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.
ESPN Profile, Basketball-Reference, Hoopdata, Wikipedia Entry
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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