The Chicago Bulls were blown out for the fourth straight game of the circus trip, losing to the Utah Jazz 105-86.

One of the key issues of the game was the Bulls’ lack of depth. The Bulls were without Kirk Hinrich, who was forced out with an injury to his hand. Without him, the Bulls are forced to play Jannero Pargo (or Lindsey Hunter) significant minutes, and neither of those options are conductive to winning basketball.

The other main problem with the Bulls last night was a complete defensive breakdown. The guards failed to close out on shooters, giving the Jazz good looks on their jumpshots. Additionally, the Bulls guards failed to stick with their men in motion. Up front, the Bulls were just as bad. Brad Miller, Taj Gibson, and James Johnson were often out of position, leading to Utah getting a lot of easy looks right at the basket.

The Bulls were completely dominated by the Utah Jazz front court. Carlos Boozer led the way, finishing with 28 points on 12-14 shooting, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 blocks. Mehmet Okur chipped in 14 points on 5-9 shooting, and Paul Millsap finished with 12 points on 6-8 shooting and 9 rebounds.

Conversely, the Bulls front court produced little. Joakim Noah had 6 points on 3-9 shooting and 9 rebounds, Taj Gibson had 8 points on 4-5 shooting, and Brad Miller had 0 points, and James Johnson had 10 points on 3-6 shooting, but all of those came in garbage time.

I think it is time for the Bulls to end the Taj Gibson experiment. He can hit the the midrange jumpshot pretty well, but he is too much of a string bean to compete on the low block.

If the Bulls are going to suck without Tyrus Thomas, which it looks like they will, they might as well take advantage of the opportunity to develop James Johnson. Because of his strength, Johnson is more apt to playing downlow than Gibson. Johnson also could open up the Bulls offense, as he shows a willingness to try to create his own shot, and Johnson would also improve the Bulls’ dismal fastbreak.

That was one of the Bulls biggest problems last night. They could not finish on the fastbreak. Multiple times last night, John Salmons tried to finish on the fastbreak by himself only to be blocked.

Salmons had another bad game, scoring just 9 points on 4-11 shooting.

Ronnie Brewer scored 15 points on the Bulls, many on easy baskets near the rim off of backdoor cuts.

The Jazz also won the point guard matchup. Rose finished with 19 points on 9-17 shooting, while Deron Williams finished with 21 points on 9-11 shooting, and 6 assists.

Luol Deng played pretty well last night, finishing with 26 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 steals. His scoring efficiency wasn’t the greatest, but he played hard all game.

Aaron Gray returned to the court last night for the Bulls.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 6-8 on the season, and their losing streak is extended to four games.

Closing Comments

It looks like the Bulls ship is sinking fast. It was always going to be a challenging season because of the Bulls’ offensive struggles, but now it looks like the season could become a shipwreck, because of their newfound defensive struggles. The Bulls, who were one of the elite defensive teams at the beginning of the season, have now fallen down to the 15th best defensive team, and they have been getting worse with each progressing game. If the Bulls can’t score or defend, this is going to be a very tumultuous season.

The most disheartening part of the game is the Bulls complete lack of effort. Luol Deng and Joakim Noah were the only two players showing any kind of hustle last night.

The other thing that needs to be considered is the extent that Kirk Hinrich. It is unacceptable for the Bulls to trot out Jannero Pargo and Linsdey Hunter for a prolonged period of time. Bulls fans should not accept it, especially when there is a bit of an Answer out there for the Bulls guard problems.

The Chicago Bulls defeated the Utah Jazz 101 to 100 on a Larry Hughes buzzer beater to give the Bulls their second win of the circus trip.

Derrick Rose took over down the stretch scoring basket after basket to keep the Bulls in the game. With the Bulls down 100 to 99, Rose pulled up for a jumpshot and bricked it off the back of the rim. The ball bounced out to Hughes on the left side and Hughes stuck in the jumpshot for the win as time expired.

Rose was phenomenal tonight. Rose had 25 points and 9 assists. It is going to be difficult for Rose to be denied the rookie of the year award if he continues up this type of play. Rose is not only putting up pretty stats, but has also led his team to victory on many occasions.

Larry Hughes started at small forward once again and put in another nice performance. Hughes finished the game with 16 points on 5-10 shooting. If Hughes keeps up this play, he should continue to start at small forward, especially if Deng keeps up his current play. Luol Deng was abominable tonight, scoring 2 points on 1-5 shooting and turning the ball over 3 times in just 13 minutes of action. Deng doesn’t even look like an NBA player out there.

Ben Gordon had a solid game, finishing with 15 points 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Gordon hardly touched the ball in the fourth quarter, only taking one shot. As a result, the Bulls offense stagnated a bit in the fourth allowing Utah to get back in the game, but the Bulls were still able to win this one thanks to Derrick Rose taking over the game and Hughes’ nice jumpshot.

In the first quarter, Ben Gordon missed his first free throw of the game. This ended Ben Gordon’s 36 free throw streak.

Drew Gooden gave the Bulls some production in the front court, scoring 18 points, although his defense was poor. Aaron Gray scored 8 points off the bench and got the Bulls some good baskets throughout the game.

Once again, the Bulls front court was completely dominated. Mehmet Okur had 26 points and 9 rebounds and Paul Millsap had 21 points and 10 rebounds. This is a real problem for the Bulls and Paxson needs to start addressing it by a trade, whether it is making a move for Chris Kaman, Joel Pryzbrilla, or someone else. The Bulls cannot continue to give up big games to marginal front court players like Millsap and Okur.

Ronnie Brewer also had 18 points for the Jazz.

This was by no means a pretty win. The Jazz were without their two best players, Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer, and were also missing some role players. Still, it is a win on the circus trip, and you cannot take such wins to come by since they have been so scarce since Jordan retired.

The Bulls are now 7-8 on the season and 2-3 on the circus trip. The Bulls have now equaled the amount of wins that we predicted them to get on the circus trip.

The Bulls next game is Wednesday against the San Antonio Spurs in San Antonio. The Spurs are expected to get Manu Ginobili back for Wednesday’s game.