It’s late, so we’ll keep this one on the short side.

In typical Thibs fashion, the Bulls bounced back from an absolute drubbing in Sacramento and returned with a noticeable focus in their 101-92 road win in Phoenix tonight. They set the tone early, playing strong defense and limiting their turnovers on offense. Chicago built a double digit lead early and sustained it until halftime. Once the second half started, Phoenix came out playing much better basketball and made multiple runs that seemed to set them up to steal the game back at the end, but to Chicago’s credit, they wouldn’t slip for too long. The Suns would get it to three or four, but the Bulls never relinquished the lead. D.J. Augustin worked his magic again, hitting a couple big threes, and posting 11 of his 18 points in the final quarter. Phoenix’s last and best attempts to come back failed when on one possession they missed two open triples down six with less than two minutes left, and later, Jimmy Butler tied up a driving Goran Dragic (seen above), with the Bulls winning the tip.

Speaking of missed shots, the Bulls played strong defense, and more importantly the game was played at their tempo, but poor Phoenix shooting was definitely a huge factor. Chicago tends to have problems matching up against stretch fours, and the Suns just didn’t shoot well enough to take advantage of it. For example, Channing Frye had some good looks but was just 2-11 from beyond the arc. Usually Chicago’s struggles to defend big shooters can blamed on Carlos Boozer’s presence forcing Joakim Noah to defend on the perimeter, but the Bulls had trouble tonight even with Taj Gibson on the floor in Boozer’s place. For instance, about halfway through the second quarter, Miles Plumlee stood far enough out on the baseline to render Noah’s impact moot, and Gibson floated halfway between a Morris (I’m not gonna pretend to know which one) at the top of the key and a driving guard. He was unable to prevent penetration, sunk down late and they gave up the open three. Fortunately for Chicago, the Suns simply couldn’t make them pay, going 8-28 overall, and just 2-14 in the first half that saw them trail early.

Notes:

-Fun with numbers: every Bull had a positive +/- and every Phoenix player had a negative +/-.

-Minutes watch: Jimmy Butler played 43:45, including the entire second half.

-For some reason, after hitting both of his shots in the first half, a three pointer and a nifty fadeaway in the lane, Tony Snell saw just 31 seconds of floor time after intermission.

-Boozer posted a pretty 19 and 12, but needed 21 shots to get there and remained frustrating to watch. Looking at shot charts, I was surprised to see Boozer and Gibson are identical when it comes to how well they score under the basket. The difference is Taj gets 10% more of his looks there than Carlos, who settles far too often for midrange jumpers. Also, the squeaky wheel got the grease, as Boozer played down the stretch in the fourth quarter.

-On NBATV’s postgame show, Noah chuckled upon learning his fine for berating the referees in Sacramento earned him the first fine of the Adam Silver Era.

The post Bulls 101, Suns 92 appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

At the beginning of 2014, it was clear that January was the time for the Bulls to climb their way up the Eastern Conference. They did just that, going 11-4 against a schedule chock full of Eastern bottom feeders and home games against banged up Western squads. Now comes the hard part, as with the exception of a date in Los Angeles against the Lakers, every game remaining this February comes against a playoff caliber team, and seven of the remaining 11 this month are on the road. Keep in mind that they’ve started this road trip getting dominated by two of the rare lottery locks in the West, and that the last time the Bulls faced the Lakers they needed a sketchy buzzer beater from Taj Gibson to survive a home game in double overtime.

Tonight they play in Phoenix, seeking to sweep the season series against the darlings of the 2013-2014 season. Many thought the Suns would fall apart since Eric Bledsoe’s meniscus injury, but first-year head coach Jeff Hornacek, All-Star-if-Phoenix-played-in-the-East Goran Dragic and the stable of young players on the roster have not only kept the team afloat, they’ve bolstered their playoff hopes. Their five game winning streak has them at 29-18, 6th in the West, and 8th best in the entire league, an amazing feat for a team that was a preseason lock to be selling assets as the deadline approaches. Instead the organization has declared they’re open to dealing from their cadre of extra picks and adding a legitimate talent to make noise in the playoffs for the first time since their surprising run to the 2010 Conference Finals.

Chicago looks to have dodged a bullet, as Joakim Noah’s profanity-laced evaluation of the officials last night in Sacramento did not earn him the first suspension of the Adam Silver Era, as he somehow only got fined $15,000. He played less than 20 minutes last night so he should be fresher than usual on the second end of a road back-to-back. In fact, only Jimmy Butler and Carlos Boozer played very significant minutes against the Kings. The massacre allowed the likes of Taj Gibson and Mike Dunleavy to sit early in favor of Tony Snell and Nazr Mohammed, while Boozer got his wish to play in the fourth quarter after publicly voicing his displeasure with routinely sitting down the stretch of games.

Beating a Western playoff team on a back-to-back in their building is a daunting task, but the team is relatively well rested and if we know anything about the Thibodeau Bulls, it’s that they almost always respond in a big way to getting embarrassed.

