The Chicago Bulls defeated the Detroit Pistons 92-85 at the United Center, snapping their five game losing streak.

The story of the game of course was Ben Gordon’s return to the United Center. When he first checked into the game he was greeted with a mixture of cheering and boos.

It was good to see a sizable portion of the United Center crowd cheering for the guy. Unfortunately, I don’t think this crowd is necessarily representative of what would happen with a normal United Center crowd. I suspect that a lot of Ben Gordon’s bigger fans among the Bulls’ fan base purchased tickets for this game. A normal United Center crowd probably would have been full of more of the non-informed fans who booed Gordon, who don’t really understand basketball and the contribution that Ben Gordon brought to the Bulls’ basketball wise, as well as his great conduct off the court.

It’s impossible to support fans who decided to boo Ben Gordon. Gordon was the Bulls’ best player for almost his entire time in a Bulls uniform, and did nothing but work hard his entire time in a Bulls uniform. His Bull career ended with him scoring 33 points on 55.7 TS%, as he tried to gut out a victory for the Bulls while playing on a torn hamstring.

Ben Gordon ended up having a mediocre return to the United Center, which is not really surprising, given that he was coming off an ankle injury. Gordon still finished with 18 points on 6-16 shooting. To put Gordon’s performance in perspective, he scored on a greater volume and scoring efficiency in this game than John Salmons, Kirk Hinrich, and Jannero Pargo, the three players who are replacing his minutes on the court.

Defensively, Gordon stuck his man pretty well. Derrick Rose and John Salmons had some pretty good nights, but very few of their points came against Gordon.

Defensively, the Bulls were a mixed bag defensively on Gordon. John Salmons and Lindsey Hunter were a complete failure in guarding Gordon. Gordon missed a lot of shots that he would normally make against those two. Neither could keep him from getting clear looks at the basket, and Salmons especially had trouble stopping Gordon from getting to the basket.

Where the Bulls excelled defensively on Ben Gordon was in their help defense. That is because of Luol Deng and Joakim Noah. These two guys were frustrating Ben Gordon all night. I think this shows that Luol Deng and Joakim Noah are some high basketball IQ players. They seemed to know Gordon’s game as good as one can. Whenever he burned John Salmons, Noah or Deng were right there helping, making the correct reactions to frustrate Gordon’s shots.

I think Ben Gordon definitely has the potential to be a Bull killer in the future. He can get any shot he wants at will against John Salmons or Lindsey Hunter. Things might be a little different when Kirk Hinrich is guarding him, but with Hinrich’s physical play, it’s easy to see Hinrich getting into foul trouble. Ben Gordon also has a history of completely burning smaller guards, so that also works in Gordon’s favor in the potential Ben Gordon vs. Kirk Hinrich matchup.

As for the rest of the game, this was a win the Bulls needed, as they were coming off a five game losing streak from their road trip, and they were also playing a bad Detroit Piston’s team. The Pistons were without Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Charlie Villanueva, and Ben Gordon was coming off of an injury. The Bulls better beat a team who features Chucky Atkins, Jonas Jerebko, and Jason Maxiell in their starting lineup.

The Pistons starting lineup finished with only 33 points on 11-37 shooting. No team is going to win when their starting lineup performs that poorly.

This is not to say that the Pistons will be a bad team all season. If they get all of their guys back, they can probably make the playoffs. As bad as they have been, they’re only 1.5 games behind Charlotte for the final playoff spot, and are only 4 games behind Miami for a playoff seed that features home court advantage.

The Bulls seemed to be in control of the game nearly the entire time. The Pistons made some runs to close the gap some throughout the games, but the Bulls would repeatedly build their lead back up.

Derrick Rose had a good game, scoring 19 points on 6-9 shooting along with 6 assists. He did have five turnovers in the game, but his highly efficient scoring mitigated the effect of those turnovers.

John Salmons did great offensively, scoring 22 points on 7-12 shooting, but he had trouble defensively, stopping Ben Gordon from getting good shots.

Luol Deng struggled a bit, scoring 14 points on 5-15 shooting, but his defense was superb.

Joakim Noah had another great night, finishing with 7 points, 14 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 blocks.

Brad Miller finally had a good game, finishing with 16 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists.

