The Bulls can’t even get blown out right. Regardless of if you saw tonight’s game or not, there’s only one fact you need to know about Chicago’s 105-83 loss at home to the Mavericks: Accounting for a 1:14 “breather” in the first half and the last minute-plus where Tom Thibodeau actually waved the white flag, Jimmy Butler, who recently said he feels his turf toe injury may follow him for the rest of the career, played 45 minutes and 43 seconds. Shockingly, ESPN’s Nick Friedell said Butler was seen limping in the locker room after the game.

In their first meeting since Dirk Nowitzki dropped 15 in the fourth, capped by a game-winning 3 to shock Nate Robinson (7 of 7 from downtown!) and the Bulls back in March, the same old Bulls and the new look Mavs played a drastically different game, with Dallas pushing their lead to 32 at 86-54 in the final minute of the third quarter before an 18-0 run gave the Bulls false hope.

Despite five turnovers in the first six minutes, the Bulls led at the 3:30 mark of the opening frame after Butler poked away an inbounds pass and scored. At that point, Mavs coach Rick Carlisle called the first of many wonderful timeouts of the night and Dallas never looked back. After leading 17-15, the Bulls needed the rest of the half to score 17 more, while allowing 46 to find themselves in a 61-34 halftime hole.

This doom and gloom story obscures a couple uplifting observations. First, after missing practice yesterday with a sore hip, Joakim Noah looked fantastic. He scored 20 points on 8/11 shooting, added ten rebounds, and finished strong at the hoop multiple times, including a couple and-1’s as well as tipping this pass to himself, hauling it in and scoring off glass:

Also, while Mike Dunleavy was only 3-9 and saw less playing time than usual due to early foul trouble, it struck me how he looks much more comfortable in the offense than he did early in the season. It’s a shame Derrick Rose didn’t get to play with an integrated Dunleavy and such a spry Noah before getting hurt.

Dallas crushed the Bulls with a balanced attack. They got between 14 and 22 points each from Nowitzki, Monta Ellis, Vince Carter and Shawn Marion. They had space to drive into the lane, as well as space to shoot when they kicked it out, leading to a 13-26 assault from deep, which included four point plays less than three minutes apart from Dirk and Jae Crowder.

What really stuck out in this game while it was still competitive is the versatility in the two squads. At all times, the Bulls have some combo of the Noah/Boozer/Gibson trio, save for Nazr Mohammed’s usual stint in the second quarter, with two of the Deng/Butler/Dunleavy/Snell wing group, depending on who’s healthy and a point guard. The only time that changes is if Thibs wants to close with a dual point guard lineup. On the other hand, when Dirk sat midway through the first, they threw out a Calderon/Ellis/Carter/Marion/Blair lineup, and in the second quarter, Calderon/Larkin/Crowder/Dirk/Wright, just to name a couple. Some of that is roster construction, but some of it is Thibs not wanting to go small and try something different. Would going small with Augustin/Dunleavy/Butler/Deng (when healthy) and whoever’s playing better between Jo and Taj work? Not necessarily, but it would be nice to see something other than the regular five or six lineup iterations, and I’m tired of seeing Noah and Gibson worked to death in the second half because Boozer is having another bad game and Thibs wants to stay big.

Whether you want the Bulls to stay competitive and fight for a playoff spot or do what they can to tank for a lottery pick in this loaded draft, both sides should be able to agree on this: when the team is getting blown out, hope they continue to get blown out. That aforementioned 18-0 run was enough for Thibs to keep pursuing a game that had been lost long before, and instead of Butler and Noah getting a reprieve from heavy minutes, they stayed in far longer than they should have. Consider, the closest Chicago got in the second half was 14 points, yet Butler played 23 minutes straight. That doesn’t help the team in the short-term or the long-term. (Side note: the Bulls crowd got pretty pumped up to “Welcome to the Jungle” despite being down 18 with less than five minutes to go. Can a crowd have Stockholm Syndrome?)

I don’t want every recap I do to become a referendum on the state of the Bulls, but it’s hard to not to get frustrated at the repeated mistakes the franchise makes with injuries. Despite another lost season because of Derrick Rose being hurt, this team has as good a chance as any team (well, any team that doesn’t have LeBron) to win a title in the near future. A couple Twitter arguments have been borne from this statement, but there aren’t more than a couple teams I’d rather be than the Bulls for the foreseeable future. The quartet of teams in bigger markets Los Angeles and New York have some combination of awful ownership (Clippers, Knicks, potentially the Lakers), no star to build around (Lakers and arguably the Nets) and no picks (Knicks, Lakers, Nets). Oklahoma City and Indiana have two game-changing superstars apiece with great front offices, but are under mandates to avoid the luxury tax and may not be able to do what it takes to add to or maintain a title contender. San Antonio and Dallas have top-notch ownership, management and coaching, but for as great as they are, Tim Duncan and Nowitzki are not only on the wrong side of 30, they’re on the wrong side of 35.

