Bulls Round Up

Thibodeau Repeat Coach of The Year?

2012-03-23T07:39:00.001-05:00

If a team were to be riddled with injuries, including a combined 59 missed games and counting from their starting five it would be understandable if they didn't perform the way everyone expected coming into the season. Instead "No excuses" is the phrase heard over and over again in the Chicago Bulls locker room, the
team who currently owns the NBA's best record while playing the most road games. This is a result of every player 1-14 buying into what the leagues reigning Coach of The Year preaches day in and day out. No man in NBA history has won the award in consecutive years but if any one were to change that it would be Tom Thibodeau.

Other Coaches that deserve to be in the discussion. Doug Collins has brought a new defensive mentality to Philadelphia, while improving his team to 4th in the Eastern Conference from 7th last year. Frank Vogel, who Bulls fans got an up close look at in the first round of the playoffs last year as continued his teams growth this season. Indiana has gone from squeaking into the playoffs last season to making a different kind of noise rivaling Philadelphia for home court advantage in this years first round.

Put "Thibs" head to head in comparison with the rivals for the award, as voters should and the winner is clear. No coach has had their team play more consistent, outstanding, team basketball. Every player knows their role and what is expected of them. Often times, Chicago's players know when Tom is going to jump on them for mistakes or lapses before he does. He has created a culture with his team that is becoming scarce in professional sports today. One where there really is no "I" in team, when a player cant go into battle he is there cheering on his replacement and the only numbers they care about are in the win column. No other coach has done what Thibodeau has this season or last, he is the coach of the year and arguably the best coach in professional sports today.

Bulls Dominate Magic In a Record Breaking Win

2012-03-21T06:13:00.000-05:00

As expected, Chicago had to go into battle without their Floor General, the leagues reigning MVP. The result? A blowout victory and two new records locked in. The franchise record of fewest points allowed in a regular season game last set by MJ and company in 1997 was rewritten and Tom Thibodeau became the
fastest coach to reach 100 wins (130 Games). The Bulls were the better team from the beginning to the end. Holding Orlando to a staggering 35.3% from the field including 20% from behind the arc. This was the most impressive defensive outing of the season and quite possibly the best of the Thibodeau era.

Carlos Stepped Up

With Rose out, the Bulls needed a strong performance from what many consider to be their second option. Boozer provided just that, grabbing 13 boards and scoring 24 points. He isn't exactly what management thought he would be when they gave him his contract but has really improved from the previous year. Last season, he played his best while playing alongside Kurt Thomas and struggled when Noah came back from injury. The fact that defenses had to honor Kurt's mid-range game gave Carlos more room to work. This season Joakim has developed much more confidence in the "tornado", and they are beginning to hit each other for nice looks. The big's passing game we all envisioned is starting to take form.The improvement should continue as Carlos and Joakim continue to build chemistry.

Here's Johnny!

Lucas came off the bench on fire. He lit up Orlando's defense scoring 9 points in less than a minute and 20 on the night. He is not very efficient on offense when his shots not falling because he tends to dribble down the shot clock and throw up a jumper or pass off to his teammates without a good look or enough time to work. Against the Magic it was, providing some much needed firepower from the Bulls injury riddled back court. Can you really think of a better 3rd string point guard? In all honesty I wasn't a huge fan of bringing Lucas back this year, based upon what we saw last season. But he has made me into a believer, he knows Chicago's system very well, and has been responsible for some huge wins during Rose's absence.

Final Thoughts

You cant help but love this teams heart, they continue to fight no matter what. This was a game that the Bulls going into without Rose were underdogs, they not only came out on top but blew Orlando out of their own building, much of it due to the impressive defensive performance. They held their opponent under 70 for the 7th time this season. The last team to do this was the 03-04 Pistons who went on to win the Championship that year. For the rest of March they face Toronto twice, Denver, Atlanta and Detroit. It's important for them to finish this month out strong because the beginning April is pretty brutal. If Chicago continues to play at the level they are now that should be no problem.

Bulls Play of The Night - Joakim Noah Slam

2012-03-20T14:42:00.000-05:00

"Does anyone know how to post videos to, Facebook?!" -Stacey King

Bulls Derrick Rose May Be Out For Almost Another Week

2012-03-19T08:06:00.001-05:00

Per Neil Hayes:

Tom Thibodeau was asked if there was a chance Derrick Rose will have recovered from an injured groin in time to play against the Magic in Orlando on Monday night."I don't know," the Bulls coach said. We'll see."Thibodeau didn't sound optimistic. It's sounding more and more like Rose will at least sit out the upcoming road trip to Orlando and Toronto. The team will return home early Thursday morning with no games scheduled until the Raptors come to town on Saturday. That may be a more realistic return for Rose, who has been rehabbing and lifting weights but hasn't started running yet.Rip Hamilton (shoulder) also did not play. Several other players are battling lesser injuries. C.J. Watson received a "shot" for his twisted left ankle for the second straight game."I'm alive," Watson said when asked how he was feeling. "That's all I can say."