For the Pistons, Rodney Stuckey finished with 17 points, but did it on 4-16 shooting. Stuceky struggled to score efficiently tonight as he is very much a one dimensional scorer, who gets his points by driving to the basket. The Bulls set up with good help defense when he drove, and that forced him to score inefficiently.

Willy Bynum and Kwame Brown finsiehd with 10 points each.

The former Bull, Ben Wallace, finished with 0 points and 7 rebounds.

With the win, the Bulls improve to 7-9 in the season, and are slotted as the 7th seed in the East.

Ben Gordon will return to the United Center tonight for the first time as a Detroit Piston in his first career game against the Chicago Bulls.

The results have not been good for either party since the split. Ben Gordon, while still having a good season, has seen his scoring average drop to 19.8 points a game (from 20.7 points a game last season) and his scoring efficiency drop to 55.6 TS% (down from 57.3 TS% last season). His Detroit Pistons have struggled early in the season, standing at 6-11 on the season.

The Bulls, meanwhile, are standing at 6-9. The Pistons can pass the Bulls in the standings with a win tomorrow.

The reasons for both the Pistons and Bulls struggles so far this season are clear. The Pistons are losing, simply because they have been without two of their top three players (Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince) for nearly the entire season. Most teams would do as poorly as the Pistons have if they were missing their second and third best players.

The Bulls struggles so far this season are a result of Ben Gordon. In losing Ben Gordon, the Bulls lost around 20 points of efficient scoring. Not only did the Bulls lose that valuable asset, but the Bulls also lost the focus of the other team’s defense. Every moment Ben Gordon has stepped on the court in a Chicago Bulls’ uniform from the 06-07 season onward, he has been the focus of the other team’s defense. Gordon drew defensive attention away from his teammates, giving them better scoring opportunities.

In losing Gordon, the Bulls also lost a leader, the main leader of the team. He was never voted in as a team captain during his tenure with the Bulls, but he still remained the team’s main leader. The way that Gordon led the Bulls was much more valuable than leading by having a C attached to his name on the roster. Gordon led by example, by taking over games single-handedly when the situation called for it. He didn’t always succeed, but he did more often than not.

The effect of Gordon’s absence on the offense can easily be seen through stats. The Bulls are ranked 27th in the league in Offensive Rating, with an O-Rtg of 99.5. O-Rtg is how many points a team scored per 100 possessions. The Bulls offense is broken. There is no space for Rose to drive, which is a result of the Bulls shooters bricking wide open shot after wide open shot, which has allowed opposing defenses to pack it in, instead of staying out on shooters. The Bulls also lack an effective post player, although Joakim Noah has shown some nice post moves so far this season.

The Bulls offensive problems rest solely on the players. Vinny Del Negro is running the same offense as last year, and as seen by the Bulls in the second half of last season, Vinny’s offense can put up a lot of points. The Bulls’ offensive problem is a lack of offensive talent. Currently, only Joakim Noah at 56.6 TS%, is scoring above the league average in scoring efficiency. The Bulls collective low scoring efficiency is a result of not getting to the line a lot and also not making three point shots.

Ben Gordon’s replacements have been especially poor. John Salmons is scoring at 46.4 TS%, Kirk Hinrich at 45.3 TS%, Jannero Pargo at 46.3 TS%, and Lindsey Hunter at 17.9 TS%. Players who score at that low of an efficiency really shouldn’t be seeing much court time as there is very little possibility that they can be contributing enough in other areas of the game to make up for how much of an offensive liability they are.

The Bulls of course were supposed to be winners, even with a worse offense, because of their new and improved defense. That looked to be the case early on, however, the Bulls defense has completely collapsed. The Bulls are currently ranked 16th in defensive rating (and going down after every passing game), only a two rank improvement from last year’s 18th rank. The Bulls are in the same boat as they were last year defensively. Going from Ben Gordon to John Salmons and Kirk Hinrich has done nothing to improve the Bulls’ defense.

The Bulls have decided to combine some of the league’s worst offense with mediocre defense, and the results are exactly what should be expected, and that is losing. The complete lack of quality offense and the Bulls’ staying the same defensively shows exactly how valuable Ben Gordon was to the Bulls. In losing Gordon this year, it is becoming clear that the Bulls made a very poor basketball decision, as far as this year is concerned.

