The Bulls Say it isn’t Skiles that Has them Down and Out this Season

There’s a lot of discussion amongst NBA fans and critics as to what exactly is going on with the Chicago Bulls this season. Many people are attributing their 3-10 record to a loss of belief in Coach Scott Skiles’ coaching ability. Could it be that the Bulls are simply tuning out the fifth-year coach? To the players this notion seems doubtful – and hey, they are the ones who would know. Of the placed-blame, guard Ben Gordon says, “I don’t think that’s true. Everybody here knows what he wants. We all know what we’re supposed to do and how we’re going to win games, and that’s to get back to what made us a successful team in the past. I don’t think anybody is tuning him out.”

The players insist that they are not ignoring Skiles’ coaching, as many NBA players tend to do as their egos begin to grow. According to press notes, Skiles is a strict teacher who “holds people accountable but does so fairly and with open communication.” Skiles himself insists that coaching is the way out of the mess that the Bulls are in right now, not yelling. Although in the past Skiles has been known to get on his players, Ben Gordon says that isn’t the case anymore. “My first couple of years he was definitely on guys because we were young and definitely needed that. Now he gives us a lot of freedom. With freedom comes a lot of responsibility. We have to go out there and do our part.” Everyone has a part to play – and hopefully the pieces will come together sometime soon.

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Kirk Hinrich’s Slow Start isn’t Enough to Hamper his Season Just Yet

Kirk Hinrich is having a tough season this year. The fifth-year guard had a tough start in the Bulls game (a win nonetheless) against the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday. Hinrich’s shoulders slumped after he committed an unforced turnover. It was a turnover that avoided a breakaway layup and ruined a two-on-zero fast break, all because of a bad pass to rookie Joakim Noah. Of his mistake, Hinrich said, “It’s frustrating. That’s about all I can say.” Yes, it seems that for the Bulls there is not much left to say this season – it’s what they do that will make the difference for the remainder of the 2007-2008 year. After his unfortunate turnover, Hinrich didn’t do much. He picked up his fourth foul one minute into the second half and was replaced by Chris Duhon. Hinrich didn’t play in the final 23 minutes of the game.

Coach Scott Skiles attributed Hinrich’s lengthy court absence to Chris Duhon’s strong performance and the Bulls’ long-awaited comfortable lead. An unnecessary injury, he said, would only hinder Hinrich’s already rocky season. “He’s just got to play better. I could stand here for several minutes and go step by step through things. I don’t know if that’s helpful. He’s got to relax, keep up his defensive intensity and all around be a little better at that spot,” said Skiles. Hinrich has started 304 out of 314 games since being selected seventh overall in the 2003 NBA draft. He also has an average of 4.7 turnovers per 48 minutes, which ranks 15th for turnovers in the NBA. As long as he keeps his confidence and strives to play better on the court, Hinrich should be able to bounce right back from his unfortunately slow-starting season.

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The Bulls Finally Break their Losing Streak When they Beat the Hawks 90-78

The Bulls finally put an end to their 1-5 road record last night when they rolled past the Atlanta Hawks, marking their third win of the season. Thanks to 22 points from Luol Deng, the Bulls were able to pull off a win – that win which fans are hoping will pull them out of their long-lasting slump. Chicago started the game as they have every game this season, with missed shots, turnovers and an overall lack of motivation. Then, suddenly, Luol Deng came through. “If we struggle shooting, we’ve got to be aggressive,” he said, and with this last night’s high-scorer took the reigns and led the Bulls to a win. Deng finished the 90-78 win with 22 points and Ben Gordon followed closely behind with 21.

The win was Chicago’s first in a while. Their 1-5 trip left them with the worst record in the Eastern Conference, a record the talked-up Bulls weren’t expecting to encounter when they started the 2007-2008 season. It was the Bulls 12th straight victory of Atlanta and the Windy City boys actually started to look like a good, cooperative team. They outscored the Hawks 36-21 in the third quarter to stretch a four-point lead into a 70-51 advantage. Not bad, not bad at all.

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So Far Joakim Noah Fails to Live Up to His College Reputation

Joakim Noah was hot off of a successful college basketball career when he joined the Chicago Bulls – but so far he’s not finding success as easily in the NBA as he did in college. Noah helped the University of Florida gain back to back NCAA titles before being drafted by the Bulls as “one of the most highly touted products of the 2007 college class,” according to press notes. Noah is 2.11m/106kg – an extraordinary build that has so far failed to make an impact this season. The Bulls have struggled through each of their regular season games throughout the last month and a half and now have boast an embarrassing 2-10 record.

So far Noah has averaged 1.2 points per game and 3.2 rebounds per game for the Bulls. He has yet to score a single basket from the field – but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t tried. Noah has attempted seven shots from the field and with each missed shot it seems that his playing time has decreased. He was averaging 19, 12 and 19 minutes in his first NBA appearances, but his playing time was cut to 2 minutes and 27 seconds when the Bulls took on the Clippers and 5 minutes and 51 seconds in their game against the Lakers. Of his (and his team’s) struggling season, Noah says, “It’s hard to not play much, but at the same time I try to remain positive and continue to progress. I still have a lot to learn. I am living a life of an apprentice.” Keeping that positive attitude and amping up the basketball is what Noah (along with every single Bulls player) needs to do to turn this season around.

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The Bulls Losses to New York and Toronto Add More Pressure to the Struggling Team

It is definitely not the year that the Chicago Bulls had hoped for. The team took yet another loss on Sunday against the Toronto Raptors, losing 93-78 and worsening their record to 2-10. This loss marked the fourth of their most recent losing streak and put their extended November trip at 1 win and 5 losses – not exactly what the team was hoping for. “After failing to make a basket the final 4 minutes 10 seconds against New York (on Saturday), the Bulls missed seven straight shots and committed three turnovers in a 7:03 fourth-quarter stretch without field goal Sunday. The Raptors, led by Jose Calderon’s 19 points and 14 assists, responded with a 12-2 run to put the game out of reach,” explains press notes.