The post Bulls at Suns Preview appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

infomastern | Flickr

There are two ways to look at the Chicago Bulls’ 92-87 win over the Phoenix Suns. You can look at it as a failure, since trading Luol Deng the night before ostensibly ushered in a new era of tanking, or you can look at it as the reality of Tom Thibodeau. We all knew that Thibs wasn’t on board with any potential tank efforts, and that any tanking would thus have to be done via removing enough talent that even he couldn’t coax wins out of the remaining players.

Well, um, about that.

The Bulls currently are down to 12 players on their roster after waiving Andrew Bynum. Derrick Rose is out for the year, of course, Marquis Teague is in the D-League, and Carlos Boozer was out last night. That left 9 players — really 8, since one of them is Erik Murphy — to take on a Phoenix Suns team that has been much better than expected. Granted, they were without Eric Bledsoe, but they’ve got some legit players.

You can be upset that the Bulls won. That’s certainly your right. But this is the new normal. Which, conveniently, is the same as the old normal. Taj Gibson and Joakim Noah and company are not going to roll over and die. Once Boozer is back, the Bulls are still one of the better teams in the East.

That, of course, says more about the East than it does about the Bulls, but that’s not the point.

Maybe more trades are coming. Kirk Hinrich is rumored to be a target of the Golden State Warriors, for instance. Mike Dunleavy could be very useful to a contender. We’ll see. But for now, this is what this team is. So you might as well get used to it.

Or don’t. It’s not like Thibs cares either way.

The post Chicago Bulls 92, Phoenix Suns 87: What did we learn? appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

The NBA has certain axioms that have stood the test of time.

One of these is that any road win is a good win.

Another is that it is important — possibly even crucial — to open an extended road swing with a victory.

Well, the Bulls started their annual circus road trip with an overtime win in Phoenix last night, which all things being equal means they came away with a good and important victory.

But they sure went and did it the hard way.

Bad Fourth Quarter D:
Things were actually going reasonably well for the first 36 minutes. The Bulls were in control most of the first half and then started to put the hammer down during the third quarter. In fact, when Carlos Boozer scored his 23rd and 24th points with 3:03 left in the third, the Bulls went up by 18 points (79-61) and the game seemed pretty much over.

Then the fourth quarter happened.

Look. I know it’s the NBA and, as coaches and commentators like to say, everybody makes a run. But the Bulls became rather complacent on defense over the final 12 minutes. And it nearly cost them the game.

After limiting Phoenix to 18 points in the third quarter — by playing the kind of defense we’ve come to expect under coach Tom Thibodeau by the way — the Bulls got 31 points dropped on them in the fourth.

Even worse, Phoenix reserves Sebastian Telfair (17 points, 4-for-8 on threes, 4 assists) and Shannon Brown (11 points) did most of the damage.

Telfair scored 9 points in the fourth — all on threes — and had 3 assists. Brown scored 10 points in that quarter, which included three driving layups, one of which ended in an “And 1!” opportunity. And Brown completed it.

Simply put, the Bulls got too lax on defense, giving up a series of easy looks. And that gave the Suns new life. It energized them.

And the Bulls gave up more than just easy looks.

Offensive Rebounding:
The Suns pulled down 20 offensive rebounds and finished with an Offensive Rebounding Percentage of 39.2. To put it another way, for every 10 misses, Phoenix got about four second chances.

The Suns ripped down 6 offensive boards in the fourth quarter alone.

Considering the Bulls are a fairly strong rebounding team, those numbers are mind boggling.

Again, the Phoenix bench did most of the damage here, between P.J. Tucker (7 offensive rebounds) and Markieff Morris (5 offensive rebounds).

But getting back to those 6 offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter. That — along with the Suns’ scoring explosion — is a sure sign of how lackadaisical the Bulls became after building that huge lead. From the moment Chicago went up by 18 points until overtime, they got thoroughly outworked.

Joakim Noah saves the day:
The ESPN NBA Scoreboard has a subheading that reads: Boozer leads Bulls to overtime win against Suns.

It’s understandable. After all, Boozer scored a game-high 28 points on 11-for-20 from the field and 6-for-6 from the line. He also pulled down a co-game-high 14 rebounds to go with 3 assists and a steal.

Not a bad stat line.

That said…Boozer scored only 4 points after the Bulls established that 18-point lead. He attempted only one shot in the fourth quarter (a miss) and three shots in overtime (all misses).

Noah’s stat line wasn’t quite as gaudy as Boozer’s — 21 points (9-for-19), 12 rebounds, 5 assists — but he scored 11 of his points after the Bulls had given up their big lead. That included a) two 17-foot jumpers in the fourth quarter and b) Chicago’s final two buckets in overtime — a nifty driving layup that put the Bulls up 110-101 with 1:23 remaining and a cold-blooded 18-footer with 29 seconds left that held off the Suns’ final flurry.

