drove to the basket, put up a bad shot and missed.

It looked like the Bulls were going to lose in the first overtime, being down 117 to 112 after Beasley put in a pair of free throws with 32 seconds left. But Gordon found his stroke again, putting in a 3 to make it a 2 point game. Dwyane Wade then missed a pair of free throws to give the Bulls another shot. John Salmons was fouled in the paint and made both free throws to tie the game at 117. Dwyane Wade on the other end missed a reverse layup. Salmons bothered Wade enough to make it into a layup attempt instead of a dunk, but it was still a very good look, and Wade should have made that. Just a completely blown defensive play, but they got lucky, and the game went into double overtime.

With the Bulls down 125 to 123, Tyrus Thomas had a big block against Udonis Haslem to get the Bulls a crucial stop. Then on the other end, after Rose missed a layup, Thomas grabbed the ball for a putback slam to make it a 125 to 125 tied ball game. Wade then made a layup, and Salmons responded with a jumper to tie the game at 127. The Bulls then got the stop as Haslem missed a jumpshot and Rose rebounded.

The Bulls were now in a great position, they were either going to win the game or bring it into overtime. But with just 3 seconds left Wade stole the ball from Salmons, drove down court, and put in a floating three at the buzzer to give the Heat the 130 to 127 victory.

The ball should have been in Gordon’s hands at the end too. John Salmons was the only person they were really able to get the ball into, so he just ran with it. It didn’t look like Vinny Del Negro drew up any type of play here. It seemed like whoever caught it got to decide what they were doing. The Bulls should have put the ball in Gordon’s hands and let him create a shot for himself. He has proven time and time again that he is great at hitting the big shots, so there is no use denying his gifts.

In the end, Dwyane Wade finished with an astonishing 47 points, 12 assists, 6 rebounds, 4 steals, and 3 blocks. This was just an all around great game from Wade. He scored a lot, hit the big shots, set up his teammates, and played tough defense.

Ben Gordon was great as well, finishing with 43 points, whilst going 8-11 from three point land. He helped himself in a big way tonight in his record pursuit. He is now just 15 three pointers away from setting the record for the most three point shots made by a player in the first five years of their career.

John Salmons was just solid tonight, scoring 29 points, but on 24 field goal attempts. He has to score at a high efficiency. But the good thing is that Salmons hit some big shots in the overtime periods, so he was playing well when it really mattered.

Derrick Rose had another bad game. He had 23 points, but took 25 shots to get that. He only had 3 assists. Rose is a point guard, and he needs to start playing like one. That means setting up his teammates to score. When he drives to the basket, it’s almost always about Rose scoring. It’s never about playing some kick and drive offense. He should have been taking notes of Dwyane Wade tonight. Wade would get into the lane, and then kick it out to his teammates, getting them some easy scores.

The Bulls big men were okay. Joakim Noah had 11 points and 15 rebounds. I thought he had a valiant effort tonight and played well. Brad Miller had 9 points and 10 rebounds. He had too many defensive lapses tonight, giving the Heat easy scores at the basket. Tyrus Thomas was checked out mentally for most of the game, culminating in a technical foul in the third quarter. Thomas did end up redeeming himself a bit with two big plays in the second overtime after Noah fouled out.

Michael Beasley had 18 points and 7 rebounds off the bench and the Heat’s other record, Mario Chalmers, had 17 points and 5 assists.

Jermaine O’neal had 11 points, Jamario Moon 13 points, and Udonis Haslem 10 points.

The Bulls only played 7 players today, as Luol Deng and Tim Thomas were out with injuries, and Vinny doesn’t seem to trust the rest of his players. This is actually a pretty good thing, because our first 7 players are really, really good, while the bench players aren’t very good at all.

Overall, tonight was a good effort. Vinny actually made some good in game coaching decisions, such as the inbounds play that netted Salmons a dunk and one. But he also made some coaching blunders, such as not drawing up a play for Gordon at the end. This loss isn’t going to sink our season, but losing a bunch of close one’s like this really hurts your team. This team is probably closer than a lot of people think. Right now, for the Bulls, they just have a big problem with finishing really close games. They have lost a bunch of close ones this year, that easily could have been won if Vinny used a better end of game strategy, such as getting the ball to Ben Gordon.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 29-35 on the season. The Bulls are now tied with Milwaukee for the eigth seed again. The Bulls of course have the tiebreaker as they defeated the Bulls 3-1 in the season series.

