All D-Rose could do was watch as the Bulls lost their eighth straight.

Imagine if a Bulls fan had used the Hot Tub Time Machine to travel from some time last October to right before last night’s tipoff against the Grizzlies in Memphis. They’d probably think they had traveled to some horrific alternate reality instead of through time.

After all, Chicago opened this season with a core group of Derrick Rose (out with a sprained wrist), Joakim Noah (out with plantar fasciitis), Luol Deng (out with a strained calf muscle), Kirk Hinrich (serving a one-game suspension), John Salmons (traded to Milwaukee) and Tyrus Thomas (traded to Charlotte).

In the absence of that core group — which includes the team’s current best four players – the Bizarro Bulls opened last night’s game with a starting lineup of Brad Miller, Taj Gibson, Flip Murray, Acie Law and Jannero Pargo. After giving it some serious thought, I came to conclusion that it was the worst lineup I’d seen since 1998-99 when Chicago finished the season with a starting lineup of Tony Kukoc, Ron Harper, Dickey Simpkins, Rusty LaRue and Cory Carr.

Honestly, I expected the Bulls to get blown out in the first quarter…so imagine my surprise when Law hit four of his first five shots (including a few wide open layups), Memphis couldn’t hold onto the ball (7 turnovers in the first 10 minutes) and Chicago took a 20-10 first quarter lead. It felt too good to be true.

And it was.

The Grizzlies went on a 17-0 run during the second quarter to establish a 55-44 halftime lead. That bulge grew to as many as 25 points in the third quarter before Memphis went back to sleep on the Bizarro Bulls…

…and the Bizarro Bulls nearly pulled off the upset.

They were aided and abetted by the Grizzlies, who opened the fourth quarter by missing 10 of their first 12 shots – which included two sweet blocks by James Johnson — and committing 5 turnovers. Chicago rampaged all the way back from that 25-point hole to within four points (94-90) with under three minutes to go in the game.

Then things came undone…thanks to Pargo. If I didn’t know better, I’d wonder whether somebody in the Memphis front office had paid off Pargo to throw the game. Not only was his shooting horrific (4-for-15 from the field and 0-for-4 from downtown), but Jannero committed three of his co-game-high 5 turnovers in the final 2:27. That included turnovers on back-to-back possessions, which led to a hook shot and layup for Zach Randolph that pushed the Memphis lead to 98-90.

After Hasheem Thabeet hit a shot on the Grizzlies’ next possession to put Memphis ahead 100-90, the game was pretty much over. I just hope Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins did the right thing and gave Pargo the game ball. He was their MVP down the stretch.

In all, the Bizarro Bulls gave up 20 points off 19 turnovers. That’s way too many for a team that had basically no margin for error, even if the Grizzlies surrendered 25 points off 22 turnovers themselves.

Said coach Vinny Del Negro: ”We had too many turnovers. We cut it to four, we couldn’t convert. We had a couple stops. We didn’t value the possession of the basketball well enough and just turned it over too much. It’s frustrating because you don’t even get a shot at the basket. We had some costly turnovers and that was unfortunate. … I was pleased with the effort, but I was disappointed with the outcome.”

The outcome was Chicago’s eighth straight loss, which dropped them to 1.5 games behind the Toronto Raptors for the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff spot. The only good news is that the Charlotte Bobcats lost to the Pacers in Indianapolis and the Miami Heat dropped a home game to the San Antonio Spurs. Every loss by a team competing for the East’s final four playoff spots is kind of like a win for the Bulls, right? Which is important, since the Bulls can’t win an actual game themselves.

Chicago’s Bizarro squad gave a strong showing, especially Murray (game-high 25 points), Hakim Warrick (22 points off the bench), and Law (season-high 18 points). I’m not sure what that means. If things were going a little better, I’d say their increased PT might lead to some development that would benefit the Bulls come playoff time. Only Chicago’s playoff hopes are looking worse by the day.

Let the “if the Bulls can only get healthy” refrain continue.

Extras:
Recap, Box Score, Advanced Box Score, Play-By-Play, Shot Chart, Photos

Joakim Noah is struggling with plantar fasciitis in his left foot, but he really, really wants to play. He’s wearing new orthotics, undergoing treatment, and even ingesting some mystrious “fruit drink” that’s supposed to help his feet. But the pain hasn’t gone away. In two games he’s missed two breakaway dunks. It’s not a coincidence.

Said Noah: “I want to play the whole game. I think [the coaches] know that. But what can I do? I’m not going to go to the media and say I’m not happy with the situation. They told me this was going to happen. I want to help. But I have to get healthy.”

Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro also wants Noah to play, but Vinny is limiting Jo’s minutes to reduce the wear and tear on his aching foot. The medical staff doesn’t think shutting Noah down is the answer, but neither is asking him to log heavy minutes.

Said Del Negro : “We want him out there. It’s just that he’s not healthy. His foot is healing as fast as it can. It’s frustrating for him, I’m sure. But he’s just got to keep on getting his rest, getting his therapy and hopefully, it will continue to improve. … He’s had a lot of therapy and a lot of time, but those are difficult injuries. And everyone is a little bit different — where it is on your foot. We’ll just take it a day at a time. See how he feels. And increase his minutes as we see fit.”

Sadly, there’s no good answer with plantar fasciitis.

I’ll go ahead and admit I’ve been dealing with this injury for a couple months now. Some days it’s really bad, some days not so much. But as an avid pickup baller who plays two or three times a week, I can tell you it’s affected my game. Heck, it’s affected my walk from the train station to my job in the morning.

I was never much of a leaper, but now I have no lift. I also have no thrust on my first step. As a result, I’ve been struggling to get to the hoop, and I’ve had more shots stuffed in the last 30 days than the past couple years. It’s a bit of an ego-ectomy, really.

Like Noah, I want to play. But also like Noah, the problem persists.

It’s affecting my pickup teams, and it’s affecting the Bulls. And don’t forget that — with much less limelight — Taj Gibson is also playing through a case of plantar fasciitis, and Brad Miller is being asked to log too many minutes in relief. That double whammy could certainly explain why those two guys played so badly against the Wizards on Monday.

As K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune has pointed out, this entire situation — Noah’s injury, Gibson’s injury, Miller’s minutes, and the defensive confusion of new Bull Hakim Warrick — is impacting Chicago’s defense. The Bulls lead the league in rebounding and blocked shots, and they’re tied with the Oklahoma City Thunder in lowest opponents’ field-goal percentage.

But barring a mystical fruit drink miracle, those numbers seem destined to fall. And Washington big man Andray Blatche’s 25-point, 11-rebound performance against the Bulls may become the rule rather than the exception. Hopefully, Warrick can get up to speed defensively. And fast.

Said Warrick: “It’s been a little tough for me. They’re a little more aggressive, especially on side pick-and-rolls and showing and blitzing. With the Bucks, we were sending (opponents) baseline. Coach Scott Skiles had a thing where he didn’t want to switch it up as much. They switch (screens) a little more here.”

These are the little things that haunted the Bulls in their loss to the Wizards, and it could make stealing a decent playoff seed pretty difficult. And unfortunately, Bulls fans can only do what Noah is doing: sit and wait and hope.

Well…that transition was pretty seamless.

As I was watching Chicago absolutely destroy a Philadelphia team that had won six of its last eight games — including an overtime win over the Bulls – I had to marvel again at the fact that only two members of this season’s projected starting lineup were actually in the starting lineup. And not only did Hakim Warrick (15 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocked shots) and Flip Murray (12 points, 2-for-4 on threes, lots of communication on the defensive end) look better than the guys they just replaced, they played like they’d been Bulls for life.

Said Warrick: “It really felt like we’ve been together since preseason. Just the way the ball’s been moving. The new guys have come in just ready to play and the old guys have really just welcomed us new guys in and whenever we make a mistake or we’re in the wrong spot, they make sure to point us and get us in the right spot and get the play right.”

Against all reason, the team has not seemed this unified all season.

The result of that unity was pretty sweet. The Bulls established a new season-high for points scored (122) and — even more impressively — set a franchise record for fewest turnovers (4) while racking up 26 assists. It’s hard to gauge, the team might have provided season-highs in energy, effort and enthusiasm too.

Said Philly’s Allen Iverson: “They were finding the open man, just making the right plays.”

Indeed they were.

Chemistry is a funny thing. Last season, after John Paxson brokered the deal that brought in Brad Miller and John Salmons from Sacramento, Chicago’s chemistry shot off the charts, culminating in one of the great first round playoff series of all times. Unfortunately, that chemistry didn’t carry over into this season. It just didn’t. And the Bulls have been searching for answers all season. And now it looks like they’ve found those answers.

I guess it was addition by subtraction.

Don’t get me wrong. Despite their recent hot streak, the Sixers (21-34) aren’t a good team. And really, until a few weeks have passed and Chicago racks up at least a couple victories over teams on the plus side of .500, it will be hard to judge exactly what the Bulls have going for them.

