The Bulls started off their West Coast road trip with two losses to the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Clippers. The Bulls followed that up with wins over the Phoenix Suns and the Houston Rockets.

The Bulls beat the Phoenix Suns 115-104. The Bulls were led by Derrick Rose, who had one of his best games of the season, scoring 31 points on 15-21 shooting. Luol Deng gave the Bulls 23 points, Joakim Noah 19 points, and 14 a piece for Kirk Hinrich and John Salmons. Amare Stoudemire finished with 23 points and Steve Nash struggled, finishing with only 8 points and 7 assists.

In their 104-97 win over the Houston Rockets, the Bulls got a big night out of Brad Miller, who finished with 25 points and 5 rebounds in only 25 minutes of play. Brad Miller was starting in place of Joakim Noah, who is suffering plantar fascitis. Taj Gibson had a big double double, finishing with 16 points and 14 rebounds. Derrick Rose played well again, finishing with 20 points. Aaron Brooks and Luis Scola had 20 points a piece for the Rockets, and Carl Landry scored 22 points off the bench.

With Taj Gibson continuing to play well while Tyrus Thomas struggles, it is hard to make a good case for Tyrus Thomas starting over Taj Gibson anymore. Thomas will be gone at the end of the season, and the Bulls are unlikely to feel the loss of him at all. If Taj Gibson is the starting power forward next season, then the Bulls might feel the loss of Thomas some, but their cap space should be used to sign a big man, not a shooting guard (unless you are getting that superstar player named Dwyane Wade).

It is also good to see Derrick Rose put up good game after good game. He has really turned the corner as a player.

Also, it is great to see the Bulls get two road wins against tough opponents. This was a part of the schedule that could have really derailed the Bulls season some. Now, it looks like the Bulls will keep a hold of their playoff position coming out of this trip, and will have a chance to move up in the playoff standings when they get back to an easier chunk of the schedule. The Suns are 26-19 on the season, and the Rockets are 24-19, so these are two wins that really shouldn’t have been expected out of the Bulls.

The Bulls have three more games left on this road trip, against the San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder, and New Orleans Hornets. Worst case scenario is that the Bulls are 5 games under .500 coming out of the road trip, leaving them plenty of time to get back to .500 and make their claim for the playoffs as the schedule gets easier.

The Bulls did it. The Bulls have finally done it. With their 122 to 111 victory over the Phoenix Suns tonight, the Bulls have finally won three straight games in a row. This is the Bulls first three game winning streak since their playoff sweep of the Miami Heat in 2007.

Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon led the charge tonight, both scoring 26 points.

Ben Gordon was absolutely fabulous tonight, putting up 26 points and 6 assists. He didn’t handle the ball too much on offense, just shooting when left wide open and shooting in set plays. He was very unselfish with the ball, making some nice passes to set up his teammates for easy scores. It was nice to see Gordon go 5-7 from three after struggling recently from beyond the arc. Hopefully Gordon’s annual winter slump is over and it’s nothing but strong performances from here on out.

Derrick Rose has a good scoring game as well, scoring 26 points, grabbing 6 rebounds, and dishing 4 assists. Rose had a really interesting scoring game. He made a lot of his jumpshots tonight, so a good game should be expected. When Rose hits his jumpshots, he usually has a good scoring game. But tonight was a bit different. Rose was flinging a lot of shots up with one hand, and he was doing this with great success. If Rose can make these flinging floaters a consistent part of his game, he becomes a much more deadlier offensive weapon.

Luol Deng had another strong game. He finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds. He is making about half of his jumpers again, while playing very good defense, and when he does that, he is an important piece of this team. Is it too soon to proclaim that 06-07 Deng is back?

The Bulls had trouble stopping Leandro Barbosa. He tore apart the Bulls for an efficient 32 points. He made his threes when the Bulls left him wide open and scored on some nice cuts to the basket. None of the Bulls guards could slow him down.

The Suns may have made a bit of a mistake in their strategy to hammer the ball into Shaq. Shaq finished with 18 points and 8 rebounds. That is solid production, but you would expect Shaq to have a lot more given how much they fed him the ball. For what it’s worth, Shaq did almost foul all of the Bulls bigs out by himself. Thomas and Noah both had 5 fouls and Aaron Gray had 4 fouls. Shaq fouled out late in the fourth.

