The Chicago Bulls fell to the Golden State Warriors 95 to 83 in their first contest in the 2009 Las Vegas Summer League.

The Bulls fell behind early, as Anthony Randolph poured in 16 points in the first quarter. The Bulls would take control of the game in the second quarter, making it a one point game at half time, 46-45 in favor of the Warriors.

The Bulls took the lead, 63-62 with 3:45 remaining in the third quarter on a James Johnson jumpshot, but it was all Golden State from there.

The story of today’s game was Anthony Randolph of the Warriors, who finished the game with 42 points and 3 blocks. The 42 points tied a Las Vegas Summer League record. Randolph now joins Marcus Banks and Von Wafer for having the most points in a Las Vegas Summer League game. Randolph, with his combination of length and athleticism was a tough cover for the Bulls, forcing the Bulls to foul often, as Randolph went to the free throw line 21 times.

James Johnson was impressive in his Bulls debut, scoring 21 points on 9-13 shooting and grabbing 8 rebounds. There isn’t much that James Johnson can’t do on the offensive end, he is a very skilled player. Johnson was shooting the ball well, even hitting a three point shot near the end of the second quarter. Johnson had another three in the fourth quarter that just rimmed out.

Johnson handled the ball very well. There aren’t many players, if any in the NBA, who can handle the ball like he can. He handled the ball for the Bulls often in the half court, but also in the full court, where he led multiple Bulls’ fastbreaks, many of which were successful. He also showed the ability in the half court to take his man off the dribble, and finish off his dribble drive move.

The discerning part of Johnson’s performance tonight was his effort defensively and on the glass. His defense was subpar, and he didn’t show much effort on the glass, lazily going after rebounds, rather than viciously attacking the boards.

Taj Gibson was the opposite of Johnson defensively and on the glass. Gibson was in there fighting for every rebound. Gibson’s motor is excellent, and has the length to be a good rebounder. He looked as long as advertised in pre-draft measurements out there on the court.

Gibson finished the game with 14 points and 12 rebounds. He showed an ability to get out and run the court, which should be a good fit when he’s out there playing with Derrick Rose in the regular season.

The discerning part about Gibson’s game tonight was his 9 personal fouls. A lot of these fouls were on attempted blocks by Gibson. Gibson needs to learn to go straight up with his arm when attempting to block a shot. Not only will he avoid the foul, but he will get more reach, which should lead to more blocks.

Johnson and Gibson shared one really impressive tag team play in the second quarter. Jamal Sampson went up for a shot on the left block, and Johnson and Gibson simultaneously blocked the shot.

James Augustine scored 21 points and grabbed 7 rebounds in just 24 minutes. Augustine hit some jumpshots, and put in a lot of easy shots in the paint set up by his teammates.

Stephen Curry had a tough game, scoring 10 points on 3-15 shooting, but he did have 8 assists and 5 rebounds. Curry looked like a solid point guard, but doesn’t appear to have the skills to be an elite point guard if he isn’t scoring in bunches.

Anthony Morrow and Joe Ingles both put in 10 points for the Warriors as well.

Demarcus Nelson had a solid 14 point, 6 assist, 5 rebound game, while Anthony Roberson put on a brick fest, scoring 11 points, but shooting 3-13 from the field.

Closing Comments

A solid start to summer league for the Bulls. Yes, it was a loss, but in summer league, how you’re prized young players perform is more important than the game result. Tonight, both James Johnson and Taj Gibson showed exactly why the Bulls drafted them, and put on performances that should have Bulls’ fans excited about both players’ futures with the team.

Go Bulls!

The Chicago Bulls overcame some bad coaching by Vinny Del Negro with some clutch scoring by Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon to get a 105 to 102 victory over the Houston Rockets.

Derrick Rose was just fantastic tonight, and really was the leading force in getting the Bulls the victory. He had a monstrous 16 points in the fourth quarter, more than the entire Houston Rockets team. With 32 seconds left, Rose jack knifed for a fall away floater to give the Bulls a 104 to 102 lead.

After stopping some Ron Artest three point attempts, John Salmons made 1 of 2 free throws to give the Bulls a 105 to 102 lead. The Bulls then snuffed out Ron Artest again to escape with the victory.

The lineup of Derrick Rose, Ben Gordon, John Salmons, Joakim Noah, and Brad Miller got stop after stop to allow the Bulls to get back into the game and eventually grab the victory. The Bulls outscored the Rockets 34 to 14 in the fourth quarter.

In total, Derrick Rose had a tantalizing 22 points, 7 assists, 8 rebounds, and 3 steals. He was great tonight. When he is going with this type of aggressiveness, he is hard to stop, and truly looks like a superstar.

Ben Gordon was Rose’s partner in crime in the fourth. Gordon scored 11 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter, including a pretty jumpshot over Yao Ming that tied the game at 102.

Vinny Del Negro pulled Ben Gordon less than 3 minutes into the third quarter. Vinny needs to learn that you need to keep your best players on the court. Rose, Gordon, those guys will make mistakes from time to time, but you have to let them play through their mistakes, as those are the two guys most likely to lead you to victory. And it’s not like Gordon was having a bad game. Almost all of his misses at that points were on some drives to the basket where Gordon attacked Yao, and he was playing some pretty tough defense. With Gordon on the bench, the Rockets outscored the Bulls 30 to 16 in the third quarter.

But Del Negro’s limitations are definitely in the X’s and O’s. The Bulls are playing Boylan Ball again. That is glorified pick up ball. They’re running very few offensive sets for most of the game and just looking for their perimeter players to create some opportunities.

Yao Ming really wasn’t that impressive tonight, only finishing with 17 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 blocks. He didn’t really take over on the offensive end tonight at all and didn’t really affect Rose all that much in the paint in the fourth quarter. Yao also was having some conditioning problems. After solid stretches of minutes, he could be seen lumbering down the court, and made into an ineffective player by his fatigue.

Ron Artest was great tonight, scoring 32 points and stealing the ball 3 times. He was an impressive 6-12 from three point land, with most of his misses on the last two Rocket possessions of the game. The Bulls left the Rockets open for too many threes tonight. They need to double team guys like Luis Scola less, and stay on the three point shooters.

The Bulls young front court was impressive tonight. Joakim Noah had 10 points, 15 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Tyrus Thomas added in 19 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 blocks. What was really nice about these two is that they were attacking the rim, going for dunks, getting the Bulls the easy two points. Tyrus Thomas was also making his jumpers tonight.

The two former Kings were solid tonight. Brad Miller had 11 points and 4 assists and John Salmons added in 12 points and 6 rebounds.

Luis Scola had 16 points and 12 rebounds. The Bulls had a lot of difficulty guarding him, despite using the double team on him quite often.

Von Wafer had 11 points and Kyle Lowry had 10 points.

Kirk Hinrich had an ineffective 7 points on 3-9 shooting. Hinrich’s poor play was a large reason for the Rockets big third quarter.

Luol Deng and Tim Thomas both left the game with injuries.

The Bulls again wore black patches to honor Johnny Red Kerr and Norm Van Lier. Prior to the game, the Bulls honored them with a video montage and a moment of silence.

The Bulls have entered this weird phase, where they’re beating some good teams (Denver, Orlando, Houston) but losing to some really bad teams (Indiana, Washington).

With the win, the Bulls improve to 27-33 on the season. Tonight was a big win as the Bucks got the win in Washington. By winning, the Bulls remaing just 1 game behind Milwaukee for that 8th seed in the Eastern Conference.