Said Thibs: “He’s been playing this way now throughout the preseason, throughout the season. He’s healthy. And so that’s the big thing; he’s working hard on his game, he’s studying, he’s preparing to play. I think he’s shown that he’s a lot more than just a hustle guy. The thing right now that I think he’s doing great is he’s screening — the better the screen he sets the more he’s open. The more he’s open … he’s making his moves a lot quicker.”

Everybody can improve:
Thibodeau did make one other observation about Noah’s game: “(He) probably could have had 30 tonight if he had made his dunks.”

Thibs has a point. According to the ESPN shot chart, Noah missed eight shots in the paint. And according to Hoopdata, he missed six of his 12 attempts at the rim.

That said, Hoopdata tells us that Noah is currerntly shooting a career-best 62.5 percent at the rim. He’s also averaging a career-high 2.1 field goal attempts per game from 16-23 feet…and knocking down 41 percent of them. Finger guns, people. Finger guns.

Another strong game for Luol Deng:
Boozer and Noah were the stars, but Deng was his usual steady self: 21 points, 8-for-14, 5 rebounds, 2 assists.

He may have had a “comeback year” in 2010-11 and then made the All-Star team last season, but Deng is playing his best basketball in years. According to Basketball-Reference, his Player Efficiency Rating is currently 17.1. That’s the second-highest mark of his career.

The Good news:
The Bulls scored 50 points in the paint and 17 points on fast breaks.

The Bad News:
The Bulls gave up 48 points in the paint and 14 points on fast breaks.

Key Stats Part 1:
The Bulls and Suns both committed 15 turnovers. The difference: Chicago scored 22 points off Phoenix turnovers, whereas the Suns scored only 9 points off Bulls turnovers.

Key Stats Part 2:
One game after letting the Celtics score 113 points per 100 possessions, the Bulls allowed Phoenix to finish with an Offensive Rating of 108.7. That’s above the Suns’ season average of 104.1 (13th in the league) and well over the season average for Bulls opponents (99.5).

The Bulls haven’t played many bad defensive games under Thibodeau…let alone two in a row. It’ll be interesting to see how they do against the Clippers on Saturday. After all, “The Other L.A. Team” beat the Heat last night and currently rank fourth in the league in Offensive Rating (108.9).

Key Stats Part 3:
According to Hoopdata, Chicago’s defense was pretty stout in most zones. Phoenix shot 2-for-7 (28 percent) from 3-9 feet, 0-for-4 (zero percent) from 10-15 feet, 12-for-37 (32 percent) from 16-23 feet and 6-for-21 from three-point range (28 percent).

But they shot 22-for-32 (68.8 percent) at the rim.

Losing composure:
The Suns were playing some scrappy ball last night. At times, their defense was a little slap happy, which got under the skin of some of the Bulls players. Kirk Hinrich, Nate Robinson and Rip Hamilton all received technical fouls. And Hinrich was so animated while getting into the face of an official that I was afraid he’d get tossed.

Missed free throws:
The Bulls missed seven free throws last night (18-for-25). Their 72 percent conversion rate would rank about 25th in the league. Not good.

Meanwhile, the Suns were 16-for-17 (94 percent).

However, I’m more concerned about the timing than the percentages. By which I mean: Four of the Bulls’ seven misses came in the fourth quarter. And three of those misses came in the final two minutes.

The last miss was by Richard Hamilton — who leads the Bulls in foul shooting at 91 percent — came with 17 seconds left. Had Hamilton knocked that shot down, the Bulls would have gone up 101-98 and the Suns would have needed a three to force overtime. Instead, Phoenix managed to earn a trip to OT with a layup.

Interestingly enough, as players were lining up for Hamilton’s foul shots, a Suns player (I couldn’t tell who) smacked the ball out of Rip’s hands. It was an obvious “psyche out” move, which I thought had failed when Hamilton knocked down the first free throw. But when he missed the second, I had to wonder.

Opposing Player of the Game:
Man, did Luis Scola put the hurt on the Bulls, or what? Scola scored a team-high 24 points (12-for-22) and a co-game-high 14 rebounds in 43 minutes before fouling out.

And he was the only Phoenix starter with a positive plus-minus score (+8). The rest were in the red. Some deep in the red. To wit:

Jared Dudley: -7
Goran Dragic: -20
Michael Beasley: -20
Marcin Gortat: -22

Speaking of Beasley — who went a dismal 4-for-15 — can you believe that he was chosen second overall in the 2008 NBA Draft? Just behind Derrick Rose and ahead of guys like O.J. Mayo, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love.

And, as hard as it is to believe now, some people thought the Bulls should take Beasley over Rose. No, really. I’m completely serious.

In all fairness, it made a little more sense at the time.

After all, the Bulls had signed Kirk Hinrich to a long-term deal worth big bucks, and conventional wisdom was that their biggest need was a scoring power forward, which is what Beasley was.

Fortunately for the Bulls and their fans, owner Jerry Reinsdorf and then-coach Vinny Del Negro conducted interviews with Beasley and Rose before the draft.

