The Chicago Bulls fell to the Golden State Warriors 114-97 in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day matinee game.

This was a bit of an unexpected win from the Warriors given that they were only suiting eight players, three of whom were D-League players. Monta Ellis, Stephen Curry, Corey Maggette, and Andris Biedrins were the only four Warriors’ regulars who played today, and they all played great.

The best player for the Warriors was by far Andris Biedrins, who finished with 9 points, 19 rebounds, and 8 blocks. Biedrins really bothered the Bulls with his length, and was a big part in shutting down the Bulls’ offense in the paint. The only knock on Biedrins today was his poor free throw shooting, where he shot 1-7. All of his free throws were line drives at the hoop, that bricked off the front of the rim. But Biedrins more than made up for the poor free throw shooting with his shot blocking and shot altering ability. Biedrins really set the tone defensively for the Warriors, who did a good job contesting the Bulls’ shots, and also getting set for charges, which also helped to shutdown the Bulls penetration game.

The Warriors got great production from Corey Maggette, who scored 32 points, grabbed 6 rebounds, and dished 5 assists. Maggette shot 11-14, and was automatic from mid range shots in which he just caught the ball, measured up, and shot it.

The rookie Stephen Curry played great today as well, finishing with 26 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists. Curry shot the ball well, going 5-8 from three, hit some nice floaters, and did a nice job defensively on Derrick Rose.

Monta Ellis led the Warriors in scoring with 36 points, but he did that very inefficiently, taking 39 shots to get those 36 points. He also had 8 assists in the game.

John Salmons finished with 25 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists. He did a good job of keeping the Bulls in the game in the third quarter, but was very quiet in the fourth quarter.

Luol Deng played well, finishing with 20 points on 7-16 shooting, and Derrick Rose was solid, scoring 19 points.

Jannero Pargo scored 12 points for the Bulls, but he scored 5 of it in garbage time. When the game mattered, Pargo was hurting the Bulls by taking some really bad shots.

Biedrins really bothered Joakim Noah and Tyrus Thomas. Noah only scored 4 points on 2-10 shooting, and Thomas scored 4 points on 2-7 shooting. Neither knew how to score around Biedrins’ long arms. Both rebounded well, as Noah finished with 16 rebounds, and Thomas had 9 rebounds in 19 minutes before fouling out.

Taj Gibson played well today, finishing with 10 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 blocks.

The Bulls were without Kirk Hinrich, who was suffering a bout with the flu.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 18-21 on the season.

The Chicago Bulls defeated the Boston Celtics 96-83 behind an all around great team defensive effort.

This was a pretty winnable game for the Bulls, as both Kevin Garnett and Rasheed Wallace were sitting out with injuries. The Bulls have really played the Celtics pretty well over the past two seasons when Kevin Garnett has not been in the lineup.

The Bulls took a lead in the first half, and seemed to maintain that throughout the rest of the game. The Celtics would cut the Bulls lead down to around 6 points or so, and then the Bulls would get some stops and hit some shots and build the lead back up to double digits.

The Bulls did a fairly good job defensively tonight, out rebounding the Celtics 50-39, blocking 10 shots, and collecting 9 steals.

Luol Deng led the way for the Bulls scoring 25 points, shooting 8-13 from the field. Deng did a good job attacking the Celtics defense and getting them to foul him, going to the free throw line 10 times.

The Bulls usually struggle dealing with the Celtics’ wide bodied big men, in particular Kendrick Perkins. Perkins played well tonight, scoring 14 points, grabbing 10 rebounds, and blocking 5 shots. While that is a good game for Perkins, it was pretty much negated by Joakim Noah who had 15 points, 11 rebounds, and 4 blocks. If the Bulls are playing the center battle even, they stand a pretty good shot at beating the KG-less Celtics.

The Bulls ended up winning the point guard battle between Derrick Rose and Rajon Rondo. Rose started off slow, as he got into some early foul trouble, but he had a big second half, and finished the night with 17 points, 4 assists, and 8 rebounds. Rajon Rondo finished with 15 points on 6-14 shooting, 7 assists, and 3 rebounds. Rondo didn’t score the ball all that efficiently tonight, and was kind of lazy with the ball, turning it over 5 times. As the commentators mentioned during the game, Rondo kind of looked fatigued out there.