And so it looks we move on to 2010 free agency to see if the Bulls made the right decision in letting Ben Gordon go. If they land Lebron James, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, or Dwyane Wade, it will clearly have been a good decision, as the Bulls will end up with a much better player than Gordon in the end. However, even if they do land one of those elite players, it probably still is a bad decision, as a good management would have found a way to keep their best player, while gaining the financial flexibility to sign one of these players who thrust the Bulls into championship contender status.

When Ben Gordon returns to the United Center tonight he will probably be booed by the crowd. But it is the management who lost their best player for nothing who should be booed. It is the owner who is too cheap to pay his best player what he is worth who should be booed. It is the Chicago sports media, who covered Gordon’s contract negotiations from Jerry Reinsdorf’s point of view who deserve to be booed.

If you are going to the game tonight, do not boo the player who worked hard everyday he was with the Bulls and who was the central cog in lifting the Bulls from their status as NBA bottom dwellers. Instead let your discontent be known for the management and ownership who are responsible for the Bulls currently being a 6-9, losing basketball team.

The Bulls came home to the United Center to get their butts whooped by the Boston Celtics, who dominated them 107 to 86.

The Bulls came out shooting rough, and never recovered.

This game was a Celtics dominated game. Rajon Rondo was the Celtics’ leading force once again, finishing with 20 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists, and 5 steals. This guy is full of so much energy, so much aggression, and just leads his team. Bulls aren’t going to stop him in this series, Rose is one of the worst defensive point guards in the league, so they will have to hope that Gordon and Salmons can slow down Ray Allen and Paul Pierce if the Bulls have any hopes of winning this series.

Rondo had to be helped off the court at the end of the game, but I doubt that is meaningful. With an injury like Rondo’s, a lot of times you will feel just fine after stretching it out and getting the adrenaline flowing. I expect Rondo to be fine when out on the court, and to continue to dominate the point guard matchup.

Paul Pierce led the Celtics in scoring with 24 and Ray Allen accompanied him with 18 points. They scored their points, and with the Celtics’ big three all rolling, it was an easy win for the Celtics.

Ben Gordon led the Bulls in scoring with 15 points and also had 2 steals. He shot 5-13, and 4-6 from the free throw line. He started off the game missing some free throws and some shots, and didn’t have much of an impact tonight. He just needs to geti n the gym, realign his jumpshot, and he will be fine.

John Salmons had 14 points and 4 turnovers. He had some incredibly dumb plays in the game.

Kirk Hinrich gave the Bulls 14 points on 5-10 shooting off the bench and Joakim Noah gave the Bulls 8 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 blocks.

Derrick Rose had 9 points, 2 assists, and 7 turnovers. The Celtics cut off the lane, which rendered Derrick Rose pretty much useless. Rose needs to learn how to shoot the three point ball over the summer if he wants to stop this from happening again.

Glen Davis gave the Celtics an impressive 14 point, 9 rebound, and 6 assist game.

I think most embarrassingly of all, Stephon Marbury had 13 points and 5 assists off the bench off the Bulls.

The Bulls won the offensive rebounds battle tonight, but I think that was more of a function of the Bulls missing a lot of their shots while the Celtics made a lot of theirs.

With the Celtics victory, they take a 2-1 lead over the Bulls in the best of seven series. The two teams play again on Sunday at noon, on ABC.

Closing Comments

I will keep this portion brief. Everyone on the team pretty much played like garbage, while the Celtics played collectively good. Nothing more to this game than that really.

Hopefully the Bulls bounce back strong next game. I expect Gordon will, and same with Joakim Noah, I just hope the rest of the players rebound as well.

Go Bulls!

The Chicago Bulls defeated the New Jersey Nets 113 to 104 tonight at the United Center.

The Bulls fell behind big in he first, but fought their way back by some hot shooting from Ben Gordon.

In the fourth, Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon took turns making big plays to get the Bulls the win. Ben Gordon started it out by dishing to Rose on the wing, who sunk a three, tying up the game. The next time down, Gordon hit a three to give the Bulls the three point lead. Then a combination of a Derrick Rose fall away shot, a Ben Gordon pass to a cutting Luol, and a Ben Gordon free throw off of a Devin Harris technical locked the game up for the Bulls.