Not only did Beasley answer cell phone calls during the interview, he answered Reinsdorf’s question of “What about college basketball bothered you the most” with “When you go on the road and they referees make bad calls.”

Rose’s answer? What bothered him most about college basketball?

“Losing.”

Pretty much says it all.

Quote of the Night:
Thibs: “The lesson we have to learn is we have to play tough with the lead. I thought we got a little loose. We were throwing lobs and not strong with the ball.”

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

The post Game Recap: Bulls 112, Suns 106 (OT) appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

Although the lineup didn’t work, it was nice to see some of these guys getting minutes, and important minutes at that. Teague rarely left the bench for the first few games, but an injury to Kirk Hinrich forced Thibodeau’s hand. And in the end he trusted Teague more than Nate Robinson. Butler got the nod over Rip Hamilton. It might not have worked this game, but the confidence will help in the future. When Rose returns, maybe the four other players on the court won’t just stand around.

One person who always sits around in crunch time is Carlos Boozer. Boozington hasn’t played in five straight fourth quarters, if I remember correctly. A $15 million dollar player that your coach is afraid to use in crunch time because his scoring is iffy and his defense is nonexistent. Boozer was even scoring well against Boston, going 7-14. But his negatibe-17 plus/minutes probably sealed him to the bench for the final quarter. It definitely wasn’t that Taj was playing great, he finished 1-4, but he was playing defense, as usual.

The problem with the lineup is that they aren’t very good on offense. Deng was 11-20 but isn’t great at creating shots. As much as I love Noah, he isn’t the best option for a creator. They would be tough to score against, and that showed when for the first time all game they were stopping Boston, but the offense needs work.

The Bulls can’t allow a team as good as the Celtics to shoot 50.6 percent and still expect to win the game. It just won’t happen much. The fact that the Bulls were still in the game, after Boston shot so well and Chicago turned it over six more times is a good sign. But that’s two games, against the Thunder and Celtics the Bulls failed down the stretch.

Boston and Oklahoma City are very good teams, but even against lesser competition, the Bulls are going to have a hard time closing games out without their go-to scorer. Hate to say it, but Joakim Noah isn’t that guy. It can be Luol on certain nights, but even that is questionable. If the Bulls want to win, getting off to good starts is going to be important. Oh and they have to make free throws down the stretch too.

And that’s the opposite of what they did against Boston. Boston shot 56 percent and had 82 points through three quarters. So the Bulls were fighting an uphill battle, without two point guards. The Bulls fell, but they don’t like to lose two in a row.

The Suns are coming off an impressive win. Phoenix had seven scorers in double figures, led by Goran Dragic with 21, and downed the Nuggets. The Suns won because they only turned the ball over six times while the Nugs had 15 turnovers. Phoenix has held onto the ball all season, ranking third in turnover percentage (.118). They also got to the line 21 times, and made 18 of those freebies (81 percent). Their 15-9 offensive rebounding margin didn’t hurt either. Those three things helped them overcome Denver shooting 53.9 percent from the field.

The Suns defense is what the doctor ordered for the Bulls. Chicago has been struggling on offense all year, hitting 100 points just once, against the Cavaliers (they scored 115 that game). But they should have a good chance to do it against the Suns. Phoenix is 27^th in defensive rating (108.9) and 4^th in pace (94.6), which is a recipe for a lot of points. Opponents have a .516 effective field goal percentage against Phoenix, good for 28^th in the league.

The Bulls are right in the middle of the road offensively, 15^th in offensive rating (102.9) and 19^th in effective field goal percentage (.469). That tends to happen when your best offensive creator is Joakim Noah.

After playing six of the first seven at home, the Bulls start the circus road trip. The Bulls play their next five on the road and don’t return home until the 26^th. Luckily for the Bulls, it starts off easy against the Suns, but it gets tougher, visiting the Clippers, Trail Blazers, Rockets and Bucks.

Teague Time: It would be nice to see Marquis get these type of minutes more often. With Rose and now Hinrich out, I would ask the question what’s to lose? Nate Robinson isn’t going to help the team much in the future. Robinson only got a one-year deal. The Bulls can keep Marquis on his rookie deal until 2015-16.

Omer Asik didn’t look like much when he came into the league. But he grew to be one of Thibodeau’s most trusted players. Asik and Gibson closed games, including big playoffs matchups, over Noah and Boozer. When Rose is back, Teague probably won’t be closing any games, but this confidence can only help him grow.

The post Bulls-Suns Preview appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

The Suns have been eliminated from postseason contention and have nothing left to play for. Of course, weird things can happen at the end of the regular season. Just look at San Antonio’s recent six-game losing streak.

Or, if you prefer, look at some of last night’s other games.

The recently red-hot Houston Rockets are trying to keep their playoff hopes alive, but they lost at home to the lowly Sacramento Kings.

