The Bulls are on game 6 of a 7-game road trip. For now, we'll forget about the loss to Minnesota. The Bulls won 3 games in a row for the first time all season, and they were all away from home. Pretty impressive for a team that was 5-16 on the road going into the trip. A loss last night to the Rockets brought the team back down to Earth.
Tonight the Hornets are without Chris Paul, sitting with a groin injury. (Their previous game, the Hornets led Portland by 20 in the 3rd quarter when Paul went down. Portland then won the game.) He shouldn't be out for too long, and says he’s playing in the All-Star game. Apparently he wanted to try to play tonight, but coach Byron Scott said no way. Hopefully that’s not cuz he’s taking the Bulls lightly. They have been improving their play the last couple weeks. Last night seemed to be a bit of a freak game, where they uncharacteristically missed too many FTs. I would not have expected them to necessarily win, especially given the way Yao Ming dominated them inside, but they could have. The game should have been much closer if they’d made their FTs, and their too-little-too-late run at the end of the game made the final score a 7-point game. Had the Bulls shot FTs how they normally do, they would have definitely been playing for a win down the stretch.
1st Quarter
I missed keeping a running diary for the beginning of this game, so let me get you up to speed.
Tonight, the Bulls picked up right where they left off the end of last game (where they were unfortunately too late to actually win), jumping out of the gate to an early double-digit lead. I don’t know how good Chris Paul is on defense, but I feel like even if he was playing tonight, the Bulls would still be leading. They started off hitting 12 of 15 shots; jumpers were falling, including a few by Rose (Deng actually seemed to be the only person to miss one, ironically). **Jump shots are one thing I like paying attention to. I feel like Luol Deng can hit them at will, and even though this was the biggest knock on Derrick Rose, he has proven himself more than capable of knocking them down.** Clearly though, the Hornets do seem a little lost on offense. Peja Stojakavic took quick shots on the first 3 possessions, although he made the first 2. The Bulls however ran the ball and the Hornets seem like they can’t catch up.
2:13 – Bulls lead 29-15, shooting 81%. A little different from last night’s 0/10 start. Tyrus makes 2 FTs. Good to see; he had been shooting them poorly the last 2 games.
2:02 – Another Hornets turnover.
1:38 – Another missed shot inside by the Hornets. No one seems to want to shoot. Bailed out by loose ball foul, but Peja then travels.
1:12 – Peja hits a 3. He’s seems to be their go-to guy tonight.
:51 – Bulls have missed 3 straight shots. Darn, I was hoping they’d keep it above 80%.
:1.4 – Shot clock violation. Bulls have made zero FG since I started tonight's diary.
2nd Quarter
10:45 – Hornets cut lead to 9.
9:30 – Bulls have gone cold. 36-28. I think I got my hopes up too early.
6:52 – Noc gets a powerful 2-hand jam down low. 2 straight baskets for him. Hornets still not playing great D. 41-30.
6:20 – Derrick Rose banks home a jumper from the elbow.
6:01 – Steal by Noc and dunk by Deng. 45-31.
5:23 – Noah nice throw-in/dunk and-1. 2nd time announcer Stacey King uses the term “crab dribble”. Noah misses FT.
4:52 – Gordon takes it to the hole on 3 guys and has a wild shot blocked. He does that a few too many times.
4:07 – Deng has a shot blocked, but it goes right to Noah, who puts up a nice spin-hook. Is he really starting to get it?
3:36 – Nice look from Rose to BG for a wide-open 3. Ben is having a really nice shooting year so far.
30 seconds later – BG misses a 3. Damn.
2:32 – Block by Noah, Rose leads a 3-on-1, and gives a sweet behind-the-back-no-look pass at the last possible second to Noah for the dunk. Noah is really running the floor nicely lately and Rose is rewarding him with a lot of dunks. It's about time!
2:21 – Another steal by Rose, who showtime passes to Noah, who showtime passes back to Rose for a layup. Nice!
Holy crap it’s 56-39! I was so distracted by the Bulls scoring I didn’t realize how big a run this is!
1:36 – Tyrus has a 2-handed jam attempt blocked by David West.
1:10 – Rose calls for a pick-n-roll, drives and hits the layup, and gets an and-1! Hooray, they’re calling fouls against Rose! Rose misses FT. He needs to fix that shit. LeBron II.
:55.7 – Bulls 58-43. Thomas, Noah have 10. Rose has 14. Gordon 12. Noc 8.
:43 – Gray gets a turnaround hook to fall. Even he's playing better these past few games!
Halftime:
Bulls lead 62-44. 63% (26/41) FGs, 7/10 FT, 17 Reb, 16 Ast, 30 points in paint, 16 fast break.