-Chicago Sun Times

This is unfortunate for Bulls fans, but bringing Rose back to soon is simply not worth the risk especially when they own the best record in the league. At worst Chicago loses to Orlando, beats Toronto and becomes tied in the loss column with Miami. The ideal situation would be to get everyone healthy soon including Hamilton so they can build chemistry during the final month of the season and be hitting on all cylinders right before playoff time.

Chicago Bulls Bounce Back, Beat 76ers

2012-03-18T03:32:00.001-05:00

The Bulls came into the game fresh off a loss that should have never happened, with or without the MVP. They would be without Rose for the 3rd straight game but everyone expected Chicago to come out of the gate like they had just lost to a team under .500. This wasn't the case scoring only 11 points in the first quarter and falling behind by as many as 14. Many fans began to worry that the teams franchise record for games without consecutive losses was going to come to an end on St. Patty's Day. The team was not about to let that happen, they kept fighting, outscored Philly every quarter after the first, took the lead during the third period and never gave it back.

CJ Played Through the Pain

Watson struggled early, I began to think we were going to see a Lucas heavy game with the way he played
in the first quarter. It was clear that the ankle was still bothering him. The thing with Lucas is that if his shooting is cold he is no good to the team. He does give it his all on the defensive end but his size hurts him especially with the bigger point guards. On the offensive end he doesn't provide much ball movement and tends to jack up shots after dribbling down the shot clock at the top of the key. Luckily CJ followed a familiar theme with this team "grinding it out". He turned his game around scored 20 points 10 of which came during the third quarter when Chicago took the lead. There were many doubters when management signed CJ but he has proved to be one of the best backup point guards in the league.

Board Warriors Showed Up Again

Chicago impressed league wide with their rebounding numbers last year. Believe it or not they are rebounding even better this year, averaging 2 more boards per game this season. While this might not seem like a lot the condensed schedule needs to be taken into account when players energy level isn't as high every night and effort plays like rebounding tend to suffer. This trend kept the Bulls in the game, Philadelphia got beat on the glass 39-53 including 9-17 on the offensive end. There are not many teams in the league that have the Bulls emphasis, effort, size or skill on the boards this will continue to prove valuable especially during the playoffs.

Luol Is Worrisome

The wrist is clearly bothering him, his scoring and shooting percentage are down. He hasn't been able to drive down the lane or slash as effectively as we have seen in the past and has even missed some jumpers on good looks. Deng still deserves some credit, his defense is on point as always and when he does hit shots they seem to be when the Bulls need them most. No one needs to be told how important Luol is to this teams Championship chances. Hopefully by the time playoffs roll around the wrist starts to feel a little better and he learns to deal with the pain more effectively. Kobe Bryant has been playing with a similar injury for most of the season and has still been one of the leagues top scorers. It has been reported that Bryant receives injections before each game to deal with the pain. There have been no such procedures reported out of the Bulls camp. I am beginning to wonder if Deng and Chicago's trainers are saving these for the playoffs especially during the later rounds.

Final Thoughts

The Bulls started out a little rough but still kept fighting. Did what they do best, rebounding and defending and pulled out a win. There are some things to improve on and some points of concern. But this team has dealt with some of the worst injuries to their starting five, while still finding ways to win. Tonight they proved once again that they are one of the leagues few elite, and they continue to leave teams like Philadelphia green with envy.

Howard's Magic Snaps Bulls Streak

2012-03-09T16:24:00.001-06:00

As expected Orlando came out ready to redeem themselves after losing to the leagues worst team. What better way to do that than take out one of the elite on their home floor? The Bulls allowed a season high 37 points in the first quarter. They manged to climb back into the game and actually take the lead at one point, but couldn't pull out one of the spectacular wins we have all grown accustomed to in the Derrick Rose era.

Come ready next time Bulls
If Bulls didn't allow that explosion in the first quarter I say they take this one easily. They were down by 18

at one point and still managed to come back. As a lot of us feared, after streaking so much Chicago got complacent. Plain and simple, the Magic came to play the Bulls didn't until it was too late.

The Bad
Chicago gave up 11 of 26 3-pointers, coming into the game Orlando was 18-1 when shooting over 40% from the 3 point line, 19-1 after last night. Korver went 1-7 from the 3 point line and over half of those were almost wide open looks. Deng seems like a ghost of him former self going 1-9 for 5 points. Rose went 6-22 and had only 17 points, although he did get knocked to the floor multiple times without a whistle, if he gets those calls the game might have been different. Orlando also out rebounded Chicago which is a rare feat for an opponent.

