| 20 March 2010
This one was there for us. It was there for us to steal. It was there for the taking. The Cavs were freakin' handing it to us. Vinny wasn't having it.
The Cavs made only 31 buckets last night. They shot 41.3% from the field. Not low enough. They had 17 turnovers. Not high enough.
The Bulls shot 39.3% from the field. In the NBA, it doesn't get any worse than that. NOBODY shoots less than 40% from the field in a professional game. That can only be described as PATHETIC. Why did this happen? Well, because Vinny Del Negro made a choice. He made a choice to send out a bunch of chuckers whom he knows are absolutely incapable of shooting a high percentage. Seriously...let's look at the stats. As they say, numbers don't lie.
Kirk Hinrich: 39% from the field on the season. 41% from the field in his career. 5-18 from the field last night. 0-7 from three last night. Survey says? Horrible shooter. He played 41 minutes.
Flip Murray: 39% from the field on the season. 41% from the field in his career. 5-17 from the field last night. 2-7 from three last night (1 came with 2 seconds left in the 4th quarter when the game was completely over). Survey says? Horrible shooter. He played 28 minutes. Those tears aren't gonna help you shooting percentage, Flip. It's more painful for us to watch than for you to keep missing.
Jannero Pargo: 35% from the field on the season. 39% from the field in his career. 3-9 from the field last night. 0-2 from three last night. Survey says? Truly one of the worst shooters in the league. He played 26 minutes.
Amazingly, not one of those three guys is shooting over 40% on the season. The three of them combine to average 40% from the field over their CAREERS. They played a combined 95 minutes last night.
Honorable mention: Brad Miller, shooting 42% on the season, went 1-7 from the field last night, and went 0-1 from three. Played 31 minutes.
Meanwhile, I ranted and ranted and ranted about how Acie Law absolutely has to play instead of Pargo. He's even more effective than Hinrich. But come on, Pargo? There is absolutely nothing Pargo gives you over Acie Law. There is literally and physically no advantage in playing Pargo over Law. And don't give me that defense garbage. Pargo is 5'11" at best, and Law is 6'3". Law has averaged 20 points a game over the last two games. He led 2 comebacks from being 25 points down against good teams. This team would have been blown out by 40 points both games had he not stepped up. And how is he rewarded? He plays 10 minutes last night. In his 10 minutes, he went 1-2 from the field. Both shots were three-point attempts. How? Why? Seriously. Why sit Acie Law against the Cavs? Wouldn't it just make sense to ride his hot streak? Don't you want to milk it for all it's worth? Especially against the Cavs who are basically guaranteed to beat you? I mean seriously, what's the advantage of not playing him? I want to know. No, I need to know. I demand that someone who is able ask Vinny why this happened? To be honest, no reason to be good enough, but I still think Vinny should have to answer for his proposterous decision-making. I'm so sick of ranting about the obviousness of the Pargo situation. I feel like by explaining why Pargo needs to sit, I'm insulting Bulls fans everywhere. Any 5 year old can watch the game and see that he brings nothing to the table. Yet, Vinny Del Negro continues to favor him.
On top of that, Hakim Warrick only played 14 minutes. Hakim Warrick, who is shooting 48% from the field on the season and is a career 50% shooter, only played 14 minutes. The best thing that this guy does for you is provide offense. But no, Vinny sees no reason to utilize it. Instead keep playing Brad Miller, who's not nearly as good a shooter as Warrick, for 31 minutes and Pargo ('nuff said) for 26 minutes.
Absolutely no excuse for playing Pargo anymore. No freakin' excuse. In fact, in my mind, in any rational human being's mind, Law has recently made a very strong case in playing more minutes than Pargo, Hinrich, and Murray combined. Yet no, every one of those guys nearly tripled Law's minutes last night. The numbers above speak for themselves. Answers. I NEED ANSWERS.
A few good things came out of this game:
1. It's clear that Vinny must be fired. Favoring Jannero Pargo, Flip Murray, and yes, even Kirk Hinrich over Acie Law cannot be rationalized. There is no excuse. See the past 3 games as to why. But last night really tells the story.
2. The play of Taj Gibson. He's been very up and down recently, but yesterday he was up. 20 points on 9-14 from the field, with 13 rebounds, 3 steals, and a block. He kept pace with LeBron's scoring for 3 quarters, and that's impressive, especially wnen you're battling plantar fasciitis.
3. The play of James Johnson. He's turning into somewhat of a heady player. He played LeBron about as well as you can play the guy, and he's pretty effective in transition. He can take the ball off the dribble if he has to, and he can also knock down the three (from certain spots). That's exactly what you need in a good small forward. Until about 3 games ago, we weren't really sure this guy could play on the NBA level. So I guess if you have to find some silver lining in Deng getting hurt, it's Johnson getting the starting nod and some serious playing time with an opportunity to show what he's worth. Last night he had 16 points on 6-11 shooting with 8 rebounds.
4. The streak of giving up 100 points ended at 12. That was the longest such streak in 21 years.
Those are about the only bright spots you can find. Again, the free-throw disparity severely hurt the Bulls. The Cavs made 9 more free throws and shot 6 more. That was basically the difference in the game. Then again, if Hinrich made at least 2 of his 7 three-pointers instead of bricking all of them, that also would have basically eliminated difference in score. A team that goes 4-22 from three in a game will never win that game in the NBA. 7-22, which is still below a horrible 33% from three, would have won the game. Three-point shooting does not get any worse than what the Bulls did last night.
The Bulls did manage to keep their turnovers in single digits while maximizing the Cavs' turnovers. They also had 41 rebounds, which is a lot, but only because the Cavs shot 41% from the field. The Cavs got 53 rebounds, which is a ton, in spite of Taj's performance, mostly because the Bulls shot even worse. On a night when all they had to do to win was shoot not even as well as they had been shooting in the past week with all these injuries, they couldn't do it. Unbelievably frustrating.
The Bulls are still only 2.5 back of Toronto and face Philadelphia tonight. The losing streak absolutely must end now. I expect the Bulls to come out hungry and thirsty for blood. Their eyes should be wide because this is not a good Philadelphia team. This is your chance to get back on track. Unfortunately, Toronto plays New Jersey tonight, so no ground will be gained. But a win will put the Bulls back on track and Toronto will start to get tight once the Bulls get a few wins, because when you're in the midst of a 10 game losing streak, all outsiders assume you're done and have no shot. A few wins will start to make the Raptors nervous. And who knows, maybe Derrick will play tonight. Either way, a victory is in reach, Derrick or not. Get 'er done.