Chicago has a game-changing star when healthy in Rose (some feel he’ll never again be healthy enough to be an alpha-dog, but I remain optimistic, perhaps because I care far more about Rose as a player than I do the Bulls as a franchise), a defensive anchor in Noah, and supporting players in Butler and Gibson even if they trade or fail to re-sign Luol Deng. They have the best player not in the NBA arriving as soon as next year in Nikola Mirotic and a good shot at two picks in the top 20 of the best draft in a decade. They have a defensive mastermind at coach and a front office that makes up for, ahem, poor people skills, with fantastic scouting. Chicago as a market allows them to pay for a winner like Jerry Reinsdorf claims he will, and while it’s too cold to be a prime free agent destination, it’s not impossible to get good players to sign. The repeated errors by the franchise aren’t frustrating so much because they happen in the first place, but rather because they are entirely preventable.

The post Bulls Blown Out By Mavs 105-83 appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

As it turns out, not so much.

Dallas closed out the game on a 15-1 run as Chicago’s offense — which had been pretty darn good all game long — went into a coma. Here’s a breakdown of what happened over those final minutes:

3:40: Nate Robinson turnover (bad pass)
3:15: Kirk Hinrich missed three-pointer
2:48: Luol Deng missed three-pointer
2:47: Offensive rebound by Jimmy Butler
2:28: Hinrich turnover (traveling)
1:51: Deng missed 18-footer
1:28: Butler missed layup
1:08: Deng missed layup
0:41: Robinson missed layup
0:41: Offensive rebound by Carlos Boozer
0:41: Foul drawn by Boozer
0:41: Boozer 1-for-2 from the free throw line
0:15: Vince Carter is forced to foul Butler
0:15: Butler 0-f0r-2 at the free throw line
0:01: Robinson missed three-pointer

Turnovers. Missed jumpers. Missed layups. Missed free throws.

In summary: everything that could have gone wrong…did go wrong.

And while the Bulls were struggling to find the rim, Dirk Nowitzki was giving them the superstar treatment.

After missing a three-pointer with exactly one minute remaining, Nowitzki drilled a corner three seven seconds later to draw the Mavs to within 97-95. It was a dagger. A tired-looking Luol Deng — he played 41 minutes — went around a screen instead of fighting through it. That was all the daylight Nowitzki needed. You can’t go around a screen on somebody like Dirk Nowtizki. I’m pretty sure Lu knows that. But fatigue can affect decision making. It sure seemed to in this case.

After Boozer missed one of his two foul shots, Nowitzki spun baseline and knocked down a 12-footer over Butler to move Dallas to within 98-97.

As noted above, Butler could have given the Bulls a two or three-point lead had he just knocked down one or both of his free throws. But he didn’t. Obviously, that had a major effect on how the Bulls defended the Maverick’s final offensive possession.

Dallas was rotating the ball and the Bulls were switching like crazy. Nowtizki — who was stationed outside the three-point line but to the left of center — found Carter at the top of the key. Robinson had to run all the way over from the left side of the court to try and contain Carter’s drive, only little Nate slipped and fell. Carter took a few clunky steps in the direction of the basket, which forced a mini-collapse by Deng. Carter made the right move, hitting a suddenly open Nowitzki, who naturally hit the three.

Said Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau: “We had a slip, and we were in a scramble. I thought there may have been a travel there, but that’s the way it goes.”

Now the Bulls were down two points with 2.9 seconds left. And we all know how that turned out.

Of course, had Butler hit both free throws, the Bulls could have simply defended the three at all costs. That would have been the only shot that could have beaten them…and this squad is pretty darn good at defending the three (currently fourth in opponents three-point percentage). Even if Butler had knocked down only one of his foul shots, the Bulls could have covered the long-range shooters, forced Dallas to hit a contested two, and the worst-case scenario would have been overtime.

But things didn’t work out that way. And Butler was crushed.

Said Butler: “I’m not going to say I was nervous, because I was really confident. I’m supposed to be a good free throw shooter, [but I] missed two. I don’t care what anybody says; that’s the reason we lost that game. I don’t care what my teammates say; I know better. If I would have made those two, we would have been up three, and then we just make them go to the basket. This one’s on me without a doubt, and that’s that.”

