| 18 January 2011
I honestly think that if the Bobcats played the Bulls every night, they would win more than 72 games. This team kills us. I'm starting to hate them. They remind me of the Nets in '09. Just a thorn in your side that you can't get rid of.
When you're an 18-3 home team, how do you lose to a 15-24 Bobcats team who's 5-14 on the road and who just beat you less than a week ago. You're gonna let a team do you like that? Derrick Rose's sorry excuses for teammates should be ashamed of themselves. I'm looking at you LUOL DENG. Deng went 2-11 for the night. Just what we need when Boozer isn't playing. The so-called third option, who needs to step up and be the second option, who turns out to be no option at all. People are honestly right when they say Derrick would average 11 assists a game if he had real shooters on his team. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that 8 of Luol's misses were open shots...looks that he only got because Derrick Rose broke down the defense and found him.
The Bulls shot 39% from the field. Atroscious. Everyone was awful except for derrick and maybe Ronnie Brewer. It's just painful because Charlotte shot 40% and is so terrible. And any time you hold a team to 40% shooting, you should AUTOMATICALLY win that game. Without question. So that, my friends, makes the Bulls' performance tonight...pathetic.
Other than the disgusting shooting display, you can thank the Bulls for providing multiple And-1 opportunities. Derrick Rose with an immensely boneheaded foul on DJ Augustin in the 1st half on a fast break. One where he could've at least played defense and altered the shot. Instead, he just gave him a bump and didn't even bother preventing him from putting it up. Augustin did the exact same thing to Bogans in the 2nd half, but Bogans actually tried to wrap up Augustin and was just too slow to do so before Augustin got his arms up. And Ronnie Brewer got called for a phantom foul with Stephen jackson driving it on a fast break. If you aren't going to alter the shot, just get out of the way. Otherwise...FOUL HARD. That's 3 And-1's right there that shouldn't have happened. Could've used those points in the end there, eh?
And look...running a misdirection play with 8 seconds left when the ball should be in your best player's hands? Um...no. Kyle Korver is not a bad player, but one thing we all know that he is not capable of doing is scoring in the paint and taking it to the basket. How do you draw up a play for him to attempt to do just that when you just caught a huge break on a questionable reversal of an out of bounds call and then you call a play for Kyle Korver? 8 seconds is a lifetime for Derrick Rose to try and do something effective or draw a foul. 3 seconds is not. That play call very well may have blown the game. When you're down 1 with 8 seconds left, that is not the time to get cute, Thibs. Just put the ball in your best player's hands and trust that he'll do what he can to get the job done. You decided not to do that and you paid for it.
Hate to do this also, but I have to lay some of the blame on the refs. It especially hurts losing by the slimmest of margins knowing that Augustin took 4 steps and forgot to dribble on a fast break and the refs let it go. That right there was the difference in the game.
Bottom line...next time we play the Bobcats...I don't want the game to be close. I want the Bulls to win by 30. If I have to watch another close Bobcats game again this season, I will break my wall. I swear. I will. I don't have any more left in me. Also, I don't likeTyrus's face. But that's neither here nor there. The Bulls MUST stop playing down to the level of competition. Losses to the Nets, Sixers, Clippers, and 2 to the Bobcats are collectively inexcusable. Those are games that elite teams don't lose. Elite teams MAYBE lose one of those games. MAYBE one. SO the Bulls should be like 32-9 or something. Damn fools. Tonight's game was a mess and literally gave me a headache. My eyes hurt. It was garbage. I feel like I need to take a hot shower to wash it off of me. Let's try to forget about this one quickly.