The Good
Our Power Forwards actually had a pretty good game. Taj came off the bench played good defense as he always does, the exciting thing was that he broke out of his recent offensive slump. He scored 14 points and shot 85%. This might have been one of Boozers best games as a Bull. He had 26 points while only getting to the line once and shooting 60% from the field. He even played some decent defense when he was put on Dwight. Granted Boozer got scored on but forced Howard into some tough shots. Carlos, can you play like this against the other team in Florida?! Please?

Losses Suck, But Put The Panic Button Away For Awhile
Chicago won 8 straight. They were bound to lose sometime. Orlando had a hot shooting quarter that killed the Bulls, who have slowed much more powerful offenses than Orlando. This game seems more like a fluke than a trend. Chicago still owns the best record in the East and is the only team yet to lose consecutive games. I expect them to bounce back.

Injury Notes
Luol Deng admitted to KC Johnson that his wrist is bothering quite a bit, and might have to sit out a few games. Him playing at say 80% after missing a few games is better than him playing at 40% the whole way. Thibs told reports that Rip is "still aways away from returning." CJ has targeted either tomorrow or Monday as a return date. Here's to hoping everyone is just ready to go by the end of April.

Magic @ Bulls 7pm CT

2012-03-08T15:30:00.000-06:00

Two good but most likely tired teams look to face off tonight on TNT. The Orlando Magic are coming to town playing their 3rd game in 4 nights after losing to the 5 win Bobcats. The Bulls are playing their 4th game in 5 nights and the 2nd game of a back to back. Rose and company are currently riding a season high 8 game winning streak. Usually when teams are streaking like Chicago they get complacent, and last night against the Bucks it showed on the defensive side of the ball. I don't expect that to be the case tonight. Coach Thibs does not tolerate lapses on D and I expect he had a good talk with all of them at shoot around today to address just that and without a doubt has their attention.

Will Boozer Get Lit Up Again?

Boozer helps on the offensive end, he is more skilled than Taj and even when his shot isn't falling defenses honor him more which opens up the lane for Rose to drive, and Deng to slash . Anderson is a stretch 4 and just the type of player that typically has their way with Boozer. Anderson is having a very good season offensively, luckily the last time he met up with Chicago he had an off shooting night. If he changes that tonight and Boozer cant play something that at least looks like defense we might see a lot of Gibson.

Deng Bang?
Luol has pretty much abused Hedo on both ends of the floor in their recent match ups. Tonight shouldn't be any different. Hedo has for the most part been shut down. As of late on the offensive end, Deng has been lighting it up from the 3 point line but his overall shooting percentage is down, as is his scoring. Turkoglu doesn't exactly play the best defense, this could be the match up that gets a Deng Bang going at the United Center.

Fight Outside First
While it is important to try and stop Howard Chicago needs to worry about the shooters first. Basically Orlando is Howard and a bunch of shooters. When their shots are falling they can beat anyone on any given night. So it is important to make stopping them their first priority. Dwight is a beast anyone's chances of completely shutting him down aren't extremely high no matter what they do. What is likely is the rest of the team going away from Howard and chucking up their shots no matter if they're falling or not. They do this quite often.

Who Do You Got Bulls or Magic?
This should be a good one. Orlando is most likely focused after losing to one of the leagues bottom feeders. To Thibodeau the Bulls poor defensive performance last night might as well have been a loss and is wanting to see something different from his team against Orlando. Deng who played 45 minutes and Rose who played 39 are most likely feeling it, no one on the perimeter for Orlando can stick with them meanwhile Orlando has the advantage down low because of the fact that Noah often struggles with bigger bodied centers. If the Bulls drop one after streaking so long I wont be too disappointed, but it would be really nice to keep this thing rolling

Stephen Jackson to Bulls?

2012-03-08T13:06:00.000-06:00

According to Comcast Sportsnet:

“Who wouldn’t want to play with Derrick Rose? Right up the street; it would be a great fit for me. I don’t think anybody in the league would say they wouldn’t want to do that, but me, at the end of the day, I just want to play. I’ve been a competitor my whole career, I’ve won everywhere I’ve went, so at this point, I just want to get back on the court and do what I do best, wherever that is,” Jackson told CSNChicago.com Wednesday morning. “I’m just here, working out every day, just waiting for my opportunity, so I can be ready, but that’s always my goal, to win a championship and I know being on a team like that, it wouldn’t be that hard.

It is nice to hear that players around the league want to play with Rose but, I don't see this happening. The Bucks are looking to shed salary, Korver, Brewer and Watson all have team options for next year.

