Tempting, but I've already got Kemp in there. Bringing Jordan back would be too easy, even adjusting his ratings to account for age.
November 18th, 2005
Chicago (98) at Seattle (97)
Bulls squeeze out road win, end losing streak
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Boxscore ]
Chicago ended their losing streak at five but a late turnover almost sent them away with a sixth straight loss. Ray Allen intercepted a lazy pass in the waning seconds but the Sonics were unable to get an open look at the basket as the game entered its final ten seconds. Danny Fortson fired an airball from downtown as time expired, giving Chicago its third win of the season.
"It felt good, no question" Bulls guard Ben Gordon said after the game. "We feel we're better than our record, those five straight (losses) lowered our morale. But we're not about to give up on ourselves." Gordon clearly hadn't given up, once again topping the 30 point mark with 34 on 14-for-25 shooting to go along with 4 rebounds and 6 assists.
The Bulls trailed at every quarter break but outscored Seattle 32-23 in the final period. Ray Allen scored 30 points but was 2-for-7 from downtown and couldn't find daylight after making the crucial steal in the final minute. "Obviously that's not what we had in mind," Bob Weiss commented. "We would have preferred Ray to take that final shot but they did an excellent job of containing him and Luke at the end there."
Coach's Diary
November 18th, 2005 - Finally!
I'll be honest, we almost threw that one away but a win is a win and we earned that one. These last five games have taken a toll on everyone, so as you can imagine our post game celebration was a bit exaggerated. You'd think we'd won it all the way the guys were acting but that's to be expected. This was a big win for us, we couldn't afford to get into a bigger hole even in these first few weeks. The longer the streak goes, the bigger that hole gets, the less time you have to climb out of it.
There's still some work to be done, still some points of concern but for the moment we can enjoy this win. We'll just need to be ready for the next game against the Lakers as I don't think Kobe's going to take it easy on us. He's coming in averaging 31.5 ppg and he'll be at home. But we're getting our confidence back and defending a lot better. This season just got interesting.
Out of character notes
I've done a little more work on the sliders. My concern is that in my attempts at realism I've made the game too easy but the fact Seattle still went on a few runs (even going up by 10 in the fourth) and the game remained close is encouraging. I think I might be a bit closer to releasing the sliders and I think losses from here on will be in much more realistic fashion.