I feel for the kid. But you know, it’ll make him stronger. I bet next time he’s in this situation, he knocks ’em down.

Still, this loss wasted a terrific offensive performance by a Bulls team that doesn’t have many of those. They finished with an Effective Field Goal Percentage of 55.0 and scored at a rate of 112.5 points per 100 possessions (per Basketball-Reference). Carlos Boozer (25 points, 11-for-16, 11 rebounds), Luol Deng (25 points, 10-for-17, 7 boards) and Nate Robinson (25 points, 7-for-7 on threes, 6 assists) were all on fire.

Unfortunately, Nowtizki (35 points, 14-for-17, 5-for-6 from downtown, 7 rebounds, 7 assists) was absolutely unstoppable.

Said Robinson: “He was on fire. It was like a video game.”

There’s no time to rue the one that got away though. The Bulls face the Pistons tonight.

Extras:
Recap, Box Score, Advanced Box Score, Play-by-Play, Shot Chart.

The post A punch in the gut: Mavericks 100, Bulls 98 appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

I’m sorry. I thought the Packers-Bears game wasn’t until Sunday.

It was a real defensive battle out there, folks. The kind where it looked like both teams were wading through invisible mud. Chicago hit only 36.9 percent of their shots. Dallas converted on 35.6 of theirs.

The Bulls scored 12 points in the third quarter. That represented the team’s season-low for a single quarter.

The Mavs finished with 77 points. That was their third-lowest output of the season. On December 28, minus leading scorer Dirk Nowitzki, they scored 76 points against the Raptors. On January 15, in Dirk’s first game back, they managed only 70 points against the Grizzlies in Memphis.

The teams combined for two fast break points. Chicago had none.

Nowitzki — who is a legitimate MVP candidate — went 6-for-16 from the field, missed both of his three-point attempts, and pulled down only two rebounds in 38 minutes. In case you forgot, the dude is seven feet tall and has averaged 8.4 RPG over his 13-year NBA career.

Derrick Rose had a stellar stat line: Game highs in points (26) and assists (9) to go with 7 rebounds and 2 blocked shots. Of course, he went 9-for-28 from the field, including 5-for-20 in the second half, and committed a game-high 4 turnovers.

Rose was the only Bulls player to score in double figures.

Chicago banged and bumped, contesting every shot. Dallas covered Rose like a blanket made out of barbed wire, daring anybody else to beat them.

Look: It was an ugly game. But the Bulls won.

It’s a credit to two things. Defense and Derrick Rose. That’s how the Bulls are getting by right now. That’s what they have to do. Defend the other team like their life depends on it and let Derrick do what he does.

Chicago currently ranks first in Defensive Rating (99.8). The Bulls have held 14 of their last 15 opponents below 100 points. They’ve held eight of those opponents under 90 points. Seven of those opponents have scored fewer than 85 points. Three of them have scored in the 70s.

As for Rose, well, he doesn’t really want to take all those shots. Last night, he attempted 28 field goals. But, in all fairness, 20 of them were hoisted during the second half, and only after Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau implored him to take more shots.

Said Rose: “Coach [Tom Thibodeau] was mad because he didn’t think I was shooting enough [in the first half]. So I just tried to be aggressive in the second half.”

Yes, Rose shot a lot, and poorly. But he also scored 10 points in the decisive fourth quarter. He made clutch shots. His biggest came with 55 seconds left in the fourth. With the Bulls up a point, Rose nearly lost the ball in the paint before backing it out, throwing a few one-on-one moves at Jason Kidd, and then beating the shot clock with a 19-footer that gave Chicago an 80-77 lead.

Technically, the game wasn’t put on ice until Kyle Korver knocked down a couple free throws with five seconds left. But Rose’s jumper forced the Mavericks to look for three-point shots against a tough defense. And obviously, it didn’t happen.

Luol Deng looked weary — he’s now played at least 40 minutes in 11 of the last 15 games — and missed 10 of his 13 shot attempts. But he grabbed a co-game-high 12 rebounds.

Kurt Thomas provided some scoring (9 points on 4-for-5 shooting) and grabbed 11 boards (including five on the offensive end). He also played strong defense. His biggest play was stealing a pass by Shawn Marion right after Rose’s big shot.

The bench scored 30 points and provided a real spark. Kyle Korver (+14), Ronnie Brewer (+13) and C.J. Watson (+12) had the best plus-minus scores of the game.

But, especially with Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah collecting dust on the shelf, the Bulls live and die by what Rose does.

