| 10 March 2010
Oh how quickly things can change in one month's time. I remember feeling like I was on cloud 9 about a month ago after the Bulls won their 5th straight on the road against contending Western Conference teams. The Bulls were talking about securing the 5th seed by the end of March. At this point, I hope we can secure the 10th seed.
Tonight was a historic night. Not like the good kind of history...but more like the we just allowed a 35 point come-back loss brand of history. Not quite as bad, but...BAD.
Courtesy of Mike McGraw of the Daily Herald:
"--On April 9 and 11, 1984, the Bulls gave up 265 points in consecutive games, but that included a 136-134 loss in double overtime at Washington, along with a 129-112 home loss to New Jersey.
--The most recent example with two 48-minute games was March 20 and 22, 1983. The Bulls lost at Seattle 128-116, then lost at home to Detroit 134-116 for a total of 262 points allowed.
--The worst two-game defense in this decade was 247 points. That was on March 28 and 29, 2003 with a 140-89 loss at Indiana (a result often blamed for the demise of general manager Jerry Krause a few days later) and a 107-92 home loss to Sacramento.
--The Bulls haven’t given up 250 points in consecutive games since Feb 1 and 3, 1990, a 139-112 loss at Houston and 112-111 loss at San Antonio."
It gets worse. This is the 1st time in 20 years the Bulls have given up 100 points in 8 consecutive games.
IT GETS WORSE. The Bulls' opponents are averaging 115 points in this 5 game skid.
This is the worst display of defense this league has seen in a long time. And Bulls fans are definitely not used to this. Typically, at least in the last 20 years, Bulls teams have prided themselves on good defense. They took pride in their defense because a lot of times, specifically in the last 11 years, there really wasn't much offense. But even the team that had the greatest offensive duo of all time also had the greatest defensive trio of all time...Jordan, Pippen, and Rodman. And what did Scott Skiles always always always stress? Defense. What is he stressing in Milwaukee, aka the 5th seed that now sits 3 games ahead of the Bulls? Defense. They play absolutely spot on defense and they just took down a defensive powerhouse tonight in the Celtics.
Look...I get it. Joakim Noah is injured. I know the man is missed. I know as well as anyone that if he was around, these unfortunate historic marks would not have been set. He makes that much of a difference. But come on. He's not Bill Russell. It's not as if you lose Joakim Noah, and all of a sudden you must be destined to give up 115 points a game. I know that's the reality of what's happened. But it doesn't have to be this way. It shouldn't be this way. You have to take a little pride in staying in front of your man, keeping a hand in his face, and shutting him down. The problem lies just as much in the fact that not only is Joakim's play missed, but his infectious energy and defensive influence on the rest of his 
teammates. When he's ont he court, he's on his teammates backs about staying in front of their man and playing phsyical and tough. He's got a little Kevin Garnett in him. You can argue whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. And I hate Garnett as much as any Bulls fan. I mean I loathe the guy. This little incident from tonight with him barking at Nate Robinson is a great example of why. But whether it's good or bad, you can't deny that it motivates his teammates, and that's a big part of why they win (maybe not tonight, unfortunately).
No way you can let a team score 132 points in 4 quarters in this league, ESPECIALLY after giving up 122 in the previous game, ESPECIALLY when you're despearte for a win and trying to snap a 4 game losing streat AT HOME. Inexcusable, regardless of Joakim Noah's injury. Utah's a good team and all, but 132 points good? I'm fairly certain the Bulls' D-League Affiliate, the Iowa Energy, could have come out tonight and held the Jazz to less points than that. Where's the heart?
That's not to take anything away from my boy and fellow Illini Deron Williams. 28 points on 11-15 shooting, with 17 assists. Holy stat-line. On top of that, he visciously posterized D-Rose on a durrrrrrty one handed dunk on a fast break. It's not as fun when Derrick is the one being posterized. My apologies to Goran Dragic.
But also, give Derrick Rose all the credit in the world. Up until late in the third quarter, this game was an all out duel between Derrick Rose and Deron Williams. Derrick finished the night with 25 points on 10-19 shooting and 13 assists of his own. He tried to put the Bulls on his back, but one man can only do so much. Especially when his so-called second option only really contributes for one half every game. Luol Deng scored 12 points in the first half. He finished with 14. A near identical night to Andrei Kirilenko, so those two essentially cancelled each other out. Deng came out in the third quarter with a "calf strain," whatever that means, so I can't totally blame him. But who are we kidding...he would have disappeared for the entire half either way.
Taj Gibson played the worst game of his career on a night where I figured he'd put up a decent fight due to the lack of defensive prowess in the Jazz frontcourt. Get ready for this stat-line. 0 points on no attempts, with 1 rebound, 3 turnovers, and he fouled out in 13 minutes of play. Trying not to laugh. Talk about a dose of reality. You know Taj is laying in his bed just staring at his celing tonight, because if he ever manages to fall asleep, he knows he'll be having nightmares of Carlos Boozer diving to the basket at 20 mph.
Not that Boozer had a spectacular game. He finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds, but he really didn't need to do more with Deron dominating the way he was. Kirk couldn't do a thing to slow him down, and don't get me started on Derrick Rose's defense. I still cannot comprehend why he can't play the same type of defense as D-Will: strong, quick and physical. He's just as capable. Is he just lazy on the defensive end? I don't get it. And I feel like I talk about this after every game. Frankly, it's getting pretty annoying.
And oh yeah, why does Boozer have to waste his time shooting when he can just kick it out to C.J. Miles for three. In 19 minutes, C.J. Miles scored 26 points, on 9-12 shooting, and 6-7 from three. 6-7 from three? I feel like C.J. Miles couldn't even hit 6-7 from 3 if he were wide open in practice. Hell...Ray Allen might not be able to hit 6-7 from three in practice. Yet, this guy is draining them from every spot on the court, wide-open, or hand in his face...didn't matter. Talk about efficient scoring. Does it get more efficient than that?
But here's the craziest part of this game. The Jazz shot 54.2% from the field, and the Bulls shot 53.9%. Up until garbage time, the Bulls were shooting at roughly 57% and were outshooting the Jazz. I'm still semi-confused as to how they were losing this game. I blame the disparity more than partially on free throws. The Bulls went 18-27 from the line, while the Jazz went a whopping 30-39. They shot nearly 40 FREE THROWS. Good lord. That's a lot of free points. And obviously, the Bulls got outrebounded 42-32. No surprise there. I don't even know how the rebound disparity was so small with Taj doing squat and Noah gone and Deng getting hurt. I guess it's because neither team missed that much?
Silver lining? Brad Miller shot extremely well going off for 20 points and was hitting the three-point shot with consistency, going 3-3. If we have any shot of making the playoffs, he needs to be able to do that every game. Also, Flip Murray had a pretty good bounce back game and was hitting the three a little bit.
But unfortunately, there really isn't any end in sight. The Bulls are now on the outside looking in and back under .500. They need some easy wins to get them out of this funk, and it ain't happening any time soon with Orlando, Miami, Memphis, Dallas, and Cleveland up next in that order. I see the Bulls POTENTIALLY winning only one of those games, and that's against the Heat. But with the defensive efforts they're putting up with Noah absent, it's just not likely. I mean it's epically bad. So I kid you not when I say that in 9 days, the Bulls could be on a 10 game losing streak and essentially eliminated from playoff contention. The schedule and the injuries might do them in, and it's a sad state of affairs for a team that had so much potential a month ago when everyone was healthy and things were clicking, just to have it all ripped away by the basketball g-ds. Now all we can do is pray for some upsets and stolen victories.