Ben Gordon was absolutely tremendous tonight. Gordon finished with 29 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Ben Gordon seems to have found his three point shot again, and when Gordon is on from three, he is one of the deadliest scorers in all of basketball. Gordon is running off a lot more screens now, allowing for Derrick Rose and Larry Hughes to set him up for wide open jumpshots.

Derrick Rose was great too, finishing with 22 points, 6 assists, and 6 rebounds. He seemed passive for a lot of the first half, but really turned it on in the fourth, which was great to play. Unlike in past games where our fourth quarter attack was only one of Rose or Gordon, or a very awkward combination of the two, this game, Rose and Gordon played off of each other brilliantly in the clutch.

Larry Hughes had a solid game, scoring 10 points, grabbing 6 rebounds, and passing for 3 assists. Hughes had a tough shooting game tonight, only shooting 3-10, but he took his shots within the offense, so it’s hard to get mad at him.

Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah seem to be back, well at least for tonight. Thomas finished with 16 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 blocks. It seems that Thomas was short changed in the box score in the block department. Thomas played smart for most of the game, played good defense, and actually ran the court. Thomas completed three alley oops tonight, one from Ben Gordon and two from Larry Hughes. Joakim Noah had a solid 7 point, 8 rebound, 3 block game. He finished the easy shots set up for him and played good defense. Not much more you can ask out of these two than what they gave us tonight.

Luol Deng and Drew Gooden continue their horrible play. There was a trend going on for most of the game. When Deng and Gooden were in the game, the Nets would go on a run. The only time this didn’t happen was at the end of the game when Rose and Gordon took over.

Luol Deng finished with 11 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists. Deng had some nice scores that were set up by Rose and Gordon. Deng is a very selfish player ou there. At the end of the game, after grabbing a rebound, Deng refused to pass it to the wide open Gordon, the best free throw shooter on the team, and instead absorb the foul himself, presumably to pad his stats. Deng then proceeded to miss the first free throw. Deng also had his share of selfish, ineffective one on one iso plays that he likes to do.

Deng continued his career of anti-clutch play. He missed the aforementioned free throw after his display of selfishness, but he also had a turnover on a 5 second violation and various stupid fouls on Vince Carter down the stretch. Deng was so bad that Del Negro had to pull him for Hughes for the final seconds of the game.

Drew Gooden scored 14 points on 5-14 shooting and brought his usual lack of defense.

Vince Carter completely dominated Luol Deng, scoring 39 points. Luol Deng looked like he was 40 years old out there. Deng could not keep up athletically with Carter at all and his only answer was to foul Carter.

Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon did a pretty solid job defensively tonight. Devin Harris was limited to only 22 points on 6-18 shooting. Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah had a lot to do with Harris’ shooting woes, but Rose did a solid job making things a bit more difficult for Harris as well. Bobby Simmons got off to a quick 9 points in the first quarter amidst defensive confusion resulting from Deng’s inability to guard Carter. Gordon then stepped up his defense, bringing Simmons down to 5-11 shooting for the game, only giving up 12 points.

Brooke Lopez had a very good 17 point, 7 rebound, 3 block game tonight. He looked very good.

With the win tonight, the Bulls improve to 11-12 on the season.

The Chicago Bulls defeated the New York Knicks 105 to 100 at the United Center tonight. This was Vinny Del Negro’s first game against his former co-worker, Mike D’Antoni.

The game was close most of the way, with the Knicks leading the Bulls late in the fourth. With the game tied 97 to 97 Larry Hughes sank a three point shot to give the Bulls a 100 to 97 lead. Larry Hughes than got a key offensive rebound the next time down the court. The Bulls called a timeout, and Hughes got it to Gooden who was fouled. Gooden sank 2 free throws to give the Bulls a 5 point lead and clinch the game.

The two former Cavaliers were instrumental in this win. Larry Hughes had 16 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 steals, but reverted to some of his old poor shot selection habits. Hughes was key down the stretch of the game, grabbing big rebounds and hitting big shots. Drew Gooden finished with 22 points and 16 rebounds, chewing up New York’s weak interior defense.

Former Bull Chris Duhon was great tonight, scoring 15 points and 14 assists. Duhon had 9 rebounds and was a rebound short of the triple double. Duhon managed the Knicks offense well and penetrated at will. Duhon also frustrated Gordon when Duhon guarded him.