Said Jason Terry: “Derrick Rose is their team. I don’t care who else they have on that roster. He took 28 shots tonight, we made it tough on him. But key guys made some big plays. [C.J.] Watson hit a couple threes and Kurt Thomas was huge for them tonight. Anybody who takes 28 shots, it’s the Jordan rules. You’re not going to guard anyone, he’s just going to keep hoisting them.”

I’m pretty sure Bulls fans are fine with that. And the winning. No matter how ugly it is.

Said Rose: “A win is a win. Everything that went on in that game was kind of terrible, [except for] rebounding and the way we played defense. But we’re just happy to get this win and get it out of the way.”

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

The post Game 43 Recap: Bulls 82, Mavericks 77 appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

That 12-point lead represented a 23-point turnaround from the 11-point lead Chicago had built during the second quarter. And I bet I’m not the only person who was having flashbacks to the Bulls’ third quarter massacre in San Antonio on Wednesday.

Anyway, Dirk was having one of those nights — a game-high 36 points on 15-for-26 shooting — and I was thinking that the story of this game was going to be Taj Gibson’s inability to contain Nowitzki.

Turns out the real story was Dirk’s inability to contain Taj.

Gibson, whose shooting during the first two games of the circus trip (1-for-16) was just a few degrees above absolute zero, had one of the best coming-out-of-a-slump games I’ve ever seen. The kid hustled. He fought. He scrapped. He finished with 17 points on 7-for-12 shooting and a career-best 18 rebounds. Even more impressive was the fact that 8 of those boards came on the offensive end.

Said Taj: “Coach knows I’ve been working on my jumper, but he said don’t rely on jump shots. Attack the glass and hit the boards. I’ve struggled the last two games so he challenged me.”

That’s kind of ironic, because the Taj Gibson moment of the game happened with 2:48 left in the game. The Mavericks were leading 77-76 and putting the clamps on defensively. C.J. Watson got to the rim but had his shot thoroughly blocked by former Bull Tyson Chandler. The ball ricocheted, glanced of Nowitzki and ended up in Gibson’s hands. With the shot clock about to go off, Taj let it fly over Dirk’s outstretched hands.

Boom baby.

It was the first three-point attempt of Gibson’s career. He’s now a 100 percent three-point shooter, so look out NBA.

That trey was the biggest of several big-time shots the Bulls hit during their 32-point fourth quarter. Derrick Rose converted a tough layup and then hit a 13-footer while getting fouled on the very next possession. Kyle Korver beat the shot clock with a three from almost 30 feet out. C.J. Watson buried a three-pointer off a nice pass from Joakim Noah. Noah turned an offensive board into a layup that seemed to defy the laws of physics. Korver nailed another long jumper.

But despite all those clutch shots, the game came down to who wanted it more. And don’t misunderstand me. The Mavericks brought it. They swarmed the ball and really put it to the Bulls on the defensive end. But check out the rebounding stats: Chicago won the War of the Rebounds 59-34, including 20-9 on the offensive glass. According to the Basketball-Reference box score, Chicago’s Offensive Rebounding Percentage was 44.4 percent.

In other words, the Bulls pulled down nearly half of their available offensive rebounds. The Bulls ended up scoring 25 points off those offensive boards. Oh, and Chicago outscored Dallas 42-26 in the paint.

Huge.

Noah, who had 17 rebounds himself, said: “I can’t go through the motions. I’ve got to keep going after the ball. We fought hard even when we were behind. We’re not a team that gives up.”

You know what? I’m starting to really believe that. Even looking at that third quarter collapse against the Spurs, the Bulls played well enough in that game to build a 17-point lead in the second quarter on the second night of back-to-back road games. And even after San Antonio blitzkrieged them in the third, they fought back and made the Spurs sweat out the fourth.

Then there was last night’s performance in Dallas. Big time. Just big time.

And mind you, Rose kept getting yanked in and out of the game after getting cut on the nose by Nowtizki with less than a minute left in the third quarter. I kept thinking the “Magic Johnson Rule” was going to cost the Bulls the game.

But everybody stepped up.

Sweet Play of the Night:
See Derrick dish it, then watch Luol finish it.

TrueHoop Network:
Rob Mahoney of The Two Man Game: “Reasons why the Mavericks lost their fourth game of the season: Taj Gibson (17 points, 7-12 FG, 18 rebounds), offensive rebounding (Chicago had a monstrous 44.4 offensive rebounding rate), lack of offensive balance (Dirk Nowitzki had half of the Mavs’ field goals), and divine intervention. I don’t know how else to explain the consistently bizarre occurrences that came during the dwindling seconds of seemingly every shot clock. The Bulls worked hard enough to win, but they had some help.”