Hornets: 41% FGs, 12/14 FTs, 18 Reb, 10 Ast, 16 in paint. 0 fast break. David West 14, Peja 9, Devin Brown 9 off bench. Most points allowed in 1st half all season.
3rd Quarter
11:52 - Bulls cause 8-sec violation to start 2nd half. Wow.
10:38 – BG puts up a 3 off the dribble. He’s been doing that move since college. Little stutter-dribble then jack up a 3.
30 seconds later – BG misses a 3. Damn. That’s twice now.
9:18 – Tyrus misses dunk, dunks again. Refs call violation. Not sure where.
Speaking of College, Hilton Armstrong is getting some minutes for NO. A UConn reunion!
8:23 – Rose hits a deep 2. One step inside arc. Nails it! He started off the year by hitting the jumper pretty consistently, then dropped off a bit the 2nd month. Now, he appears to be back to form.
7:35 – Noah gets a feed inside for BG, hits the turnaround off the glass. Looking good Joakim! Joakim the Dream! 71-49! Wow, is this our biggest lead all season?
6:01 – BG hits a long 2.
30 seconds later – BG misses a 3. I'm sensing a theme here...
4:58 – 3 FTs by Posey off a small foul call on Tyrus. 73-57.
4:34 – shot clock violation by Bulls. One pass too many.
4:12 – “Hornets have gone small now.” 73-59. Bulls should be able to go small too.
3:50 – almost another 24-second violation. Off. Reb, Noah gets a 2.
3:16 – Noah gets it down low, good dish to Tyrus, who’s going to the line for 2. Misses first, makes second. 5/6 on the night.
2:25 – Hinrich takes a charge. Good job, Kirk.
1:37 – Bulls running again. Deng hits 1/2 FTs.
1:06 – Noah tries to one-hand an alley-oop, but the pass was just a bit too long. From Hinrich I think.
:42 – Hinrich hits a jumper. Bulls shooting 59%. Bulls 20-5 fast break, 36-24 in paint.
:1.4 – 24-second shot clock violation again. I’ll let this one slide, since there’s only 1.4 left.
80-61. Apparently FTs keeping the Hornets this close.
4th Quarter
10:27 – Signature Tyrus Thomas block/goaltend. This one goes in the books as a block. Those usually go about 50-50.
10:05 – Kirk draws a foul shooting a 3. Almost makes it. Looks like he may have jumped into the guy, but on replay, not really. Kirk makes the FTs. Apparently it was just a 2. Oh well. The Bulls are at least hitting their FTs. Hopefully VDN made them shoot a bunch after last night’s loss. Never let FTs cost you a game (or at least a shot at one). They essentially did last night.
9:32 – Tyrus a sweet 2-handed dunk. Jumped from pretty far away. Thomas gets called for a technical. Probably deserved it. Said something to the ref afterward.
Apparently LeBron had a triple-double tonight at MSG – 52 pts, 11 ast, 10 reb. Last rebound came on last play of game. Nice followup to Kobe’s 61-point explosion the other night.
***Update: NBA takes away triple-double after finding a rebound was incorrectly given to him at the end of the game.***
5:22 – Rose nice floater and-1. Makes FT!
5:05 – Peja another 3. Yay fantasy points! Of course, it’s 93-81 now. Hornets just aren't going away.
3:48 – Tyrus hits a jumper! Nice. Little risky, since our lead shrunk to 10 and there’s still 4 minutes left. But he’s beginning to knock that down, and it’s nice to see he’s confident.
3:06 – Bulls 97-85. Just don’t screw this up guys, there's only 3 minutes left. West hits 2 FTs.
Stat showing on the screen right now: Points in Paint in late game pressure, Season Leaders: Paul 70, Duncan and Big Al 62, DRose 56. Rose will be adding to that total. He may be #2 by the end of the night.
2:48 – Deng hits a jumper.
2:26 – Hornets “hack-a-Shaq-ing” Noah. Interesting. Foul Noah while Hinrich has ball. Noah hits 1/2. Hot Dog! 100-87.
1:59 – Rose breaks for layup before they can foul Noah. Update that stat!
:27.2 – Hornets can’t even lose this game with dignity. Some big white guy on their team looks like he doesn’t want to touch the ball and it hits his back and bounces OB.
Final 107-93. Bulls 4 for their last 5! Shocking!
Box score notes: Tyrus 15 and 10R, Noah 16 and 9R. 12/16 FG , 5 blocks for the 2 combined. 2 steals by Tyrus. Gordon 19 and 7A, Rose 21 and 6A, 10/14 FGs.
Peja and West 24 each. 14 and 7 rebs. respectively. Devin Brown 17 and 7 Ast off bench.
No comments:
Post a Comment