| 23 February 2010
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Embarrassing. Pathetic. Those are the words that came to mind as I watched tonight's performance. In a game that I stated should be a definite blowout, the Bulls made me look stupid by LOSING. And I hate looking stupid.
The Bulls came out tonight playing against a team of D-leaguers. That might be a little harsh. But really, the only true NBA players on that current roster are Josh Howard, Andray Blatche, Randy Foye, and Al Thornton. Josh Howard only played for the first 8 minutes of the first quarter after he got hurt on a collision with Flip Murray. Which means all the Bulls had to do was contain Blatche, Foye, and Thornton. It's hard typing that with a straight face. As this game came to a close, Neil Funk and Stacey King started trying to save face with all the puffing of the Wizards' roster and how Blatche is finally getting his chance to shine and he's so underrated and they're 3-1 since the trade and blah blah blah. NO. Really? Really Neil? You're going to make excuses? You're saying that all this time, Andray Blatche was Karl Malone reincarnate and we just didn't know it? So it's okay for the Bulls to have lost this game?
Well back here on Earth, Andray Blatche is still Andray Blatche. The one who doesn't score 25 points, grab 11 boards, 2 steals and 2 blocks, as he did in tonight's game. You see that line and you think you're looking at Tim Duncan in his prime. Only against the Bulls does a player like that have a game like this. This is a game where I fully expected the Bulls to outrebound the Wizards. The most absurd sequence from Neil and Stacey went a little something like this.
Stacey: Well the Wizards are outrebounding the Bulls 38-28.
Neil: And you'd expect that because we knew coming into this game that their front line was long and athletic.
So what you're saying is...James Singleton, Andray Blatche, and Javal McGee are supposed to outrebound Joakim Noah, Brad Miller, Taj Gibson, and Hakim Warrick? Ummm...try again. But that's what happened. They outrebounded us 43-36. Noah's hurt? Not an excuse. Then he shouldn't be playing. If he can't dunk the ball, which in the past 2 games he's proven by missing 2 open dunks, then he shouldn't be playing. Plain and simple. Doesn't mean the rest of the front court all of a sudden should forget how to rebound. But tonight, they totally fell asleep in the second half. Like literally took a nap. The third quarter was disastrous. The Bulls got outscored 31-16 in the third, after leading by 10 at halftime. They stopped playing completely. Three travel calls in a row. I've been watching basketball for a long time. NEVER IN MY ENTIRE LIFE HAVE I SEEN 3 TRAVEL CALLS IN A ROW. How? How does that happen? At one point, the Bulls committed 5 straight turnovers. Good lord...if you want to know how to lose a game and be efficient at it...that's how.
Luol Deng had a horrible night. One of his worst games of the season. 11 points in 33 minutes is just not gonna cut it. All he did was waste a lot of minutes tonight and miss some big wide open shots when they would have mattered most...in typical Deng fashion. This is why he'll always be a roleplayer and never a star...he can't cut it in the clutch.
Joakim Noah was just horrible in his 12 minutes. Clearly, he should not be playing. He can't even get up to dunk. And 2 rebounds in 12 minutes...ugh. He looks weak out there. Real weak. Hakim Warrick had a decent nice on offense, but looked lost defensively at times. He lost Andray Blatche on multiple occasions, and I started having flashbacks of Tyrus Thomas. And unfortunately, the guy is unable to rebound. He's long and athletic, so I'm not sure what his problem is, but he doesn't really have a great nose for the ball. It was very frustrating to watch.
As for Derrick Rose, when you take a look at his line, it looks like he had a pretty good game. 22 points, 50% from the field, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, a steal, 6-7 from the line. And he did put the Bulls on his back late in the 4th quarter as the Bulls made a run to cut it to a one point deficit. But where was he in the third quarter? And earlier in the 4th? He was being passive. Unacceptable. Taking only 16 shots is also unacceptable. Derrick Rose should be taking at least 20 shots a game. The entire third quarter he did absolutely nothing. He stopped attacking the basket and was deferring to his teammates, and that's why the Wizards outscored us 31-16. Besides that, I blame Vinny. Vinny does the same thing every game. He takes out Derrick with 3 minutes to go in the third quarter and then puts him in with 8 minutes left in the 4th. NOOOOOO. Stop. Those 7 minutes are crucial. Those 7 minutes could have allowed the Bulls to start closing the gap before Derrick emergence late in the 4th quarter. The team needs its best player out there playing at least 40 minutes, even more especially when they're trying to make a run while losing to a crappy team. Vinny still hasn't learned to adapt to game situations, and I'm really starting to get annoyed by it, as are most educated Bulls fans. After tonight's performance, he's shown that he still doesn't deserve any praise after being in the hotseat earlier in the year, even though some media outlets have been quick to laud him lately. Not this guy.
And Derrick...how about playing a little defense? Is Randy Foye really that tough of an assignment? I know Derrick is a superstar and everything, but does that mean he doesn't have to learn how to play defense. Is there no one on the Bulls coaching staff who can sit him down and explain to him that he's quick enough to stay in front of players like Randy Foye and he should not go underneath the high pick and roll? Does it really take more than a couple of games to learn this. I'm serious when I say Derrick Rose needs a defensive intervention. Especially when a player like Rajon Rondo, who isn't faster than Derrick, is averaging 2.75 steals a game while Derrick is averaging .75. That is just absurd and something needs to be done about this asap.
The only bright spot of the game was Flip Murray's play. He continues to show that he can hit the three pointer, be an effective scorer off the bench, and more than fill the spot of John Salmons. And unlike Salmons, he isn't a black hole. On the contrary, he's an efficient distributor who knows how to move the ball, but also knows when to take the big shots. Other than him, no one really came to play tonight, specifically in the second half...which is pathetic and inexcusable against a team like the Wizards. The Bulls shot an abysmal 41% compared to the Wizards 50%. How you let a team like the Wizards shoot 50% I can't really imagine.
Oh yeah, and line of the night...Brad Miller and Kirk Hinrich a combined on 3-14 from the field playing 25 minutes and 35 minutes respectively for a total of 10 points. Just threw up in my mouth a little bit. Makes you think twice about why you didn't trade these two.
So thank you for the Bulls for once again showing the world that you are an average team at best, since an above average team would have not lost to this team of rejects. I don't care how "underrated" Andray Blatche is...it's Andray Blatche, and believe me, he's very stoppable. And the Bulls didn't come close to stopping him. And that type of effort, especially against bad teams, is going to take you directly to the 9-seed.