The Bulls got solid games out of Kirk Hinrich and Taj Gibson. Kirk Hinrich finished with 11 points, 6 assists, and 6 rebounds and Taj Gibson finished with 14 points, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 2 steals.

For the Celtics, Paul Pierce scored 20 points, but he only shot 33.3% from the floor. He also had 8 rebounds and 6 assists. Deng can really can do a nice job defensively, as he did tonight on Paul Pierce.

Tyrus Thomas only managed to get 17 minutes in the ball game tonight. He was really active when he was in there, accumulating 5 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 steals. Thomas was pulled from the game for his inability to make shots. He would make brilliant moves towards the basket or get offensive rebounds in good positions, but he wouldn’t finish on those plays.

James Johnson had 2 big time blocks in the 7 minutes he was in the game.

John Salmons really struggled tonight for the Bulls shooting 2-9 for the field. Ray Allen also had an off night, only scoring 8 points on 4-10 shooting. Allen missed four really good looks from three point land that you expect him to nail.

Eddie House came off the bench for the Celtics and scored 11 points on 5-6 shooting.

This was the Bulls third straight win, and with this win, they improve to 17-20 on the season.

When the Bulls decided to let Ben Gordon walk to the Detroit Pistons this past offseason, they signaled that they were going to pursue 2010 free agency. The Bulls face one major problem, which is that they will not have enough cap space to sign a max free agent if John Salmons opts into his contract. So at the trade deadline this year, the Bulls should first look at trying to move either John Salmons or Kirk Hinrich, to ensure that they can sign a max free agent in 2010 free agency. But the Bulls shouldn’t stop there, the Bulls should work to move all three of Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich, and John Salmons for expiring contracts. Moving all three would make the Bulls the biggest power player in the biggest free agent year in NBA history.

First, I would like to clear up some misconceptions. A recent RealGM 2010 Free Agency primer said that the Bulls would have $21.1 million in projected cap space using a $52.5 million even with Salmons opting in. I am not sure where the author got this number, but he either doesn’t quite understand all the subtleties of the CBA, has bad salary data, made some mathematical errors, or a combination of all three.

If Salmons chooses to opt in, with a $52.5 million cap, the Bulls would have approximately $11.468 million in cap space, well short of the $15.75 million needed to sign a max free agent in 2010 free agency using the $52.5 million cap. If Salmons chose to opt out of his contract, the Bulls would have $16.803 million in cap space, enough to sign a max free agent. This of course doesn’t include the Bulls draft pick, which would further reduce the Bulls’ cap space, although if the Bulls were to trade their draft pick, they could have these cap space figures.

If we were to choose to go with the 2010 plan for one max free agent, moving either Kirk Hinrich or John Salmons would ensure that we have the proper cap space for 2010 to sign a max player. Luol Deng could also be moved, but he would be a better piece to keep here to try to attract a max free agent than either Hinrich or Salmons.

However, an even better plan for the Bulls would to move all three of Hinrich, Salmons, and Deng. This would allow the Bulls to sign two max free agents, even if they were to be blessed with the salary commitments that come with the top overall pick in the draft.

How would the Bulls accomplish this feat? They could target a few separate deals moving these players for expirings. But there are two teams, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Dallas Mavericks, who could trade for all three in a single trade.

The Cavaliers could do so in a trade based around Shaquille O’neal’s massive expiring contract. Shaq has only produced 10.7 points and 7.1 rebounds per a game for the Cavs this season, and moving Shaq in a trade for talent to help the Cavs win a championship this year would probably please Lebron more than if the Cavs were to trade his good friend, Zydrunas Ilgauskus, who Lebron promised to win a championship ring for.

The Mavericks also are a championship contender who could use an injection of talent to better their chances at winning the rings. With the window closing on the Dirk Nowitzki era of Dallas Mavericks basketball, I think Mark Cuban in particular would consider such a deal to try to win a championship with Nowitzki. A trade with the Mavericks would include Josh Howard, Drew Gooden, and Kris Humphries going to the Bulls, as well as some more of the Mavericks small expiring contracts.