The Memphis Grizzlies are trying to hold onto their playoff spot and maybe even improve their seeding, but they lost at home to the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Portland Trail Blazers have been on fire lately, but they lost at home to the lottery-bound Golden State Warriors.

And then the Los Angeles Lakers, who have been trying to catch and overtake the Spurs for the top seed in the Western Conference, lost at home to the Utah Jazz, a team they eliminated from the playoffs last Friday.

Apparently, there are no “gimmies” down the stretch.

Sure, the Suns have been kicked around the last few games, but it’s worth remembering that Steve Nash missed some time with the flu. Prior to that, Phoenix had some close, hard fought games against good teams. Take that triple-overtime road loss to the Lakers. Or their back-to-back close home losses to the New Orleans Hornets and Dallas Mavericks. As long as Nash is playing — did you see the pass he delivered through Carlos Boozer’s legs to Marcin Gortat? — the Suns can be a dangerous team.

Still, the Bulls built a 22-point third quarter lead, and the Suns nearly came back.

Fortunately, as has been the case recently, and at various times throughout the season, Derrick Rose was able to close out the game. With 1:52 left and the Bulls clinging to a 91-89 lead, Rose hit a layup while getting fouled by Grant Hill, then converted the layup for a three-point play. With 52 seconds left and the Bulls up 94-92, Rose used his defense to help harass Nash into a shot clock violation. With 33 seconds left, Rose drilled a 19-footer that put the Bulls up 96-94. After that, Chicago had to sweat out a layup by Vince Carter, a missed free throw by Kyle Korver and a final (but failed) flurry by the Suns.

Look, complacency set it, there’s no other way to put it. The Bulls were one punch away from a clean knockout but didn’t deliver the blow. They got a little careless. And it nearly cost them.

Said Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau: “We did not play tough with a lead. Our shot selection hurt us, our defensive transition hurt us. We have to do a lot better. We have to clean up a lot of things.”

Added Rose: “I don’t feel like I won tonight. We’re taking steps back. We’ve got to come back [Wednesday] practice hard, and make sure we get things together.”

Honestly, listening to Thibs and Rose, you’d think the Bulls really did lose this one, or that they were fighting for a playoff spot rather than padding their lead for the first seed in the East.

But then again, that’s the attitude that has allowed the team to so radically exceed expectations during a season that was supposed to be about the Celtics, Heat and Lakers.

Remember: During the preseason, there were quite a few bloggers and experts who thought the Milwaukee Bucks were going to win the Central Division.

But leave it to Joakim Noah to deliver a nice little reality check.

Said Noah: “It’s hard to win in this league, you know? I think that it’s important to remember that. And there’s no question that we have things we have to do to get better. We didn’t play our best basketball tonight, but I think we’re a team that understands that there’s areas that we have to get better at and we have six games to do it. At the end of the day, a win is always a positive.”

I agree with Noah.

And yet…it’s also true that the Bulls haven’t been playing their best ball lately. They’ve been scraping by and counting on Rose to deliver in the clutch. They need to focus. Thursday’s home game against the Celtics should provide the perfect opportunity for the Bulls to remind everybody how good they are.

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

The post Another Close Escape: Bulls 97, Suns 94 appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

Emphasis on the word “apparently.”

As I watched Chicago’s amazing comeback last night, I was reminded of what Joakim Noah said a few weeks ago when the Bulls fell behind big to the Celtics in Boston on the second night of back-to-backs and nearly came back to win before succumbing in overtime:

“I think we’re not there yet, but we’re pretty close. We’re only going to get better, and when we do, it’s going to get real ugly for everybody who’s talking real crazy. All the trash that people are talking right now is going to come back and haunt them. Because when it counts, we’ll be ready.”

I loved that. Pure defiance. That — as much as the defense and rebounding — is what makes Noah so valuable. Derrick Rose may be Chicago’s best player, but Noah is the team’s spiritual leader. He is the savagely beating heart of a team that, so far this season, simply will not give up.

Take last night. His stat line — 17 points (8-for-13), 15 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals — doesn’t even begin to describe the impact he had on this game. It doesn’t list the shots he intimidated or the passes he disrupted. It doesn’t tell you how he repeatedly defended Steve Nash on the perimeter. How he dove for loose balls. How he clapped and screamed from the bench when he wasn’t in the game.

And when Rose hit a reverse layup to tie the score at 111 with 0.1 seconds left in the first overtime, it was Joakim who delivered the perfect pass to make it happen. When that play started, the Bulls had only 4.3 seconds to make something happen. And mind you, the only reason the Bulls were even in a position to tie the game at that point is because Noah had tipped in a missed three-pointer by Rose on Chicago’s previous possession.

I’m not trying to take anything away from Derrick’s performance. Rose was awesome. He played 50 minutes and scored a game-best 35 points while grabbing a career-high 12 rebounds and dishing out a team-high 7 assists. Rose hit clutch shot after clutch shot…and the two clutch free throws at the end of regulation that forced the first overtime.