But blowing an opponent out by 32 points on the second night of back-to-backs always feels kind of good.

And now let’s have a round of applause for rookie Taj Gibson, who grabbed a co-game-high 13 rebounds (5 offensive) and tied his career-high by scoring 20 points on 9-for-14 shooting. Despite being totally awesome, Gibson kept his Fonzie-like cool.

Said Taj: “You’re only as good as your last game.”

No self-serving sense of entitlement there. Unlike, ahem, some other former Bulls power forwards who shall remain nameless (and, thankfully, in Charlotte).

Added coach Vinny Del Negro: “He’s such a good kid. He is very coachable. He wants to learn and is always working. I like some of the passes that he and Hakim made to each other. They worked well against the zone.”

First off, that’s absolutely correct. Like I said above, Warrick played like he’d spent his career in the Windy City, and he and Gibson displayed something akin to ESP on a few plays. Second, all this goes a long way in explaining why Tyrus Thomas (okay, I named him) got benched after his forearm injury and was eventually sent packing…along with all his “limitless potential” (which more often than not equated to unlimited headaches).

I’ve said this more than once, but allow me to repeat: Gibson is already almost everything the Bulls wanted Thomas to be. And he’s a rookie!

But hey, I was talking about teamwork earlier, and this was no one-man show. Seven Bulls scored in double figures. Miller had a double-double (15 points, 10 boards). Derrick Rose had 17 points and 6 assists. Kirk Hinrich added another 17 points on 7-for-11 shooting and passed Ben Gordon to become Chicago’s all-time leader in three-pointers made (773). Luol Deng shot poorly (1-for-8), but he went 10-for-10 from the line and had a game-high four steals.

I don’t know if the Bulls can keep this up, but the immediate future looks pretty good. On Monday, they play the Wizards in Washington. On Wednesday, they have a home game against the Indiana Pacers. On Friday they play at home against the Portland Trail Blazers and they fly to Indianapolis for a Saturday night game against the Pacers.

There’s no reason they can’t keep this thing going.

Here we “Jo” again:
Joakim Noah made a surprise return from his seven-game layoff due to plantar fasciitis. Jo entered the game with 3:33 left in the first quarter and played…like someone who was rusty and dealing with an ongoing injury. Noah logged only seven minutes and finished with almost as many missed dunks (1) as rebounds (2), but at least he was able to run up and down the court a few times. Albeit gingerly.

Said Noah: “I’m happy to be back out there. I’m not happy about that missed dunk. But, hey, I guess it happens. … I really feel no pain, and I feel really good that we’re playing such good basketball right now.”

Former Bull factor:
Chicago’s former 20-10-50 guy scored only 7 points on 2-for-8 shooting. He did grab a team-high 13 rebounds, including 6 offensive boards. Still, it was a pretty silent night for a dude playing out an $80 million contract.

Timeout Tally:
1st timeout: Deng was fouled before the timeout (2-for-2)
2nd timeout: Andre Iguodala was fouled before the timeout
3rd timeout: Thaddeus Young was fouled before the timeout
4th timeout: Elton Brand was fouled before the timeout

This was a blowout, so it’s pretty hard to see any kind of pattern…other than the fact that Vinny kept calling timeouts after somebody was fouled.

Extras:
Recap, Box Score, Play-By-Play, Shot Chart, Photos

Captain Kirk rewarded the Bulls for not trading him before the deadline.

Think back a moment. On December 22, the Bulls lost to the Knicks in New York and fell a season-worst seven games below .500. And mind you, that was only one night after they choked away a 35-point lead in an epic home loss to the Sacramento Kings.

I have to admit, coming back from 10-17 looked like an impossible uphill battle. Especially considering how badly the Bulls were playing outside of Chicago. Or in Chicago, for that matter.

And yet since January 9, the Bulls are 14-6…including 9-4 on the road.

There’s been so much drama this season. All the early regret about letting Ben Gordon go to the Pistons. Derrick Rose’s preseason injury and subsequent slow start. Tyrus Thomas’ injury and his subsequent descent into frustrated semi-rebellion. The disappointing play of John Salmons. All the negative buzz about coach Vinny Del Negro. The constant trade rumors. And, most recently, the joint exits of Salmons and Thomas. Seriously, these are the kinds of events that can break a team.

But here come the Bulls who, at 28-26, have a very real shot at earning the fifth playoff seed in the Eastern Conference. However, as Jim Mora might caution, this probably isn’t the time to start talking about playoffs. After all, Chicago’s last three wins were over the Knicks, the Knicks again, and the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Knicks are nothing but a group of expiring contracts, and the T-Wolves are the second-worst team in the league.