With one and half minutes in the game the Bulls were up by 5, and were on their way for victories.  The Mavericks had other plans.  Jose Barea drove on Kirk Hinrich and scooped in a layup for his 20th point of the game, making it a 95 to 92 game.  Rose missed a jumpshot, the Bulls fouled Nowitzki, who made two free throws to make it a 95 to 94 game.

Next trip down the floor, Rose nails a nice floater to give the Bulls a three point lead.  Unfortunately, Rose would then give up three points to the Mavericks.  Rose was out of position defensively, leaving Jason Kidd wide open for three.  Kidd sunk the three.

As usual, the Bulls called their end play for Derrick Rose.  He drove to the basket and did a fall away floater trying to get it over Nowitzki.  Bulls fans thought that Rose was fouled on there by an undercut, but that was not the case.  After Rose came down, he just caught himself on Brandon Bass’s foot and tripped.  No foul.

I don’t like what Rose did on this play.  Dirk caught himself in no man’s land, with his feet within the semi-circle.  Rose should have just went into Dirk and forced the foul, instead of fading away.  Not only did Rose make his shot more difficult, but he assured that he would not get the foul call.

The play call was also questionable by Vinny.  He should have went to Ben Gordon, who had Jose Barea guarding him.  That’s a matchup you have to take advantage of.  In addition, I don’t like how Vinny had Ben just stand in the corner.  That makes for some easy deny defense on Gordon for the Mavericks.  If you are going to go to Rose, have Ben run around like he is trying to get open and be an actual decoy on the play.  Ben and standing in the corner has never been a successful formula.

In overtime, it was all Dirk Nowitki.  Nowitzki scored 14 points in the overtime period, and answered everytime the Bulls scored.  Nowitzki was the definition of clutch tonight.

The Bulls made a mini run to try to end the overtime.  Nocioni made a 3 to make it a 3 point game.  Nowitzki responded with 2 free throws.  Then Tyrus Thomas made a 3 pointer to bring it within 2.  Nowitzki responded with 2 free throws.  Then Ben Gordon made a three pointer at the buzzer to make it a one point game.  Unfotunately the Mavericks didn’t follow Eric Gordon’s lead, and foul Ben Gordon on a three pointer to allow the chance for a 4 point game to bring the game into overtime.  And with that, the Bulls fell 115 to 114 in overtime to the Dallas Mavericks.

Dirk Nowitzki was a monster tonight, scoring 43 points, grabbing 9 rebounds, and blocking 3 shots.  He actually started the game shooting poorly, but he was deadly down the stretch.

Ben Gordon led the Bulls in scoring with 28 points.  He had an alright game.  His scoring was nice, and he had a good game for the most part, but he had some really bad moments.  The first of which was letting Antoine Wright score an easy 4 points to start the game, which prompted Del Negro to bring Kirk Hinrich into the game just about 2 minutes in.  This wasn’t all Gordon’s fault, as their was no help defense behind him, but he could have showed a little bit better effort there.  The second bad moment for Gordon was an offensive foul followed by a pass to Dirk Nowitzki in overtime.  Gordon had 5 turnovers in the game.

In the past 5 games, Gordon is averaging 22.6 PPG and is shooting 60% from three point land.  His winter shooting slump appears to be over.

Tyrus Thomas was phenomenal tonight, finishing with 23 points and 12 rebounds.  He is starting to become more of an offensive force.  He has learned how to finish when he drvies to the basket and he is great at drawing and hitting free throws.

It is phenomenal that Thomas is going so strong into the trade deadline.  His value has to be skyrocketing.  The Bulls front office has to avoid falling too much in love with Tyrus.  If Amare Stoudemire or Chris Bosh are available, you trade Thomas for them and don’t think twice about it.