If the Bulls were to pull off such a trade, they would only have salary commitments to Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, and James Johnson.

The Bulls would take a major stepback talent wise this year, and would probably slide into a top seven draft pick. The Bulls main selling point to the 2010 free agents would be that they would be able to play with Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, a top 7 draft pick, as well as another max 2010 free agent.

Here is how the salaries would work out, using the dream scenario of the Bulls winning the top overall pick.

The salary for the #1 overall pick will be $4.287 million for the 2010-2011 season. Therefore the Bulls would then enter free agency with $33.398 million in cap space.

After they sign their first max free agent, starting at $15.75 million, they will have $18.085 million in cap space.

After they sign their second max free agent, starting at $15.75 million, they will have $2.808 million in cap space.

The Bulls could use that left over cap space to either sign another established NBA player to build depth, or bring Omer Asik over from Europe. The amount of left over cap space would grow depending on how

If the Bulls are able to sign any two of Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, Joe Johnson, and Carlos Boozer, using this plan, I think they will have a pretty good team. I think signing any two of these players would make the Bulls title contenders. Of course, which two out of these six players they sign is important, because the Bulls could be left anywhere from being a lower level contender to an absolute juggernaut, but I think they will be contenders none the less. How their 2010 draft pick pans out also would play a role into what kind of contender they become, as will the continuing development of Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah.

Coming out of the offseason, the Bulls main components would be Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, James Johnson, 2010 Max Free Agent 1, 2010 Max Free Agent 2, 2010 Leftover Cap Space Free Agent, 2010 Top Draft Pick. I think just this here could leave the Bulls ready to compete for a championship in the 2010-2011 championship. They will then have to try to convince veterans signing for the minimum that Chicago is the place they should sign, in order to add depth. I think Brad Miller is one of the expiring guys from this year’s team who would return next year on the minimum salary.

Otherwise, during the 2011 offseason, the Bulls would be able to add depth using the MLE, LLE, and their 2011 draft picks.

This is the plan that will give the Bulls the best bet at winning a championship anytime soon. The Bulls finally need to go all in for a championship, and the best way to do that is going all in for 2010 free agency.

The Chicago Bulls defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 110-96 at the United Center tonight, ending the Bulls three game losing streak.

The Bulls opened up a double digit lead on the Timberwolves in the third quarter, and coasted to an easy victory.

Joakim Noah led the Bulls, scoring 20 points and grabbing 9 rebounds. Kirk Hinrich also scored 20 points and dished 7 assists. The most encouraging thing about Hinrich’s performance tonight was that he went 4-9 from three point shooting. If guys like Hinrich and Salmons start hitting their three point shots again, the Bulls will find it much easier to win.

Taj Gibson also had a nice game, finishing with 13 points an 9 rebounds. Gibson started the struggling with his shot, but he found his stroke after having a shot bounce off the top of the backboard and into the basket. This game helps to further cement Gibson’s spot in the starting lineup with this performance, and Tyrus Thomas’ struggling performance. Thomas does a lot of positives on the court, finishing with 9 points, 5 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2 steals, but he continuously screws himself out of a starting spot by mixing the good with a lot of bad, boneheaded plays, as evidenced by his 6 turnovers tonight.

The Bulls got good performances off the bench from Brad Miller and John Salmons. Brad Miller finished with 12 points and 5 rebounds. Miller has been having a lot of success with his slow motion drives the past few games. John Salmons had 14 points on 6-10 shooting.

James Johnson also had a pretty good game. Nothing eye popping, as he finished with 6 points on 2-2 shooting, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists, but it was still the best that he’s looked in a game this year in my opinion. He showed flashes of his talents in leading some Bulls’ fastbreaks.

Derrick Rose finished with 8 points and 7 assists, and Luol Deng also finished with 8 points.

For the Timberwolves, Johnny Flynn had 14 points and 8 assists, and Corey Brewer and Al Jefferson scored 12 points each. Kevin Love had 9 points and 10 rebounds.