That said…we shouldn’t take this latest win with a grain of salt.

After all, the Bulls were still without Joakim Noah (plantar fasciitis), who probably is their second-best player. (Okay, it could be Luol Deng, but I’m going with Noah.) And with Salmons and Thomas gone, that means Chicago was missing three-fifths of the starting lineup they began the season with.

Crazy, right?

Not a problem. Just start Brad Miller (8 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists) at center, plug Hakim Warrick (10 points and 9 boards, including 6 offensive) and Flip Murray (8 points, 3 rebounds) into the holes left by Thomas and Salmons, then get a typically strong game from Derrick Rose (19 points, 8 boards, 5 assists), add some hot shooting from Kirk Hinrich (7-for-12 for a game-high 20 points), include a step-up performance by Taj Gibson (14 points, 6-for-7, 9 rebounds) and Deng’s standard 18 points…

…see where I’m going with this?

It was just a nice, all-around team effort. I was really impressed by Warrick. He crashed the boards, ran the floor, and basically just worked it. I love it when guys scrap and hustle. If Warrick keeps playing the way he played last night, the United Center crowd is going to turn him into a folk hero. You know, until his contract expires this summer.

Murray didn’t shoot particularly well (3-for-8, 0-for-3 from downtown), but he scored 6 points in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter to help the Bulls establish a little breathing room.

Said Murray: “It was good for me to be able to come in and try to fit right into the rotation and fit into the system. Got a chance to go up and down with them, so we’ll go with it from there.”

Added Del Negro: “They’re going to be a little bit uncomfortable, where to be in the rotations and things. But you know they know how to play. They gave us a boost.”

Of course, the Bulls were sort of lucky that the Timberwolves kind of fell apart in the final 12 minutes. Chicago’s defense is part of the reason why Minnesota went 6-for-18 from the field, but the Timberwolves also bricked eight free throws in the fourth quarter.

Said Minnesota’s Al Jefferson: “I’d never seen anything like that. I guess all our energy was gone.

Surprisingly, the Bulls’ energy wasn’t gone. They didn’t shoot well — 43 percent as a team and 2-for-15 on threes — but they controlled their turnovers (12) and managed to outrebound Minny 51-41 (including 16-7 on the offensive glass) despite the continuing absence of Noah, who has missed seven straight games and probably won’t play at home against the Sixers tonight.

Yeah. When you think about everything this team has gone through, both over the season and the last several days, this win was actually something kind of special. I never thought I would feel this good about the Bulls under all these wacky circumstances.

Sometimes it’s good to be surprised.

Timeout Tally:
1st timeout: Warrick missed 18-footer
2nd timeout: Warrick turnover
3rd timeout: Warrick missed 6-footer
4th timeout: Murray missed three-pointer
5th timeout: Deng missed 21-footer
6th timeout: Deng missed jumper

Ouch. Not a single play was successful coming out of timeouts…and the new guys were featured in four of the six post-timeout plays. Can we chalk this one up to working new players into the mix? Yeah. Probably not.

TrueHoop Network:
From Howlin’ T-Wolf: “The Wolves shot the ball well early and lead at halftime but instead of getting cold in the 3rd quarter they waited until the 4th to frustrate us fans. The Bulls out-rebounded the Wolves by 10 but there were only two real differences in the game: The Wolves hit 5 more of their 3 pointers than the Bulls and the Bulls made 11 more free throws. Those 6 points were the difference. The Wolves left the win at the line as they went 11-20 and continued to show that the free throw line is not one of their strengths.”

Extras:
Recap, Box Score, Advanced Box Score, Play-By-Play, Shot Chart, Photos

A jump shooting power forward? He's perfect for the Bulls!

Let me preface this post by making — or, rather, re-making – the following points:

First, the trades that brought these four players to Chicago were not made to improve the team in the long-term. They were made to cut salary for the already legendary Summer of 2010 and the ensuing free agent bonanza.

Second, it’s highly likely that all four of these men will vanish in a puff of smoke the second their contracts expire. So do yourself a favor and don’t get attached to any of them. Nor should you expose them to bright light, get them wet, or ever, for any reason, feed them after midnight. You never know…they could be gremlins.

Hakim Warrick:
Warrick has a big wingspan and good speed for a power forward. Unfortunately his body is more Reggie Miller than Karl Malone. Warrick weighs in at a mere 219 pounds. For comparison’s sake, that puts him at one pound less than Devin Brown…who plays guard. And you know what that means: Hakim often gets pushed around in the paint by bigger PFs, which is just about everybody.