The Suns pretty much ignored Amare Stoudemire the entire game. He finished with 12 points and 6 rebounds. He played 43 minutes, but only took 7 shots. This seems like a strange strategy, because Stoudemire is the type of player that could really kill the Bulls front court.

The Bulls bigs didn’t have any great games themselves, but did a respectable job on defense, and held their own against the Suns front court. Noah had 4 points and 8 rebounds, Thomas had 10 points 4 rebounds and 2 blocks.

Steve Nash was a non-factor most of the night. He finished with 15 points and 10 assists, but had 7 turnovers. He was just really sloppy with the ball and looked really old tonight.

Kirk Hinrich had 15 points and 6 assists. He wasn’t much of a factor tonight. The offense ran a lot smoother, as usual, with Rose and Gordon in the game instead of Hinrich.

Andres Nocioni had 11 points on 4-10 shooting. He didn’t really do much else in the game, as his only other positive stat was 1 offensive rebound. There’s not much to say about Nocioni anymore, except that he is a no defense chucker. It is imperative for the Bulls to trade Nocioni, he’s an on court cancer. If he is still around after the deadline, the Bulls need to begin phasing him out of the rotation, in favor of Thabo Sefolosha, who had 11 points as well tonight, but also added in 8 rebounds, 2 assists, a block, and a steal.

Grant Hill had 19 for the Suns and Jason Richardson put in 12 points.

It is nice that the Bulls finally got the monkey off their back regarding the three game winning streak. Hopefully they will have many three game or more winning streaks this season.

With the win, the Bulls improve to 21-27 on the season. They remain 1.5 games out of the 8th spot in the East, as Milwaukee also beat Atlanta tonight.

The Chicago Bulls defeated the Phoenix Suns 100-83 at the United Center last night. The Bulls are now 3-0 at home and 3-3 on the season.

Shaquille O’neal and Matt Barnes did not play for the Suns.

The Bulls held the Suns offense down with their suffocating defense. Kirk Hinrich led the Bulls defensive effort by shutting down Steve Nash. Kirk Hinrich finished the game with 5 steals.

Hinrich left the game with a wrist injury. He is having an MRI today and is doubtful for today’s game against the Cavaliers.

Vinny Del Negro moved Kirk Hinrich into the starting lineup. Aaron Gray also was moved into the starting lineup.

Off the bench, Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah both had good games. Tyrus Thomas had 14 points and 7 rebounds and Joakim Noah had 9 points and 14 rebounds. Noah struggled with his free throw shooting.

The story of the game for the Bulls was the great play of guards Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon. Rose finished with 18 points and 6 assists and Gordon finshed with 23 points and 6 assists.

The two players split point guard duties throughout the game. This was great to watch as the Bulls were able to get different offensive looks. Ben Gordon played more of the Gilbert Arenas point guard role while Derrick Rose playe a Dwyane Wade/Young Steve Francis type of role.

Each player takes a lot of defensive attention off of the other, allowing them to effectively operate one on one. There are very few players that can guard Rose or Gordon one on one in the NBA.

Derrick Rose also looked for Ben Gordon out at the three point line whenever he drove the ball.

This has been one of the Bulls’ biggest weaknesses, that they cannot effectively find Gordon for those open three point shots. When Deng, Thomas, Noah, Gray, or Gooden have the balls, Gordon will be wide open for three somewhere on the court, but none of these players possess the court vision to pass to Ben. Well that, or they think that Ben has already taken his fair share of shots. It’s really nice to see a player like Rose feed it to Gordon like that.

Ben Gordon also had another great defensive performance. If the early trend keeps up, we will be able to officially dub Ben Gordon a good defender in the NBA.

Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon already look like one of the best backcourt duos in the NBA. It’ll be exciting to see how great they can be when Rose has had a few more years of seasoning in the league and is, I would assume, a much better player than he is now.

A very good win for the Bulls. The Bulls take on Cleveland tonight at the United Center.