For salaries to match it would take either: (Korver and Brewer) or (Korver or Brewer and Watson+Lucas)

Jackson is an upgrade over Brewer and Korver, he is not enough of an upgrade to justify losing depth especially with Hamilton getting hurt almost every time he plays and Deng's wrist injury that is at the back of most Bulls fans minds.

Rose MVP's Bucks at Buzzer, Bull Win

2012-03-08T08:55:00.000-06:00

Rose came out of the gate red hot, going 4-4 in the early minutes. He then cooled off a bit going 3-17 until the closing seconds. The Bulls came out of the timeout with 18.1 left on the clock. Everyone in the Bradly Center knew exactly where the ball was going. Rose dribbled the clock down to about 4 seconds before making his move, he faked the drive and shook Jennings off for a split second which is all he needed. The reigning MVP pulled up for an incredibly tough shot just inside the 3-point line, and swish nothing but net. His teammates swarmed him at half court, everyone on that team knows exactly how special Rose is. You could count the players in this league that possess the kind of mental toughness Rose displays time after time on one hand. When asked about still having the confidence after such a rough shooting night Rose replied, "Amnesia".

Boozer Got Lit Up, Anyone Surprised?

I'd be willing to bet that Gooden knew going into the game that he was going to tear it up as long as Carlos was guarding him. He shot 52% and scored 27 points. The 9th year veteran is averaging 24.6 points on 50% shooting in the 3 meetings with Chicago this season. For just a decent player to have that kind of average against what some consider to be the best defense in the league is unheard of. Its pretty clear to Bulls fans where the chink in armor is, by now we're all used to it.

What a Luxury

We didn't see the kind of Bulls basketball we are used to. Chicago got matched on the offensive glass an area where they have dominated all season. They also gave up 104 points to a team that averages only 95.6 per game. This was mostly due to the 17 turnovers which the the Bucks turned into 25 points. If it weren't for Rose it is very likely that the Bulls drop this one. He was only 2 rebounds away from a triple double and scored when it really mattered. It is a luxury to be able to play a game like that and have a player like Rose to carry the team on his shoulders in the closing minutes.

Final Thoughts

As a Bulls fan can you really complain? No, it was not a perfect game, but we still got the W. No team plays perfect every time. The Bulls possess the best record in the league and are riding a 8 game winning streak despite all of our injuries and having played the most road games out of any other team in the league. Lets enjoy the win but it's back to business tonight.

Bulls @ Bucks 7pm CT

2012-03-07T10:25:00.003-06:00

Game date/time: 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, March 6, 2012

Location: Bradley Center

TV: Comcast SportsNet Chicago/NBA league Pass

The Chicago Bulls are set to take on the Milwaukee Bucks tonight as what appears to be a road game on the schedule. Although you would never know given the amount of Bulls fans that travel with them to Milwaukee. Rose and the Bulls look for a season sweep of the lowly Bucks.

Keys To The Game

Don't Fall Asleep: While this is obvious, during this compressed season we have seen that any team can lose on any given night. While the Bucks are sub 500 they are still a very good defensive team, and have already dispatched 2 wins against Miami. The Bulls are rolling right now with a 7 game winning streak, this is usually when teams start to get complacent and comfortable and can drop one to a lower team.

If You Stop Jennings You Stop The Bucks: The Bucks rely heavily on the offensive end similar to the Bulls with Derrick Rose, but even more so. So far in the month of March he has been red hot averaging 31 points and 7 assists during 3 games. He is coming off a 33 point performance in a victory over the 76ers who rank among the best defensive teams in the league. Having said all that I like our chances of Rose and Noah (on the switch and in the lane) slowing him down. Rose has really improved his defense under Thibs and after Jennings scored 16 points of the 1st quarter in their first meeting this year, I'm sure he has Roses attention.

Do What We Do Best: The mind boggling thing is what has kept us in games against good teams has killed us against the bad ones, and that is rebounding the ball. I do not see this being as much of an issue this game given the fact that the Bulls are leading the league in rebounding and the Bucks are 3rd to last. But if the Bulls can take advantage of this we should have no problem winning the game.

Get The Starters Some Rest: Tonight is the first game of a back to back. Tomorrows game is against the Magic who are coming off a loss to the Bobcats so you know they are going to come out hard. The Bulls are going to be without Rip, and CJ tonight and most likely tomorrow night so the need to rest the starters mainly, Rose becomes more crucial.

Final Thoughts

If the Bulls don't come out focused and ready to play this could easily be a game they drop hopefully the team isn't just looking a head to tomorrow nights bigger match up. I don't see this happening, this team has only lost 8 games all year with the mass amount of injuries. They are well coached Thibs has them ready to play 99% of the time. And for that other 1% he has proven that he isn't afraid to pull the starters and go with the bench guys which arguably are better than Milwaukee's starters overall.

GO BULLS!

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