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

The post Circus Trip: Bulls 88, Mavs 83 appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

…and they’re in third place in the Southwest Division behind the Hornets (9-1) and Spurs (9-1).

But hey, Dallas is getting it done. On one end of the court anyway.

Despite the presence of guys like Dirk Nowitzki (23.6 PPG on 54 percent shooting), Jason Terry (19.3 PPG on 52 percent shooting) and Jason Kidd (9.8 APG to go along with 40 percent three-point shooting), the Mavs aren’t much to see on offense. They’re slow (25th in pace), don’t put up a lot of points (23rd in scoring) and are strictly middle of the pack in terms of efficiency (15th in Offensive Rating). And according to ESPN Stats and Information, Dallas scored the third-fewest PPG in the paint (35.6), ahead of only the Hornets (35.2) and Heat (33.6).

However, they rank 6th in Defensive Rating (102.2) and 4th in Opponents PPG (92.6).

Dallas has also played well against good teams. The Mavericks are the only team to beat the Hornets this season, and they’re one of only two teams to have bean the Celtics. They’ve also beaten the Nuggets in Denver and they came close to winning in New Orleans as well (they lost 99-97).

Other important notes: The Mavs rank first in Opponents Effective Field Goal Percentag (.468), 2nd in Effective Field Goal Percentage (.533), 2nd in Opponents Free Throws Per Field Goal Attempt (.188), 24th in Offensive Rebound Percentage (.238), 25th in Opponents Turnover Percentage (.129), and 27th in Turnover Percentage (.154).

To sum up: The Mavericks shoot extremely well while making their opponents miss. They don’t send their opponents to the line. They don’t force a lot of turnovers but tend to be turnover prone themselves. And the Dallas players don’t do much crashing around the offensive glass.

As for the Bulls, they are…

…Derrick Rose.

I don’t mean to overstate things, but according to Elias Sports Bureau, Rose has registered 255 points and 87 assists in Chicago’s first 10 games.  Since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976-77, only two other players have reached those levels in those two categories through their team’s first 10 games of a season: Washington’s Michael Adams in 1991-92 (276 points, 97 assists) and Detroit’s Isiah Thomas in 1984-85 (259 points, 114 assists).

But wait, there’s more. Also according to Elias, Rose has attempted 25.5 percent of the Bulls’ total shots from the field this season (210 of 824).  Only one player in the league has attempted a higher percentage of his team’s shots than Rose: Kevin Durant (237 of 880; 26.9 percent).

Here’s another juicy Rose-related tidbit. According to ESPN Stats and Information, Rose scores 11.4 PPG in the paint. The only players who score more points in the paint than Rose are Tyreke Evans (11.6), Tony Parker (11.6), Monta Ellis (11.6) and Dwyane Wade (12.0).

Still, as great as Rose is, history is working against the Bulls. According to ESPN Stats and Information, Chicago has lost three straight and 21 of their last 24 games to the Mavericks. But wait: it gets worse. Dating back to 1997, the Bulls have lost five straight and 12 of their last 13 games in Dallas. Their only win in that span was on February 8, 2005. Luol Deng was the only current player on the roster back then.

The post Circus Trip: Bulls-Mavs preview appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

According to ESPNDallas.com, Cuban said the following to CNNMoney.com:

“Come July 1st, yeah, of course, anybody would be interested in LeBron James, and if he leaves via free agency, then it’s going to be tough. If he does like I’m guessing, hoping he will, which is say, ‘I’m not going to leave the Cavs high and dry,’ if he decides to leave — there’s still a better chance he stays — then he’ll try to force a sign-and-trade, and that gives us a chance. … What I do know about LeBron in the minimal time I’ve spent talking to him is he just wants to win. Money’s not his issue. He needs to be someplace where he trusts the organization. And look, [owner] Dan Gilbert in Cleveland did everything he possibly could, that’s just the way the game works. If there was a template that we all could follow, we’d all have championship rings.”

Believe it or not, some people are wigging out about what Cuban said, as explained on the ESPN NBA Rumors page: “The NBA doesn’t allow people who work for teams or own teams to talk to or about players on different teams who are under contract. If they do it’s considered tampering and they can be fined by the league.”

All I have to say is: You’ve got to be kidding me. If what Cuban did is tampering, then what the New York Knicks have been doing for the last two years is nothing short of stalking. Last time I checked, LeBron hasn’t filed a restraining order against Donnie Walsh and Mike D’Antoni, so I don’t think Cuban’s comments qualify as tampering.

But hey, what do I know?