He’s becoming a superstar if he isn’t one already.

But I’m here to tell you, Noah’s contributions — statistically, emotionally, spiritually — are just as important. His performance last night was just as amazing as what Rose did, even if it’s not getting as much attention.

Chicago’s depth was also critical. Kyle Korver had 24 points off the bench to go with 5 rebounds and 3 assists…and the Bulls were +22 when he was on the floor. James Johnson returned from the dead (again) to score 12 points on 5-for-6 shooting to (also) go with 5 rebounds and 3 assists…and the Bulls were +10 when he was on the floor.

C.J. Watson (2 points, 1-for-4, 2 assists) and Brian Scalabrine (0 points, 1 assist) didn’t make huge statistical contributions, but the Bulls were +12 and +10 respectively when they were in the game. Even Omer Asik made his presence felt, particularly on a pick-and-roll play attempt by the Suns in which Asik used his length to cut off the passing lane and then intimidated Nash into an airball.

In the NBA, a bench is supposed to provide energy and key contributions when called on. Well, they’re doing that.

The Bulls are really coming together as a team. There were countless points last night at which they could have failed or just given up. But they didn’t. They wouldn’t. And I haven’t even mentioned how Taj Gibson missed the game with a foot injury, or that Carlos Boozer still hasn’t played a single game yet this season.

Pure defiance.

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

The post Circus Trip: Bulls 123, Suns 115 (20T) appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

Steve Nash gave D-Rose a lesson in fourth quarter heroics last night.

Well, so much for Derrick Rose owning Steve Nash.

On paper, last night’s matchup of rising star versus former MVP looks kind of even. Rose finished with 23 points (7-for-16 from the field, 8-for-9 at the line), 5 rebounds, 10 assists and a steal. Nash had 22 points (8-for-20, 2-for-3 on threes, 4-for-4 from the stripe), 4 rebounds, 10 assists and 2 steals.

The battle wasn’t so close in terms of their plus-minus stats, where Nash was +12 and Rose was -3. And, of course, the final score went in favor of Captain Canada.

But numbers don’t really tell the story of how Nash almost single-handedly stole this game down the stretch. For most of the fourth quarter, it looked like the Bulls were going to live up to Derrick’s playoff prediction. Then, with just over five minutes remaining and Chicago clinging to a three-point lead, Nash took over.

Nash started by finding Amar’e Stoudemire (21 points, 11 rebounds) for a layup (Bulls 94, Suns 93). After a Brad Miller three, Nash hit a driving layup of his own (Bulls 97, Suns 95). After the two teams traded a few misses, Nash suckered in Chicago’s defense and then hit Jason Richardson (27 points, 10-for-19) for a three-pointer (Suns 98, Bulls 97).

Rose hit a short jumper, but then Nash countered by driving the lane hard and hitting a turnaround of his own (Suns 100, Bulls 99). Derrick came back with an aggressive drive to earn a couple free throws, both of which he hit (Bulls 101, Suns 100). However, Nash on-upped Rose by snaking into the paint for a scoop shot and the foul (Suns 103, Bulls 101 after Nash hit the freebie). Rose again went hard to the hole, earning and converting another pair of foul shots to tie the game at 103-103 with 59 seconds left.

Pretty exciting stuff, right?

Unfortunately for the Bulls, Nash wasn’t done. Now, did I mention that Kirk Hinrich left the game for good after spraining his left ankle by stepping on Joakim Noah’s foot in the second quarter? This meant Jannero Pargo was guarding Nash down the stretch. And by “guarding” I mean “usually watching Nash run right past him.”

Pargo might have been a cardboard cutout for all the trouble Nash had in maneuvering to wherever he wanted to go. Jannero could not stay in front of Nash, and, to be fair, the rest of the Bulls didn’t exactly amaze with their rotations. So with 41 seconds left, Nash pulled what seemed like the entire Chicago defense into the paint before finding Channing Frye for a wide-open three-pointer to put Phoenix ahead 106-103.

As soon as Frye’s shot went in, it felt like the Bulls were done. A three-point deficit down the stretch is deadly against a team that doesn’t shoot the three that well. Chicago made the right play out of the timeout, as Rose drove in for a quick layup to pull the Bulls to within a point with 37 seconds left. But Nash once again pulled all the Chicago defenders to him and dished to Grant Hill for a wide-open dunk with 23 seconds left. Suns 108, Bulls 105.

Then Rose blinked.

Perhaps feeling the pressure — and I mean really feeling it — for the first time all game, Rose forced a three-pointer with a Suns defender right in his face. Like, so in his face that Derrick had to double-clutch the shot attempt, which didn’t come anywhere close to going down. Phoenix ended up with the ball and the Bulls were forced to foul Nash, who naturally drilled both free throws to give his team a five-point lead with 13 seconds left. Game over.

Regarding his ill-advised three-pointer, Rose said: “I felt like I should take it. I had to adjust. In the future when that play comes around again, I’ll know what to do.”