Derrick Rose had a mediocre game, scoring 22 points and dishing for 9 assists.  On the surface, that looks like a good game, but Rose shot the ball an inefficient 11 for 25 and played poor defense.  Rose was especially bad down the stretch, going 2 for 11 in his last 11 shots.

Jose Barea was great tonight, scoring 20 points and adding 6 assists to go along with that.  He especially gave Kirk Hinrich fits tonight in the second half.  Late in the third, Barea burst down the court past Kirk Hinrich for an easy layup.  The next play down, Nowitzki set a screen for Barea.  Gray showed lightly on Barea while Hinrich went under the screen.  Hinrich never got up to pressure Barea and Barea just pulled up for the long three.  Then Barea made a layup with 1:22 left in the game with Hinrich guarding him.

Joakim Noah was solid tonight with 8 points and 10 rebounds, although he seemed to get winded tonight.

Kirk Hinrich was terrible tonight scoring 10 points and committing 5 turnovers.  Andres Nocioni added in 13 points and 6 rebounds.

Luol Deng also had a really bad game.  Deng had just 10 points on 3-15 shooting.

Josh Howard added in 13 points for the Mavericks.

Jason Terry left the game at the half and did not return.  He broke his left ring finger in a play late in the second quarter.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 22-29 on the season and are now sitting 2 full games behind New Jersey for the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference.

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.

The Chicago Bulls defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 115 to 109 in overtime tonight.

Fans dream of the 4 point play when their team is down by 4, with the game dwindling down. Ben Gordon did just that tonight to tie the game and bring it into overtime. Ben Gordon sank a three at the top of the key while being fouled by Eric Gordon. Ben Gordon then nailed the free throw to tie the game. Ben Gordon was big, scoring 15 points in the fourth quarter.

Luol Deng was key in overtime, scoring the Bulls first 4 points. Derrick Rose then scored on a drive to the basket and got an and one. Then the Bulls were treated to a clutch steal by Larry Hughes. The Clippers missed their shots from there on out and the Bulls cruised to victory.

Derrick Rose looks to have hit the rookie wall, as he was terrible tonight. Rose had 16 points on 5-17 shooting and 7 assists. Still, Rose outplayed his counterpart, Baron Davis, who scored 16 points on 6-23 shooting. Davis also had 12 assists in the game.

The Gordon matchup was interesting. Eric Gordon got off to a hot start in the first quarter, outplaying Ben. But the Bulls were able to slow down Eric, keeping him from getting goods shots and forcing him to make boneheaded plays down the stretch. Ben Gordon looked like he was going to have a bad game tonight, but ended up turning it into a really good game, finishing with 22 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and even a block.

Luol Deng was bad for all of regulation, but was great in overtime. Deng finished with 9 points on 3-9 shooting.

Drew Gooden had a big first quarter, scoring 14 of his 18 points in the first. Gooden also had 11 rebounds. Gooden was abused by Zach Randolph, who finished the game with 30 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists. Randolph scored in the low post as well as on fadeaway jumpshots.

Andres Nocioni had one of his few good games of the season, scoring 22 points on 8-14 shooting. His shot was falling tonight, and his defense was a little bit better than usual, although his rebounding was poor.

Joakim Noah was productive during his time in the game, finishing with 7 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Noah struggled guarding Zach Randolph though, and couldn’t keep Camby off the offensive glass.

Marcus Camby put up a monster game. Camby finished with 19 points, 27 rebounds, and 4 blocks. Camby completely dominated the Bulls on the offensive glass and frustrated Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon on their drives to the basket.

Al Thornton had a quiet 20 points for the Clippers.

Tyrus Thomas left the game with a concussion.

The Bulls are now 12-13 after this ugly win over the Clippers. The Bulls will have another shot at reaching the .500 mark when they play Boston on Friday.

The Chicago Bulls lost to the Philadelphia 76ers earlier tonight 103 to 95 in overtime.

The reasons the Bulls lost in this game can easily be divided between regulation and overtime. In regulation, the Bulls failed to finish off the 76ers because of a lack of rebounding and some poor defense by Andres Nocioni. In overtime, the Bulls lost because they could not hit a shot.