However, this situation does highlight something that a lot of people haven’t been considering: Technically speaking, every team is participating in the LeBron Sweepstakes. The Bulls, Clippers, Heat, Knicks and Nets are the only teams with the cap space necessary to sign LeBron as a free agent, but in theory, any team could go after him in a sign-and-trade situation. And just about any team would do it if given the opportunity.

The post Free Agent Watch: Cuban wants LeBron, world says “Duh” appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

…well, first, I would have thought that person was messing with me. I mean, a starting lineup consisting of two rookies, an old man, and a dude who played in Russia last season?

But in all honesty, I’m kind of proud of these Bizarro Bulls. They could have called it a night when they were down 64-44 at the half, or when they fell behind 81-57 midway through the third quarter. They didn’t, though. They made the Mavs — winners of 14 of their last 15 games — work for it.

However, the fact that Acie Law was our leading scorer (22 points, 7-for-8 shooting) and Chris Richard led the team in rebounding (9) sort of tells the story. The near-comeback was part desire by the Bulls and part sleepwalking by the Mavericks, who switched out Jason Kidd for J.J. Barea in the fourth quarter.

Of course, Barea recovered enough to score 10 straight points after the Dallas lead had shrunk to 100-90, which was enough to help stave off a surprisingly feisty Chicago team. But in the end, all the fiestiness in the world couldn’t put a halt to the Bulls’ worst losing streak in years. The skid now stands at nine, by the way. Oh, and hey, the best team in the league is coming to the United Center on Friday night.

We could be looking at an imperfect 10 soon.

Without a healthy Joakim Noah, the Bulls have forsaken defense. Or maybe the defense has forsaken them. It’s hard to tell at this point. But just check out the points allowed over the last 12 games: 101, 110, 111, 100, 116, 105, 122, 132, 111, 108, 104, 113. Last night, the Mavericks were still shooting around 70 percent into the third quarter. And despite taking most of the fourth quarter off, Dallas still shot nearly 53 percent for the game.

I wonder if LeBron James is already thinking about notching his 29th career triple-double on Friday. I wouldn’t be surprised.

The Bulls (31-36) are now 2.5 games behind the Raptors (33-33), who beat the Atlanta Hawks in Toronto last night. The Raptors are sitting on the eighth and final Eastern Conferece playoff spot, and right now, that appears to be the only spot Chicago has a realistic shot at.

Remember when, just nine losses ago, it looked like the Bulls might challenge for the fifth seed?

All these injuries might prove catastrophic, not  just to the team’s playoff hopes, but to their offseason hopes as well. It’s an open secret that the Bulls have been lusting after free-agents-to-be Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. But it’ll be hard to make a strong pitch to those guys if their teams make the playoffs and the Bulls don’t. Plus, I read yesterday that Wade “plans to speak with several upcoming free agents, like LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Amare Stoudemire about their plans and encourage them to sign with Miami.”

Add that disturbing news to the recent rumors that the Knicks might be targetting Joe Johnson and Carlos Boozer now wants to stay Utah…

…and let’s not forget the Milwaukee Bucks — who, thanks in part to the stellar play of John Salmons, have risen to fifth in the East — have the option to switch draft picks with the Bulls this year. Chicago’s pick is top 10 protected, but it seems most likely the Bulls will end up with the 11th pick while the Bucks will be in the high teens.

Management’s gambit might end up dooming the Bulls for years to come.

Of course, this is all speculation. Wade might want to come home. Bosh might want to play alongside an up-and-coming PG like Derrick Rose. Stoudemire might want a fresh start in a big media market like Chicago. The Jazz — who are kind of set at PF thanks to Paul Milsap — might not resign Boozer, and he’s previously mentioned the Windy City as a possible destination.

But it’s starting to feel a little hopeless.

The only antidote for this crap feeling is winning. Forget the playoffs. The Bulls need to get their big guns back and win some games. Period. Finish strong. Show what kind of team they can be next season, with or without another All-Star, and maybe someone will want to join in on a good situation.

The Bulls just have to make sure people realize it’s a good situation. Starting with themselves.

Update! Here’s something I forgot to mention. With about two minutes left in the game and the Bulls still trying for the rally, Kirk Hinrich stole the ball from Dirk Nowitzki. Before Hinrich could get away, Nowitzki grabbed at Kirk  and then gave him a little slap. The officials caught the grab but missed the slap, and it was the slap that got under Hinrich’s skin. Kirk then gave Dirk a little shove and earned himself a technical in the process.

Hinrich now ranks 10th in the league with eight technical fouls. I wonder why Kirk is feeling so fired up lately? I mean, I understand why he was frustrated by Nowitzki’s little karate chop, but I expected a little more composure coming off a one-game suspension for making contact with an official during a game in which he had just been ejected for committing two techs.