Thanks to Nash, that future will probably have to be next season, because this loss was devastating to Chicago’s playoff chances. The Bulls only trail the eighth place Raptors by 1 1/2 games, but Toronto has a more favorable schedule down the stretch. No matter how you look at it, the Bulls are facing an uphill battle, especially with Luol Deng still out with a strained calf and Hinrich’s status unknown.

Give Derrick credit, though. He’s keeping his chin up.

Said Rose: “It’s hard right now. But, you can’t think about it like that. We play soon [at New Jersey tonight]. And that’s what I’m thinking about [Wednesday] to let [the team] know our heads can’t be down. We came out and played our hardest tonight. We played and competed tonight. We didn’t execute our plays like we were supposed to. They did. They won.

“I’m actually going to go back to the Berto [Center] right now and shoot with some of my friends. Hopefully [Wednesday] in practice talk to [the team]. Everybody needs to get involved and win some games.”

The sad thing is, everybody was involved. Flip Murray was fantastic off the bench (23 points, 9-for-12, 9 rebounds, 4 assists). Joakim Noah looked like his old self, finishing with four dunks, a couple blocked shots, and a double-double (12 points, 10 boards). Taj Gibson had a double-double of his own (14 points, 10 rebounds). Pargo even hit a couple threes to help the Bulls recover from an early deficit.

Earlier in the season, this loss might have counted as a moral victory. But Chicago doesn’t have the margin of error left for that. Moral victories aren’t going to earn them a trip to the postseason. Only real victories will.

Update! Here are some thoughts from By The Horns reader and guest author Tony C.: “I also consider the final few minutes to have been an illustration of why Rose hasn’t fully arrived yet as a star. Yes, it’s true that he isn’t a stellar defensive player, but he should have TOLD Vinny and the team that HE would guard Nash. Then he should have gone out there, adrenaline pumping, and done his hyper-athletic best to shut Nash down. If the Suns had beaten us with someone else knocking in shots, so be it. But to allow the player who was obviously going to to attempt to take control of the game to do just that was inexcusable, and I believe that if Rose was a true leader at this stage, he would have at least tried to step up and assert himself on defense.”

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

The post The Revenge of Steve Nash: Suns 111, Bulls 105 appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

Captain Canada currently leads the league in assists per game (11.1) and is second (to Chris Paul) in Player Efficiency Rating among point guards (21.48). More importantly, his Phoenix Suns are 21-5 since January 28 while getting key contributions from NBA castoffs like Channing Frye and Jared Dudley. No Western Conference team has a better record during that stretch.

Here’s the thing, though: Derrick Rose kind of owns Nash. Or, at least, he has so far.

Check out Derrick’s splits: In three games against the Suns, Rose has averaged 25.3 PPG on 68.6 percent shooting (including 2-for-3 from downtown) to go along with 4.3 RPG and 5.0 APG. In those same three games, Nash has averaged 9.7 PPG, 7.3 APG and 5.0 TO. Moreover, Nash shot 13-for-33 in those contests…which is pretty significant considering he’s been in the top 10 in Effective Field Goal Percentage for the past seven years.

The most important stat from Rose’s three games against Nash and the Suns is this: 3-0. That’s Chicago’s record, which includes a 115-104 win in Phoenix on January 22. In that game, Rose scored 32 points (15-for-21) with 5 assists and 3 steals while Nash finished with 8 points (4-for-12), 7 assists and 5 turnovers (thanks, as By The Horns reader PTFC correctly pointed out, to some pesky defense by Kirk Hinrich).

I can’t help but wonder whether this matchup can possibly continue to be so lopsided. I guess we’ll find out tonight.

The post Derrick Rose versus Steve Nash appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

The Bulls swept the weekend? Brad Miller was a hero? Yes and yes.

After opening their seven-game Western Conference road trip with agonizing losses first to the Golden State Warriors and then to the Los Angeles Clippers, the Bulls seemed almost destined for a season-crippling losing streak. Going into Friday’s game against the Suns, an 0-7 trip appeared to be a very real possibility…and 0-4 at the very least. I mean, back-to-back road games versus good teams following consecutive road losses to bad teams?

And yet the Bulls finished the weekend 2-0.

I’m still a little blown away. When discussing strategies for the Suns game, I firmly stated that Chicago absolutely could not afford to be lured into shooting jumpers all night long. However, that’s exactly what happened…and it worked. It actually worked. The Bulls attempted only 16 of their 85 field goals at the rim, but ended up shooting about 51 percent on jump shots (35-for-69), including 78 percent from 10-15 feet (7-for-9) and 50 percent from 16-23 feet (17-for-34).

“Chicago did the unexpected,” Amare Stoudemire said. “They hit shots.”

The hot shooting was due in large part to Derrick Rose, who went 3-for-3 inside five feet, 4-for-6 from six-to-eight feet and 8-for-12 outside of 15 feet. Rose was hitting from everywhere. When the kid beat the third-quarter buzzer with a leaning three-pointer, you just knew it was his night. Fittingly, he also nailed an off-balance jumper from 20 feet to seal the 115-104 victory with a little over a minute to go.