Ryan Gomes led the Timberwolves in scoring with 15 points off the bench.

The Bulls did what they were supposed to do tonight in taking care of business against a terrible Minnesota Timberwolves teams. The only team worse than the Timberwolves are the Nets, so this is the type of game that is a must win, and the Bulls did that tonight.

With the win, the Bulls improve to 15-20 on the season.

The Oklahoma City Thunder struck down the Chicago Bulls 98-85 at the United Center tonight.

The Bulls looked good early on, but fell apart in the second half, only scoring 33 points, some of which were giveaway scores by the Thunder in the final minutes of the game, when they already had assured the victory.

The Bulls problem was that they had a complete inability to score in the half court. A large part of this was a result of the Thunder playing great half court defense. The Thunder’s half court defense was stifling. They closed out on shooters well, and packed the lane with big men waiting for charges, which slowed the Bulls penetration game.

But the other problem is that the Bulls have no one that can really create their own shot in the half court against tough defense. They had one of those players last year in Ben Gordon, and it looks like they will need to find a new one in free agency this summer, so that outcomes like tonight’s game don’t become a common scene. Derrick Rose is still easy to stop because of his lack of range, which allows the defense to pack it in, allowing most good teams to shut down his driving lanes. Surrounded by poor shooters, the Bulls can’t make opponents pay when they overplay Rose defensively, as the Bulls miss these jumpshots all too often, and in this game in particular, the Thunder did a great job closing out on shooters, not allowing the Bulls to take easy jumpshots.

The Thunder were led by Russell Westbrook who had 29 points, 6 assists, and 7 rebounds. Westbrook was a real handful, and Rose did a poor job guarding him. Westbrook scored early on by penetrating and scoring around the basket, but later in the game, he was scoring on some laxly guarded jumpshots that the Bulls were giving him.

Derrick Rose conversely had 19 points on 9-20 shooting, along with 7 assists. The Thunder did a good job contesting Rose’s drives to the baskets, which forced Rose into scoring inefficiently tonight. Rose continued to attack the basket aggressively, which drew the defense with him, opening up some easy offensive rebounding opportunities for his teammate. The Bulls snatched up an impressive 25 offensive rebounds tonight, many of which came on Rose’s misses. That is rebounding on 39% of their misses, which is impressive.

The Thunder also got a lot of help from their other star, Kevin Durant, who finished with 25 points. Durant was silky smooth scoring the ball, although he had some ball handling issues which led to his 6 turnovers, but overall, he played great.

Luol Deng had a double double with 15 points and 10 rebounds, although he scored the ball inefficiently. Joakim Noah also had a double double with 14 points and 14 rebounds. Taj Gibson fell short of the double double with 10 points and 9 rebounds. Gibson played well early in the game, but did little in the second half, although neither did any of his teammates.

Kirk Hinrich continued his good play since returning to the starting lineup scoring 15 points along with 7 assists. One has to wonder whether Hinrich’s poor play early on was a result of him putting himself in a mental funk because he was sulking because he had to come off the bench. Hinrich played fine off the bench last year, so being uncomfortable coming off the bench leading to his poor play is unlikely.

James Harden had 13 points off the bench for the Thunder, hitting many timely threes. The former Bull, Thabo Sefolosha, finished with 7 points and 9 rebounds.

John Salmons struggled, shooting 1-8, as did Tyrus Thomas, who shot 3-12.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 14-18 on the season.

The Chicago Bulls got a big win over the Orlando Magic tonight, behind a big game from Derrick Rose.

Rose came out aggressive tonight, attacking the Magic’s defense. In the third quarter, Rose came up big, scoring 16 points, which coincided with the Bulls building up a big lead in the game. In the fourth quarter, as the Magic began to creep back into the game, Rose was the one to hit the big shot to answer the previously 10 unanswered points scored by the Magic to bring it from a 90-75 game to a 90-85 game.