The Bulls big men were terrible, except for Tyrus Thomas. The Bulls big men allowed Philadelphia to grab 18 offensive rebounds. Drew Gooden was horrible most of the game, but came on strong in the fourth quarter.

Andres Nocioni was terrible. Vinny Del Negro needs to sit Nocioni and keep him on the bench until Nocioni starts putting out effort on the defensive end. Nocioni wasn’t even jumping for rebounds out there in the fourth quarter of a close game.

Still, behind some great defense and dunking from Tyrus Thomas, the Bulls were able to hang on. With the Bulls down 90 to 88, Derrick Rose had one of his layups blocked but Tyrus slammed it in for the put back jam.

Thomas finished the game with 14 points, 13 rebounds, and 3 blocks.

In overtime, the Bulls never just got there shooting going. Ben Gordon set the tone with poor shooting, missing all of his shots in overtime. Early in the overtime period, Gordon was tripped, what looked like it was probably intentional, by Andre Miller. Gordon than played selfish ball the next few possessions to try to prove a point to Miller. Although Gordon backed off the one on one play and gave the other guys a shot after that, but they never really hit their shots as well.

In regulation, the Bulls backcourt was good. Gordon was solid, scoring 18 points, grabbing 8 rebounds, and dishing 4 assists. Derrick Rose was phenomenal scoring wise, scoring 24 points, although he only had 2 assists. Philadelphia’s backcourt did a good job crowding Rose and Gordon, making the game difficult for both. Rose and Gordon were also bothered by the length and athleticism of Philadelphia’s big men on help defense.

Luol Deng looked solid from time to time, scoring 11 points on 4-11 shooting.

The Bulls were killed by a solid three man attack by the 76ers. Elton Brand had 22 points and 14 rebounds, Andre Miller had 28 points, and Andre Iguodala had 25 points.

The Bulls also lost as a result of their turnovers. The Bulls had a total of 24 turnovers. Derrick Rose and Drew Gooden had 6 turnovers a piece and Ben Gordon had 4 turnovers.

This was a disappointing loss for the Bulls because it was such a winnable game. The Bulls will have to try to bounce back tomorrow night in Milwaukee.

The Chicago Bulls defeated the Milwaukee Bucks last night 112-104 in overtime.

Derrick Rose left the game with a hip flexor in the first quarter. He was knocked out of bounds by Richard Jefferson as he drove to the basket. Rose was still impressive, finishing with 7 points and 2 assists in 5 minutes.

The Bulls jumped ahead to a big lead early on, taking a 19 point lead into half time. The Bucks fought back, outscoring the Bulls by 7 points in the 3rd and 12 points in the 4th to force overtime.

The Bulls had a chance to win at the end of the game, but Thabo Sefolosha rimmed out a shot at the end of regulation.

In overtime, it was all Andres Nocioni, who scored 9 points to lead the Bulls to victory. Andres Nocioni finished with 26 points and 8 rebounds. Nocioni started the game tonight as Luol Deng was out with back problems and a sore toe (nothing is definitive, but I would guess that he went over to Gordon’s house after practice, and stubbed his toe on a piece of furniture). Del Negro would be wise to start Nocioni over Deng in tuesdays game.

Kirk Hinrich had a pretty good game finishing with 25 points and 8 assists, hitting all four of his three point shots. The bad part of Hinrich’s game tonight was his 7 turnovers.

Del Negro brought Kirk Hinrich off the bench in favor of Thabo Sefolosha. Hopefully Del Negro makes Kirk Hinrich the third guard in the rotation once the season starts, and start Rose and Gordon. Kirk Hinrich would be perfect in a Bobby Jackson style role.

Kirk Hinrich showed some good leadership when he shoved Richard Jefferson in the back after Jefferson was trying to unneccessarily ruffle up Nocioni.

Sefalosha had a solid game, finishing with 18 points, 7 rebounds and 10 assists. Unfortunately he continued his poor shooting, shooting 5-14 and had 5 turnovers.

Ben Gordon, Luol Deng, and Tyrus Thomas all sat out this game.

Richard Jefferson had 21 points for the Bucks.

The Bulls will play the Bucks again on Tuesday to start the regular season.