Rose finished with a game-high 32 points to go along with 5 assists and 3 steals. And while I don’t want to demean what he accomplished, I also don’t want to overlook the contributions of Luol Deng (23 points, 10-for-17, 6 rebounds), Joakim Noah (19  points, 9-for-10 from the line, 8 boards, 2 blocks) and John Salmons (14 points, 6-for-9 from the field, 2-for-4 from downtown).

It’s also very important to highlight the defensive job Kirk Hinrich did on Steve Nash. Captain Kirk hounded Captain Canada all night long, holding the two-time MVP to only 8 points on 4-for-12 shooting. Moreover, Nash barely finished with more assists (7) than turnovers (5). During the game, ESPN showed an interview with Phoenix coach Alvin Gentry in which Gentry said no player in the NBA — including Kobe Bryand and LeBron James — does more for his team than Nash does. I can’t really argue with Gentry’s analysis, and Hinrich’s lockdown defensive performance on Nash might have been even more important than Chicago’s offensive explosion.

Getting back to Rose for a second, I think it’s fair to say that any lingering concerns about his ability to develop a jump shot have been put to rest once and for all. When the Bulls played the Golden State Warriors in Chicago before Christmas, I got to watch Rose practice jumpers for almost a full hour. He was like a machine. It wasn’t so much that his form was always perfect (it wasn’t) or that he nailed every shot (he didn’t). What impressed me was his focus and quiet determination to master this very important aspect of his game.

You just wait. I’d be willing to bet good money he develops a three-point shot next summer.

All that said, I was mildly disappointed he earned only three free throw attempts (two of which he missed). And I was more than “mildly disappointed” that he hoisted a few jumpers while teammates were standing alone under the basket. In fact, he twice missed a wide-open Tyrus Thomas, whose defender left him to help defend against Derrick’s jumper. Ty had a rough night, going 1-for-7 from the field, including 0-for-4 at the rim. When a player is struggling, it’s vital for his point guard to create easy opportunities to get him going. In that respect, Rose failed Tyrus. I’m not trying to poke holes in what really was a great game for Rose, but I feel like these are important things for the Bulls to think about as the season proceeds.

TrueHoop Network:
Tyler Lockman of Valley of the Suns: “What was most baffling was the interior stats at the end of the game. The Suns outrebounded Chicago 49-42, outscored them in the paint 46-34 and scored 20 second-chance points to the Bulls six. What’s confusing about that is that, from watching the game, you’d think Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson (who grabbed eight rebounds apiece) had dominated the boards. The key for the Bulls, despite lesser stats, was the way they used their rebounds. Essentially, the Suns got a taste of their own medicine as the Bulls used huge boards and outlet passes to spark fast breaks. The Bulls outscored the Suns in transition, 16-10. That might not seem like a lot, but the simple efficiency with which Chicago used their possessions after rebounds was what doomed the Suns.”

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

Chicago’s win over the Rockets was even more impressive than their victory over the Suns. The Bulls have been a bad road team all season (6-15), and they’ve been even worse on the second night of back-to-backs (2-7 heading into the game). To make matters even more grim, Noah opted to sit out minutes before tipoff due to a left foot injury.

Enter Brad Miller.

Big Brad stepped up big time. Miller scored a season-high 25 points in only 26 minutes. He went 9-for-14 from the field — including 2-for-2 from downtown — and 5-for-5 from the line. But Miller’s biggest play wasn’t a layup or a jump shot. It was the offensive rebound he grabbed with 48 seconds left and the Bulls leading by only two points (99-97). That board gave Chicago another possession at a critical time, and 18 seconds later Rose drilled an 11-footer that pretty much clinched the game.

The Bulls also got significant add-ins from Rose (20 points, 4 assists, and that deal-sealing jumper), Taj Gibson (16 points, 14 rebounds), Kirk Hinrich (12 points, 7 assists) and (12 points off the bench). But it really was a team effort, as Chicago shot 53 percent from the field (including 7-for-12 from beyond the arc) while holding the Rockets to 40 percent shooting. On the road. On the second night of back-to-backs. Without Noah.

“That’s the NBA,” Miller said. “You’re going to be tested at some point, and you can use it as an excuse. We just went out and competed tonight.”

They sure did.

TrueHoop Network:
Rahat Huq of Red94: “Prior to tip-off, the NBAtv crew remarked that the Rockets struggled against teams with low post options and that they were probably feeling fortunate to face the Bulls who didn’t have one.  Actually it is probably the other way around.  The teams that have played the Rockets the best this year are those with no inside presence. The Rockets win through their quickness advantage and Chuck Hayes can neutralize any post-guy in the league.  But if you challenge the Rockets at their own game, and have the personnel to do it, they are very beatable.”

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

The post Weekend recap: Bulls return from the almost-dead appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.