In all, Rose finished the game with 30 points, 7 assists, and 6 rebounds, in what was one of his finest games of the season. When Rose attacks defenses as aggressively as he did tonight, he increases his scoring efficiency, as he creates higher percentage shots for himself, but he also opens up the game for his teammates. In driving with this type of aggressiveness, Rose forces other players on the opposing team to react, opening up shots for his teammates, and also, when he drives, he can bring help defenders with him, opening up easier offensive rebounds when he does miss a shot.

Another big part of the Bulls win was their ability to shutdown Dwight Howard. Howard finished the game with 9 points and 11 rebounds. The Bulls showed a real team effort in guarding Howard, collapsing on him with help defenders, and having some annoying hands flailing in there to frustrate Howard.

But the biggest factor in the Bulls’ ability to guard Howard was the Magic’s inability to hit their three point shots. The Magic shot 14-37 from three, which is still good for 56.8 TS% on those shots, which isn’t bad at all, but they hit a dry spell from the third quarter to late fourth quarter which really did them in, and kept them from utilizing Howard in the post, as the Bulls collapsed in on him.

John Salmons was big off the bench for the Bulls scoring 15 points on 5-9 shooting, and Kirk Hinrich was solid, scoring 11 points on 4-9 shooting. Both players have been shooting much better since they swapped roles.

Matt Barnes was key in keeping the Magic in the game, scoring 23 points, going 5-6 from three. But Barnes’ big game wasn’t enough for the Magic to win, as both Vince Carter and Rashard Lewis played terribly. Vince Carter finished with 8 points on 3-15 shooting and Rashard Lewis finished with 7 points on 2-9 shooting.

Taj Gibson stepped up for the Bulls, getting a double double with 10 points and 12 rebounds, to go along with 3 blocks, all of which came late in the fourth quarter.

Ryan Anderson gave the Magic 12 points an 9 rebounds off the bench, and J.J. Redick added in 11 points, also off the bench.

Jameer Nelson had a double double with 10 points and 10 assists.

Both Joakim Noah and Tyrus Thomas were only given limited minutes, but both played pretty solidly. It appears that the only reason that those two didn’t get more playing time was because Taj Gibson was playing well, and Vinny favored Miller’s bigger body on Howard over Noah.

The Bulls are playing some very confident basketball right now, and could make a run up to the fifth seed by the end of the season if they keep up this kind of play.

With this win, their fourth in a row, the Bulls improve to 14-17 on the season, and have yet to lose since Tyrus Thomas returned from his broken arm.

According to ESPN Chicago, Kirk Hinrich will replace John Salmons in the starting lineup and Taj Gibson will replace Brad Miller in the starting lineup.

Guard Kirk Hinrich and forward Taj Gibson will be fixtures in the Chicago Bulls’ starting lineup for the foreseeable future.

Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro told reporters after Thursday’s practice that Hinrich and Gibson would replace John Salmons and Brad Miller as starters.

Brad Miller had to be removed from the starting lineup. His play has become pathetic, as he has only scored 2 points in his last 4 games. Taj Gibson, who is the third most efficient scorer on the Bulls, was a logical replacement. Hopefully Tyrus Thomas will be reworked into the starting lineup once he gets a few games under his belt, as he returns from his injury.

Replacing John Salmons with Kirk Hinrich makes little sense though. I guess something had to be shaken up, as Salmons has been playing poorly, but Hinrich has played much worse than Salmons. While Salmons is scoring at a dismal 48.2 TS%, Kirk Hinrich is scoring at an even worse 43.9 TS%. Kirk Hinrich shouldn’t be rewarded for his pathetic play.

However, because of Bulls’ ownership’s cheapness (failure to sign Derrick Byars, despite his great preseason play), the Bulls have few other options to try out. The only other options would be to start Jannero Pargo at shooting guard, or to start Tyrus Thomas or James Johnson at small forward, and move Deng down to small forward.

Bulls ownership has really created a mess with their cheapness. If the Bulls choose to stand pat, the only chance for the Bulls to salvage the season is for Tyrus Thomas to come in and make a big impact. Unfortunately, if Thomas does become the hero of the Bulls season, resurrecting the team from their crappy play, it is unlikely that he would be retained into next season.