Chicago Bulls Thread

Tough loss at home to the Cavs, in which they were beaten on the boards by the seventh worst rebounding team in the league, who were also without Kyrie Irving. Ouch.

Great response against Philly. Monster triple-double from Noah, with 11 blocks, 23 points and 23 boards. (Only the fourth player in the last twenty years to go 20-20-10 blocks).

That is just BAT SHIT INSANE performance by Noah tonight. He gets my vote for DPOY. At least it's either him or Hibbert in my book.

Noah.

Great bounce back victory, though they have some tough games coming up.

Summing up the Spurs game:

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They just couldn't score in the second half. Granted, they started out 3/16 so putting the ball in the basket was a problem from the opening tip, but they picked it up a bit and weren't in too bad a shape at the half when they were up five. Noah's touch around the hoop was completely absent though and Duncan blocked him quite a few times on top of that, while Boozer couldn't hit anything outside of one nice driving reverse layup around Duncan and a couple of jumpers. I'd have preferred that Nate exercised a little more restraint as well, but I guess that's his game and when the shots are actually falling, it's difficult to complain. They certainly weren't finding the mark tonight, though.

Rose has apparently been given medical clearance to return, but has indicated that he won't return until he feels comfortable dunking off his left leg. Seems fair to me, he needs to be both physically and mentally ready to return, but that's encouraging news all the same.

Thank you again, Belinelli. Great pass by Butler, nice hustle by the rest of the team on the offensive boards too.

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By the skin of their teeth, but I'm sure we'll all take it.

Thank you again, Belinelli.

Seeing his stat line against the Kings hurts my belly, Nelly.

Without the injured (Rip, Hinrich and Gibson) the Bulls have become a real show bag during the last weeks.

I think, the mental pressure on Rose will increase as long as the Bulls are struggling.

Yeah, the less said about the Kings game, the better.

Far better return against the Warriors. Certainly wasn't expecting much after the Kings' game and I didn't think the Bulls had much of a match-up for Curry, but Nate played him extremely well for the most part. Pretty astonishing (or maybe not so much) to see Deng still in the game up 34 with 8 minutes to play, but yeah, very good performance on the road against an extremely solid young team.

Probably not too much point asking about Rose, but is there any word on when Hinrich and Taj will be back? Haven't heard or read much.

Not that you can really complain too much about an 18 point win, but it probably shouldn't have been that close at the end. Still, I guess that's what happens when injuries have depleted your bench, combined with a couple of young Warriors vying for some more minutes by strutting their stuff in garbage time, ending in a slightly more respectable score for Golden State. Nevertheless a great bounce-back victory for them, glad I got to catch that one live. Loved that hustle play towards the end of the first half that ended with an and-one, that was a great run to end the second quarter.

Just glanced at the injury notes over at Yahoo! NBA. They suggest that Gibson could return as soon as Monday, while Hinrich is supposedly out indefinitely.

Ugh. Good news for Gibson at least, but it could be a toss-up between Hinrich and Rose for who gets back first. Either would be great.

You do wonder whether it's actually going to be Rose who's back first at this point. Speaking of Rose, supposedly he's been putting in a lot of time working on his jumpshot and developing a couple of other offensive weapons, so that's something to look forward to once he's comfortable dunking off his left leg and ready to come back full tilt.

Further reading on the work Rose has been putting in while rehabbing his knee.

Tough OT loss to a streaking Nuggets team. As I said in the season discussion thread, love the effort by Noah but unfortunately that was definitely basket interference.

The Miami Heat's streak officially ends due to their loss to our Bulls YAY! Thanks to the defense and effort of Deng

Great win, fantastic game to watch. Amazing effort by, well, everyone really. It seemed like everyone made a big shot or play down the stretch.

Great win, fantastic game to watch. Amazing effort by, well, everyone really. It seemed like everyone made a big shot or play down the stretch.

Agreed, it was a combined effort to stop the Heat, most especially they did it without Noah, Belinelli, & Rose.

The Butler did it:

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Extra satisfying because it was over Bosh, and more satisfying beyond that was that it was after a LeBron James airball.

Outstanding win by the Bulls, almost certainly their best of the year given the circumstances (the streak, Noah/Belinelli/Rip/Rose). Gives them a lead in the season series, too, which at this stage offers nothing but pride, but it's always to get them when you can.

Chance to push the win streak to a season-high four on Saturday against the Mavs. Probably won't be easy given that it has playoff implications for them.

Great play, loved the finish over Bosh.

LeBron was complaining about a couple of the fouls after the game, specifically Hinrich wrapping him up to commit the foul when he barreled into him and Gibson's foul in the fourth, which he claimed "(weren't) defense" and not part of basketball. I'd agree with Bill Simmons' assessment that they weren't flagrant fouls and if it were the 80s/90s, such a notion would be laughed off immediately. As Wilbon also said, if LeBron is going to barrel into people with his knee up and play physically himself, he can't be upset when players are physical with him. Nothing dirty there, though I thought his flagrant on the other hand was deserved. JVG and Breen didn't like that call, but it seemed to me he was lining it up and dropped his shoulder to try and make a statement; a rare hot-headed play from a player who usually doesn't get caught up in that.

Gotta be a feel good win for the Bulls fans. I think the result would have been different if Andrew picked the Bulls to win in the daily prediction thread. Damn...

Most likely. Sometimes it feels good to be wrong.

Great play, loved the finish over Bosh.

LeBron was complaining about a couple of the fouls after the game, specifically Hinrich wrapping him up to commit the foul when he barreled into him and Gibson's foul in the fourth, which he claimed "(weren't) defense" and not part of basketball. I'd agree with Bill Simmons' assessment that they weren't flagrant fouls and if it were the 80s/90s, such a notion would be laughed off immediately. As Wilbon also said, if LeBron is going to barrel into people with his knee up and play physically himself, he can't be upset when players are physical with him. Nothing dirty there, though I thought his flagrant on the other hand was deserved. JVG and Breen didn't like that call, but it seemed to me he was lining it up and dropped his shoulder to try and make a statement; a rare hot-headed play from a player who usually doesn't get caught up in that.

Yeah his shoulder to Boozer had intentional written all over it, he was staring at Boozer the whole time when he did it. I don't think LeBron puts himself in the shoes of his opponent when he makes comments about the way people play Miami and himself. They're the defending champs, everyone is going to gun for them, and because he's a "special" player, people are going to play him physical and take risks to stop him. It's not like when he has the chances to avoid contact he does it, he charges at Kirk on the second play he had one on one with him with the intention to run him over, you're almost begging people to hard foul you when you do that.

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I actually picked the Bulls in 2k13. But since I'm a PC user, I guess the point is moot.