| 09 April 2010
No pictures tonight. No cute videos. I can’t.
The level of disappointment is immeasurable. The frustration is unbearable. The pain? Intense. The feeling? Indescribable. No words.
Being a fan is not easy. Caring about something so much that you can't function after a loss like this...sucks. But I'm not here to feel sorry for myself, and that's neither here nor there.
Truth is...I didn't watch this game. I was on a date with my better half. We were walking around Water Tower place after some all-you-can-eat sushi, and I was non-chalantly checking the Bulls score. She stopped at a few female oriented apparel shops, and I figured that would be the perfect opportunity for me to sit and check the Bulls score while I waited for her to finish.
I started watching on my phone right before half time. Bulls up 47-38, meanwhile the Raptors are down by 12 at halftime. Looks like it's going to be a good night for the Bulls. I wasn't concerned. I was glad. I figured the Bulls would come out and take care of business against the crappiest of crappy teams in a pretty much must-win game. They were taking care of business.
I checked the score later in the quarter. Hmmm. Alright…the Nets are making a run. That’s fine. Teams always make runs. But it’s the Nets. The Bulls will turn it on later and take care of it. We’re up 1 at half-time.
I’m sitting there having some dessert with my better half and I casually start checking the score again. She says to me, “What’s the score?” With a concerned look on my face, I answered, “75-69, Nets.” At this point, I’m annoyed. Obviously the Bulls realize how important this game is. And certainly they see that the Raptors just lost to Atlanta and they now have the chance to take a 1 game lead for the 8-seed. Golden opportunity. Beyond golden. Platinum opportunity.
I’m no longer putting my phone away. I have my phone open to ESPN Mobile and clicking reload literally every second. The page reloads. I press reload immediately. The page reloads. I press reload immediately. This goes on for the entire 4th quarter. With 7:30 left, I start to lose hope. Bulls are down 78-90, but I remind myself that it’s the Nets and there’s a decent amount of time left. But still, I start mentally preparing myself for a loss and playing out scenarios in my head for how the Bulls can still make the playoffs.
Three minutes pass. Under 5 minutes left. Bulls are down 10 after a Yi jump-shot. I look up, and all I can say is, “It’s over.” Down 10 with less than 5 minutes to go, and the Nets are playing very solid basketball and have been for a very long stretch now. It’s going to be tough for the Bulls to come back, especially after a very hard fought Cavs game the night before at the UC, which I happened to be in the building to witness. By the way, just a sidenote, I had nightmares about Mo Williams last night. The Bulls hardly escaped with a victory against the Lebron-less Cavs. But anyway, I braced myself for a loss to the Nets, processed it (with difficulty), and was already thinking about the upcoming Raptors game.
But obviously, I don’t stop reloading the page on my phone, because I’m from Chicago. Chicagoans are hopeless. You always think there might be some miracle or a huge comeback that can bring you back. There rarely is. I still can’t tell you exactly what transpired to bring the Bulls all the way back to take the lead with 48 seconds left. When I saw that on my phone, I literally got up and did a jig. I didn’t care that I made a fool out of myself in front of a boat-load of people. I was elated. The Bulls made a huge comeback in an absolutely huge game, just like they needed to. A few plays later, it’s 102-99, Bulls lead with 9 seconds left. I look up, and I say, “It’s over.” Again. And it wasn’t. Again.
Harris makes a running jumper. Nets foul Rose. He goes one of two from the line. Inexcusable. Unforgiveable. I said it right then and there. If the Bulls lose, it’s on Derrick. Kobe? Never would have missed. LeBron? Nope. Durant? Nope. ‘Melo? Uh-uh. Deron? No way. Derrick? Every time. I don’t know what this kid’s deal is with free-throws, but it’s pissing me off. You cannot be an elite player in the NBA (with the exception of Shaq) if you cannot be called upon to convert free-throws in big-game situations in the 4th quarter. Especially an elite point guard. Derrick missed 5 freakin’ free-throws the entire game. When was the last time a star point guard missed 5 free-throws in an NBA game? Seriously. Someone tell me. When was it? I can’t imagine.
103-101 with 3 seconds left. Nets score. I didn’t even flinch. I knew they would. I knew. I was so confident they would score that I wasn’t phased one bit when I saw it show up on my phone. I was told that apparently Lopez goal-tended the Harris miss, but that’s neither here nor there. It wouldn’t have mattered if Derrick made that free-throw. He missed it, and overtime was a-coming.
Bulls ran out to a 7 point lead in overtime. Still, I wasn’t confident. Excited, but not confident. Hopeful, but not confident. Anything can happen in a Bulls game at any moment. They have absolutely zero ability when it comes to putting teams away, so with over three minutes left, a 7 point lead is not at all comforting. And for some reason, the Nets wouldn’t just quit like they had all season long. I don’t really understand it. I was having serious flashbacks to the 2007 season when on the last game of the season, the lottery-bound Nets beat the Bulls to drop them to the 5-seed when had the Bulls won, they would have been the 2-seed. That loss to the Nets also prevented the Bulls from getting their first 50-win season since 1998. I still hate the Nets for that until this day. Somehow, deep in my gut, I knew the Nets had it out for us again…even with this 7 point lead.
Sure enough, what followed was a 24-6 run by the Nets through both overtimes. The Nets came back from 7 down to take it to overtime number 2. And then they gave the Bulls a taste of their own medicine by going on a 7-0 run to start the 2nd overtime. Only the Bulls didn’t have the heart, nor the legs to do what the Nets did and come back. 24 to freakin’ 6. A 24 to 6 run of which the details I refuse to transcribe as doing so would certainly make me nauseous reminiscent of the stomach ailment I acquired within an hour of the 35 point Kings comeback. I can tell you that somewhere in the 2nd OT, while we were driving home, Derrick Rose fouled out, and that spelled the end for the Bulls. Maybe the fatigue caught up to them. Playing two overtimes on a back-to-back home to away isn’t easy. Against the Nets, that’s not really an excuse. In the Bulls’ situation, that’s not really an excuse against anyone.
The loss is really a good metaphor for the entire Bulls season. Up and down. Up and down. UP AND DOWN. Up. Down. Up. Up. Down. Down. Rollercoaster in every which way possible. And as nauseating as the worst rollercoaster you can imagine. And it seems like it’s down more than up. And with this loss, it’s hard for me to imagine it finishing up. The Bulls face the Raptors next. Then they face Boston at the UC and Charlotte on the road. Both those games are going to be tough. The Boston game may not be that bad only if they rest their players, but who knows if they will. It won’t matter if the Bulls lose to the Raptors on Sunday. It really won’t. The Raptors’ remaining games are against the Bulls, Pistons, and Knicks. Pistons and Knicks? Cupcakes. Those two teams are utterly pathetic. Even if the Bulls beat the Raptors, the Raptors can take care of both those teams without Bosh. Assuming the Raptors finish 2-1 with a loss to the Bulls, the Bulls still need to finish 3-0 to make the playoffs since the Raptors hold the tiebreaker. Can they win three straight against the Raptors, Celtics, and Bobcats? I don’t think they have it in them. This team hasn’t shown me the mental strength or heart necessary to show that they can take care of this situation. Sure, the Raptors could maybe lose to the Pistons and/or Knicks and help the Bulls out, but I’m not banking on it. Still…the Chicago fan in me isn’t giving up hope till the fat lady sings. Go Bulls.
