| 01 January 2012
Happy New Year Bulls fans. Home opener tonight. There's nothing more electric than the fan atmosphere at a home opener for the Bulls, who happen to have the greatest fans in the league. However, there is also no bigger letdown than to have a home-opener spoiled, the way the Bulls did two nights ago to the Clip-show.
What a game. We should've figured Derrick would come out rarin' to go the way he did. Everyone's been hyping up Chris Paul for two months or so now. Every national writer seemed to have forgotten about Derrick Rose and his MVP season last year, and immediately turned their focus to Chris Paul and where he would land. How many writers have referred to him as the "best point guard alive" the past few months? No way Derrick hasn't noticed. So Rose vs. Paul was a perfect opportunity for Derrick to remind everyone just who the best point guard alive really is.
I think he accomplished just that. 29 points, 16 assists, 8 rebounds, 8-14 shooting, 10-11 from the free-throw line, 3-4 three-point range, a steal, and terrific all-around defense on Chris Paul. Quite possibly the greatest all-around game that Derrick Rose has ever played in the pros. He had more assists than shots he put up. That pretty much doesn't happen for a player who is the main source of offense for his team.
The one issue Derrick keeps having is turnovers. He continues to make some silly mistakes while dribbling and most of the turnovers have been unforced. He had four against the Clippers and six against the Kings in the win the previous night. Those are horrendous numbers. Eleven turnovers in back to back nights is about as bad as it gets. If Derrick can just take care of the basketball and prevent some of the mental mistakes he's been making, some of these games might not be as close as they have been.
Overall, I was very pleased with the team effort against the Clippers. Every player 10-deep played a part, and each player did exactly what they were supposed to do. Luol Deng continues his outstanding play. He had 19 and 8. Joakim also put in 19 and 8 in what was his best overall game of the season so far. As expected, Joakim has improved with each game and looked much more comfortable against the Clippers than he did in previous matchups. Rip Hamilton also did exactly what he is expected to do night in and night out, by scoring 16 points on 18 shots. That's all the Bulls will ask of him. Just give us 16 points a game or so. Combine that with Ronnie Brewer's much improved long-range shooting, and you're looking at about 25-28 points worth of production from the 2 spot. Simply put, huge.
As for a sore spot, Boozer continues to underwhelm offensively, and remains terrible defensively. It seems that there's no hope for him on the defensive end. We all simply have to hope and pray that he can get himself together on offense and remember why we brought him in in the first place. And it wasn't for him to take 18 foot-fadeaways. It was so he can cut to the basket and use his fancy footwork in the post to overpower less-talented and smaller power-forwards. Although you won't find a power forward in the league who isn't a better defender than Boozer. What's unbelievable is that he's the most talkative player out there on defense. Not sure how a player with his defensive abilities is even aloud to open his mouth or say a word to his teammates, but the guy has no shame.
Some thing that I noticed thus far...the Bulls seem to have a problem with score-first backcourts. Curry and Ellis simply dominated the Bulls. Tyreke Evans and Marcus Thornton of the Kings, while definitely not nearly as talented as Curry and Ellis, are also score-first guards. While they didn't have enough to pull out a victory the way the Warriors did, the Bulls definitely had issues stopping those two on defense. I'm not sure what it is with the Bulls and offensively talented backcourts. It's as if they're not sure how to defend them. These teams simply pull out the high pick and rolls and the Bulls starters are either late to rotate or don't rotate at all. Much of it is Boozer's failure to help, but I expect much more from a Tom Thibodeau defense.
Lucky for the Bulls, the Grizzlies don't really have an overpowering backcourt, especially if Jannero Pargo is starting at point. OJ Mayo seems to have gotten off to a terrible start, and Tony Allen isn't an offensive juggernaut, although he plays with a lot of energy and will definitely be a pest on defense. The key is for the Bulls to contain Z-Bo and Marc Gasol for Noah, Boozer, and Omer to avoid foul trouble. We need our points tonight, because Randolph can definitely score, although I'm not sure if he'll have much help.
More to come after the game.