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

The post Wrangled again: Mavericks 113, “Bulls” 106 appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

The Bulls' defense has been pretty hard to watch lately.

Defense…

…the Bulls aren’t playing any.

Okay, maybe that statement is a bit on the harsh side, but it’s not too far off the mark. The Bulls have now given up 100 or more points in 10 of their last 13 games. In fact, here’s a rundown of the points they’ve allowed during that stretch: 101, 107, 85, 109, 94, 90, 101, 110, 111, 100, 116, 105 and 122.

See the trend?

And it’s not like every one of those games was against a championship contender. The teams that have notched at least 100 points against the Bulls include the lottery-bound Knicks, Pacers (three times!) and Wizards.

Can I get a hand in the face? Anyone…? Anyone…? Bueller…?

Mind you, the Bulls have been a top 10 defensive team for most of the season. In fact, they’re currently ranked 8th overall in Defensive Efficiency. As Tom Haberstroh of Hardwood Paroxysm put it, the Bulls don’t foul and they protect the rim. But that defense has been conspicuously absent over the last few weeks.

It’s not a crazy random happenstance either.

The Bulls traded their best defender (by the numbers) to the Charlotte Bobcats. Their second-best defender is out indefinitely with plantar fasciitis. Their other top defenders include Taj Gibson (a rookie who also has plantar fasciitis), Luol Deng (gimpy left knee) and Kirk Hinrich (gimpy right ankle).

Chicago’s success this season — however limited — has been due primarily to their defense. Well, that and Derrick Rose, who has been dealing with some gimpy knee issues of his own lately. Rose didn’t look gimpy against the Mavs. He finished with a game-high 34 points on 15-for-22 shooting to go along with 8 assists. The defense…well…that’s another matter entirely.

Dallas shot better than 56 percent as a team and hit just over 40 percent of their three-pointers. They also racked up 31 assists on 49 field goals. And since I mentioned all of Chicago’s potential excuses, I should probably mention that the Mavs were missing starting center Brendan Haywood (lower back tightness), backup center Erick Dampier (right middle finger surgery), sixth man Jason Terry (left orbital bone surgery) and Tim Thomas (personal reasons). Plus they played at home against the Kings on Friday night and Dirk Nowitzki has been bothered by a sore left hip.

In light of all that, the Bulls’ excuses feel a little hollow.

Due to all the missing bodies, Dallas rookie Rodrigue Beaubois — I know you’re probably thinking “who?!” — was press-ganged into action and responded with a career-high 24 points on 10-for-17 shooting. Then, in the fourth quarter, Nowitzki finished what Beaubois started. Dirk scored 13 points in the final 12 mintes, shutting down Chicago’s rally in the process.

Said Hinrich: “We just couldn’t stop them at the other end.”

Shooting 52+ percent and scoring 116 points usually leads to victory. But the Bulls were only clicking on the offensive end. On top of that, they’re facing a serious talent deficit. Even with all their injuries, the Mavericks can still field a team that includes Nowitzki (a former MVP), Jason Kidd (one of the all-time greats), Caron Butler (a proven 20-point scorer) and Shawn Marion (a do-everything player at both ends). That certainly trumps Chicago’s current top four of Rose, Deng, Gibson and, well, whoever else you want to name. Hinrich? Brad Miller? Jannero Pargo?

The Bulls are not good enough without Joakim Noah. Not defensively, not offensively, not in any way. Even with him, they’re merely above average.

To make matters worse, the Charlotte Bobcats and Milwaukee Bucks — who got Tyrus Thomas and John Salmons in Chicago’s “Salary Dump Sweepstakes” — have been on fire. The Bobcats beat the defending champion Lakers on Friday night, while the Bucks defeated the league-leading Cavaliers on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Bulls are playing well in stretches. But ultimately, they can’t hang with the good teams for 48 minutes.

Said Rose: “”The team needs to find a way to win games. It is frustrating.”

Yes it is. Very.

The Bulls (31-31) have lost four games in a row and are now eighth in the Eastern Conference standings. And the Bobcats (30-31) is nipping at their heels. All the team can do is play and hope to get through this rough patch — they are three games into a nine-game stretch against division leaders and potential playoff teams — without falling out of the competition for a spot in the postseason.

But right now…things look pretty grim.