Ben Gordon had a cold shooting tonight. Gordon finished with 17 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals, but shot 6 of 18. It is an obligation to say this. Ben Gordon has been great with his midrange game this year. He has been good driving the ball, he has passed well, and played great defense. But Ben Gordon is missing too many of his three point shots. Ben Gordon absolutely needs to get his act together from behind the three point line. Ben Gordon is playing really good right now, but his three point shot is what makes him a very deadly player.

Derrick Rose just had a solid game tonight, scoring 15 points and 7 assists. His defense on Duhon wasn’t particularly good for most of the game, but he stepped it up in the fourth quarter, forcing Duhon to miss on some layup attempts.

Luol Deng had another solid game, finishing with 16 points and 8 rebounds. It is nice to see Deng being productive when on the court.

Quentin Richardson had 22 points for the Knicks. Joakim Noah finished the game with 4 blocks.

Tyrus Thomas received a DNP - Coach’s Decision.

Al Harrington was the Knick’s best player tonight, finishing with 28 points. The Bulls interior defense was as usual, non-existent. What was really frustrating was seeing D’Antoni force the Bulls to switch at will. Al Harrington was able to frequently take advantage of Ben Gordon and Derrick Rose in the low post.

The vice president elect, Joe Biden, was in attendance for the game. He watched the game with David Axelrod and Steve Schanwald, who delivered the Bulls the number one pick in the 2008 NBA Draft Lottery.

Late in the game, Stacey King accused Neil Funk of not being able to properly see and accused Funk of seeing things. This is consistent with a complaint from Bulls fans that Neil Funk constantly calls the game wrong, mistaking players for other players.

With the win, the Bulls improve their record to 10-11. The Bulls are currently occupying the 8th seed in the East and are 1 1/2 games behind Detroit for the 7th seed.

The Chicago Bulls defeated the Washington Wizards tonight at the United Center 117 to 110 in an ugly basketball game.

Ben Gordon had a really nice game for the Bulls. He finished with 21 points on 9-15 shooting, 7 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals, and 1 block. In the third quarter, Antonio Daniels made a drive to the basket and Ben Gordon met him at the rim and swatted away Daniel’s layup attempt, igniting a Bulls fastbreak. Following the block, Gordon did the Dikembe Mutumbo finger wave in Daniel’s direction. It was one of the greatest blocks in Bulls history.

His backcourt mate, Derrick Rose, also had a nice game. Rose finished the game with 15 points and 8 assists.

The third guard, Larry Hughes, also had a tremendous game. Hughes finished with 24 points, 5 assists, and 2 steals. The most impressive part about Hughes’ game tonight is that he shot 5 of 6 from three point. Hughes has just been playing great basketball as of late. Larry Hughes is not only easily the most talented potential third guard on the Bulls, but also the most effective, as he can play the point guard, shooting guard, and small forward positions, something Kirk Hinrich and Thabo Sefolosha cannot do. With Hughes’ great play, it is pretty clear that there won’t be minutes for Hinrich in the backcourt when he comes back.

Luol Deng put together a nice game for the second night in a row. Deng finished the game with 26 points on 11-19 shooting. He did his usual disappearing act in the fourth quarter, but if the Bulls get three great quarters out of Deng like in 2006-2007, then the Bulls are going to be a tough team to beat with Rose and Gordon’s great fourth quarter play.

Andres Nocioni also had a nice game, although he was bound to have one after about 9 horrific games. Nocioni finished the game with 19 points and 3 assists.

Vinny Del Negro opted to go small most of the game. It is hard to blame Vinny for this, the front court has been abominable all season long. They left Vinny with no choice. Aaron Gray got the start over Joakim Noah, who had a DNP - Coach’s Decision. Tyrus Thomas only played 5 minutes. The front court players who did play were useless for the most part, although Gooden had a solid 12 points and 10 rebounds. The front court defense is still non-existent.

Antawn Jamison had 23 points and 12 rebounds for the Wizards, and Caron Butler added in 27 points.

With the win, the Bulls improve to 9-11 on the season.

Rookie of the Month Derrick Rose and Bulls’ coach Vinny Del Negro are glad to be home after a lengthy road trip. What did the team learn from the trip? It’s time to get back to work at the United Center.