Warrick has some decent hops and he’s always a threat to throw down a dunk, but he’s so-so on the boards (7.4 rebounds per 36 minutes) and a poor shot blocker (0.4 per 36 minutes). It might help if he bulked up a little. It’s weird, too, because Warrick is 27 years old, spent a full four years in college, and this is his fifth season in the NBA. Why hasn’t somebody given this guy a map to the weight room?

According to ESPN’s John Hollinger: “Offensively, he loves to set up at the elbows, especially on the right, and either shoot a jumper or make a quick drive and draw a foul. He’ll also post up against smaller players when he gets a switch and can be effective shooting short-range hooks despite a lack of muscle. He can finish under the basket but tends to pick up traveling violations while winding up before he rises for the shot.”

ESPN Profile, Basketball-Reference, Hoopdata, Wikipedia Entry

Joe Alexander:
Maybe we should just call him “Expiring Contract #1. Seriously. Alexander is a fantastic athlete who has virtually no chance to make a significant contribution to the Bulls. Or maybe any contribution. Before the Bucks took him with the eighth overall pick of the 2008 NBA Draft, Alexander was described as the best athlete on paper at the draft.

No, really.

Joe had the second most number of 185lb bench reps (24), the second highest max touch (12’0.5″) and the second fastest 3/4 sprint time (2.99 seconds). Here’s the “but”: Alexander hasn’t appeared in an NBA game since April 14, 2009. In fact, the Bucks assigned him to the NBDL’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants back on January 20. And he hasn’t exactly been lighting things up in the D-League (10.5 PPG, 40 percent shooting).

I guess we have a new Aaron Gray.

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Ronald Murray:
Meet Flip. He’s the man who will probably be stealing some of the minutes Jannero Pargo hasn’t been getting. Or maybe he and Pargo will end up splitting John Salmons’ minutes. It’s hard to say. But…

…here’s what Vinny Del Negro had to say about Pargo after Wednesday night’s win over the Knicks: “J.P.’s kind of been the odd man out all year. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve done a very good job with him. He’s been a total pro. He works in practice. Sometimes matchups have been difficult for him. It’s nice to see him play well.”

Hmm. Sounds like VDN was trying to pump up a player who was recently described as “disgruntled.” Probably because Del Negro already knew about the Salmons trade and therefore also knew he was going to need Pargo now.

As for Murray, well, he’s averaging 9.9 PPG (which is also his career average) while shooting 38.9 percent from the field and 31.3 percent from downtown. Oh, and 1.8 APG. Did I mention he’s a guard? Yeah. If the Bulls were building things — large things — out of bricks, they’d have their man. As it is, he’ll be battling Pargo and Brown for PT.

Here are some high and lowlights from Hollinger: “A 6-3 guard with a nose for the basket, Murray sees nothing but the goal when he puts the ball on the floor and sometimes dribbles himself into trouble as a result. However, he usually makes a quick move for a shot, so it’s not as if he’s pounding away the shot clock the way some shoot-first guards do. … Defensively, Murray did a good job against most 2s despite giving up inches, and has the size and quickness to keep a good chunk of the league’s 1s at bay as well. He’s a poor rebounder and fouls a lot but is active in passing lanes and ranked 10th among shooting guards in steals per minute.”

Thrilling.

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Acie Law:
Shall we dub him “Expiring Contract #2″? He’s appeared in only 14 games this season and he’s done it for two different teams (five for the Golden State Warriors and nine for the Charlotte Bobcats). His averages — 3.4 PPG, 25 percent shooting on threes, 0.7 APG in only 7.1 MPG — tell you pretty much everything you need to know.

Huh. Maybe I should call him “Only In A Blowout” instead? If only because I’m pretty sure Darko Milicic owns the rights to Human Victory Cigar. But here’s some random trivia: Law is the great nephew of Chicago Cubs legend Ernie Banks. And there’s the Windy City connection! Bam!

Anyway, here’s Hollinger’s scouting report: “Law has been more competent on D than on offense. He has good size and moves his feet fairly well. He doesn’t gamble much, he competes and he helps out on the boards, so this part of his game isn’t the problem. … Offensively, he has the size and quickness to get the job done and has been an effective finisher when he can get the step on a defender. Unfortunately, his inability to shoot is submarining his career. Opponents don’t respect his J and lay off him waiting for the drive, and Law often responds by making a hesitant shot fake and then dribbling into traffic hoping for a better outcome.”

I hope his accuracy when handing out Gatorade is better than it is for long-range jumpers.

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