The Chicago Bulls ended their longest streak in 2+ years at 3 games in a row Tuesday night against an overpowering performance from the Rockets' frontcourt of Yao, Scola, and Artest. Amongst other reasons to point out that led to this loss, the inability to keep the Rockets off the offensive glass proved to be to big of a hurdle to steal one on the road. With Yao constantly demanding attention from two or three defenders, this was bound to happen, so onwards with those other reasons...nothing really surprising here, just another typical Bulls 08-09 night of basketball.
The Ben Gordon Watch: Ben Gordon wants to be a starter, but if he doesn't chuck up 5 threes in the first 5 minutes, it's time to put the guy in a new role...like 7th man (Hinrich being the 6th). Ben was called for an illegal defense, missed a 1 ft. carnival shot, got a layup blocked by Yao, missed 1 three pointer. It was no surprise that the Rockets got off to a good lead in the first, leaving it up to Thabo and Kirk to claw their way back to two points before the end of the half. There is nothing curious about the case of Benjamin Gordon...he is a terrible basketball player and an unbelievable shooter and scorer, so bring him off the bench to shoot 5 three pointers per half and drive two times and then take him out. They should challenge him to see how quickly he can take his three pointers and then give him bonus minutes if he makes 3 of them under 3 minutes. Basically, just give him his shots and get him out the game and let out a sigh of relief that he didn't give the game away in his minutes.
Then you have Tyrus Thomas, who really was robbed of a block against Yao that was called for goaltending. Tyrus really is understanding where he can be affective with rebounds and blocks. But just when you think he has it figured out, you realize he's so far from it. Shouldn't there be a rule that prevents Tyrus from creating his own shot? I suggest that he is not allowed to shoot the ball unless the person passing it to him yells "all day!" right before he catches it. If he does not hear "all day!" then he must pass the ball. There were about 5 possessions lost to his spin move, pump fake that fooled nobody, and force up a half fadeaway half prayer shot.
After the Bulls pulled within 2 by half time, we got a look at classic Vinny Del Negro's lack of developing a sense of in game substitutions. When he should have had a quick leash on Ben Gordon in the 3rd, he has Ben Gordon play the entire way and squander away any hope of a competitive game. When you have the option to play Kirk/Derrick, Thabo/Derrick, Kirk/Thabo, Lindsay/Thabo...how do you go with Ben Gordon and anybody for the whole 3rd quarter as the game slowly slips away?
This led to another scrappy effort to pull with 5 at 82-77, but too late as the Bulls almost got to the 2nd half spread of +6 1/2 (this is the only way I can get my roommate to follow the Bulls and this site with an Argentine passion) and gave that away with a 7 point loss. Derrick Rose clearly is not okay as he was passive the whole game until the end. One glimmer of hope was with 3 minutes to go, Rose and Tyrus had a Paul/Chandler moment on the pick and roll alley oop which they should do more of. And although they probably won't see too much of that tonight without Chandler or Paul playing, they will have plenty to worry about if they can't straighten out the 3 biggest flaws of this season: Vinny's rotations, the not so Curious case of Ben's play, and Tyrus' offensive limitations.
Prediction: Bulls pull out an upset on the road without Paul picking apart the defense. Hinrich plays more minutes then Ben Gordon, Thabo plays majority of 2nd and 4th quarters, Tyrus has been scolded and plays within his game, Noah rebounds from a tough matchup against Yao.
And who voted that the two Asian men in the last article have no resemblance? Show yourself, oh person of blind eyes!
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