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

The post Wrangled: Mavericks 122, Bulls 116 appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

The best (or worst) part? He’s done it before. And it didn’t work either time: The opponent drilled a triple on both occasions. You might want to just let ’em shoot it, Vinny

The post Vinny: Literally into the game appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

You know, a lot of people predicted that the Bulls would come back from their Western Conference road trip with an 11-game losing streak, particularly after they kicked the journey off with an overtime loss (of the “fourth-quarter collapse” variety) to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Instead, the team will return to the United Center on Tuesday for Johnny “Red” Kerr Night after a 4-3 trip that was like a walk-off homerun in the bottom of the ninth. Or, to use a more appropriate analogy, it was like a go-ahead three-pointer at the buzzer that secures a critical win.

And make no mistake: The success of this road trip was absolutely critical. Players were rebelling. The fans were angry and losing hope. Jerry Reinsdorf was ripping the team and dissing the coaching staff. Now it looks like all that drama might have been the proverbial darkness before the dawn, because instead of the disaster everyone was expecting, the Bulls pulled off their first winning roadie since Michael Jordan was preparing to make Byron Russell the most famous poster boy in NBA history. The victories over the Clippers and Kings got things rolling. Wins at Phoenix (even though the Suns are imploding) and New Orleans (even if the Hornets were missing Chris Paul, Tyson Chandler and Mo Pete) were huge. And two of their three losses came in overtime, the first requiring a season-high 39 points from Al Jefferson and the second needing Dirk Nowitzki to summon some Promethean fire.

Speaking of which: Wow. Dirk, who hit only one of his first 10 shots, went 15-for-24 the rest of the way and ended up with 44 points. That total included the 14 he scored in overtime, during which he went 5-for-7. So yeah…I guess you could say he got it going. Joakim Noah, whose eyebrows may never grow back after Nowitzki’s scorching, said: “There were times when Dirk was shooting that I was like, ‘There’s no way he’s going to shoot.’ I felt like I was right on him. And he was just making shots that I don’t think anybody in the NBA can make. He has such a different game than everybody else. It’s hard to explain unless you’re out there guarding him.”

(In the interest of maintaining the feel-good vibe the Bulls established on their road trip, I’m not going to bring up the fact that Joakim is the guy who was used like an inflatable defender — first by Jefferson, then by Yao Ming and finally by Nowiztki — in the Bulls’ three losses. Whoops. I brought it up.)

But in all fairness, Dirk wasn’t the only Dallas player who burned the Bulls. Jose Juan Barea came off the Mavericks’ bench to score 20 points, and Jason Kidd — who hadn’t hit a shot all game, by the way — drilled a three-pointer with 13 seconds left in regularion to tie the score at 97-all and (after Derrick Rose missed a running jumper) send the game to overtime. So the Bulls were one improbable (and rather unexpected) shot and a superstar scoring explosion from going 5-2 on the seven-game road trip that was supposed to end their season prematurely? All things considered, that’s not so bad.

(One other thing worth noting. The Mavs lost Jason Terry when, early in the second quarter, he broke the the fourth metacarpal in his left hand during a collision with Barea. One could suggest that Chicago failed to take advantage of his absence, but it sure seemed to me that Terry’s injury gave Dallas one of those short-term bursts of inspiration. I mean, it wasn’t until after the injury that Dirk started Hulking-out. Coincidence? I think not.)

Some other notables from the game: Ben Gordan had a team-high 28 points (not to mention a game-high-tying 5 turnovers). Tyrus Thomas continued his exceptionally strong play — five double-doubles in the last six games! — by scoring 23 points (including a triple that pulled the Bulls to within two points with three seconds left in overtime) and grabbing 12 rebounds. Derrick Rose finished with 22 points and 9 assists, but he shot poorly (11-for-25) and had four of his shots stuffed. Speaking of misdirected shooting, Luol Deng had his second straight stinker since I deemed him “back” after the Rockets game (10 points on 3-for-15 from the field). Kirk Hinrich and Andres Nocioni chipped in their usual 20+ points of the bench — Kirk scored 10 and Noc had 13 — but Hinrich added another 5 turnovers to Chicago’s gaudy total (18). And all those TOs led to 25 points going the other way. That hurt.

Beyond the numbers, the Bulls showed — yet again — that they can be exploited by a superstar (or, in the case of Jefferson, an “almost All-Star”)…and that’s something that they’re going to have to address sooner or later. (Not by trading for Amare Stoudemire, though.) But right now, I’m all for sitting back and celebrating for a couple days. The trip improved their record only slightly, but at 22-29 they’re currently tenth in the East and only two games out of the last playoff spot. And you know what? I’ll take it.

TrueHoop Network: Go check out Rob Mahoney’s recap at The Two Man Game.

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

The post I’ll take it appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.