The Bulls, although a talented team, just can’t seem to pull it together for a win. “I don’t know what you would call it. I don’t know if it’s because we haven’t made shots or aren’t confident down the stretch. I don’t know if we need to do something different down the stretch offensively.” Offensively, defensively or mentally – whatever it may be, the Bulls definitely need to do something different. Chicago currently holds the league-worst record for shooting percentage (38.5 percent) and scoring average (86.5 points) and they finished their game against the Raptors with a 38 percent shooting level. Let’s hope they can pull it together in some sense of the game, or else they are headed for an unimaginably bad season.

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The Bulls Struggle Through Another Game

The Bulls were hoping for a season turnaround win against the Denver Nuggets last night, but once again players and fans were left with nothing but sheer disappointment. The Nuggets were steps ahead of the Bulls from the game’s start at the Pepsi Center in Denver, scoring 72 points in the first half – the most in any half of an NBA game this season. Nuggets’ guard attributed their 112-91 win to both playing ability and attitude, saying, “That’s our mentality – beat them by as much as we can as fast as we can.” And that they did, leaving Chicago with an embarrassing 2-8 record for the 2007-2008 season, which has been underway for over a month now. Maybe the Thanksgiving holiday will give the Bulls some time to get their heads (and games) together – Bulls fans can only be so hopeful.

In the loss to Denver Ben Gordon shot 2-14 from the field and scored six points. Injured scorer Luol Deng was still out and the team shot 40 percent overall from the field. Ben Gordon commented on the game, saying, “We were a step slow and we allowed them to get to the free throw line way too much and I think that is what hurt us. Tonight we didn’t have it from the jump. We were down by 20 points in the first half. It just wasn’t there from the beginning, especially when you are short-handed. You just have to play with more effort. We just didn’t do that tonight. There was no continuity out there and we are just struggling.” Struggling is right – and the Bulls head to New York to battle the Knicks this Saturday where we can only hope they’ll get it together.

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Chicago Bulls Head to Denver to Take on the 7-3 Nuggets

The Bulls are fresh off of a 106-78 loss to the Lakers and headed for Denver to take on the Nuggets before the Thanksgiving holiday and Chicago fans are hoping that they will clench their third win of the season. So far the Bulls record stands at a disappointing 2-7 and it’s not just the fans that are ready for them to turn their game around. Kirk Hinrich, a guard for the Bulls called his team’s struggles a lack of stability, saying, “We’re just inconsistent, myself included. Everybody just needs to do their job, and hopefully we’ll find our way out of this thing.” A 2-7 start to the season is definitely not what the Bulls – or any of their fans – expected this year and hope for a turnaround is the most motivating factor for all of Chicago’s players as they head to Denver today.

The Denver Nuggets will match-up against the Bulls in hope of grasping their sixth straight win of the season. The team will host the Bulls in the finale of a four-game homestand. The Nuggets are currently 7-3 and entered the season with high hopes. It’s their first full campaign with Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson, who were both traded from the Philadelphia 76ers last year. “A championship, that’s our goal. We’re not far away from the (defending champion) Spurs,” Anthony said. Although the Bulls championship hopes are pretty much dashed for this season, they still have a chance to prove themselves as a talented and capable team – and that’s exactly what they’re hoping to do when they take on the Nuggets tonight.

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Bulls Lose to the Lakers 106-78

The Chicago Bulls lost to the Los Angeles Lakers last night, making their current record 2-7 for the season. The Lakers win put them at 6-3 for the season, marking their third victory in a row. The game was really determined in the third quarter, when the Lakers scored 18 straight points to finish the quarter and start the fourth with an 81-60 lead. The Bulls couldn’t get closer to closing the scoring gap by more than 15 points, leaving them with their biggest losing margin ever to Los Angeles. The previous record margin was 27 points way back in 1968. Kobe Bryant – the man whose trade rumors spurred a substantial amount of worry and distress for the Bulls at the beginning of the season – scored 10 of his 18 game points in the third quarter.

On the Bulls side of the court Ben Gordon was the high-scorer, reaching 20 points in the 106-78 loss. Andres Nocioni added 14 points and six rebounds for Chicago. Gordon’s take on the game went like this, “I just feel like we ran out of gas. We came out and played well in the first half. Second half we just didn’t have that same energy and intensity. I think that was pretty much the key to the game.” The Bulls 2-7 start is more than disappointing for a team that was picked as one of the Eastern Conference’s best teams during the preseason. There was definitely a lot of hype leading up to the regular season, and whether it was the Bryant rumor talks or the injuries at the beginning of the season, something was thrown off. As Bulls fans lets just hope that they pull it together sometime soon.

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Bulls Get Trashed in ESPN Power Rankings

The Bulls got off to a bad start in 2007-’08, but they rebounded nicely, made a sweet playoff run and now they are poised to take on the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals. That’s the sentence this blogger hopes to be bale to copy and paste into a blog in a few months, but for now, only the first part of that statement has been true. The Bulls got off to a bad start. As you are well aware, the Bulls dropped five of their first six games, leading many people believe that they were overrated before the season began. In fact, in the latest NBA Power Rankings the Bulls are ranked 30th, dead last. How much worse could it get? As the Power Ranking comment says, the good thing is that there’s nowhere to go but up.

But Bulls fans, let’s try not to get into a panic too quickly. It’s a long season. There is plenty of time for the Bulls to find their groove and get to the top of the meaningless rankings systems, which are basically designed to breed false confidence and needless panic by their very nature. On the one hand, you can’t blame the writers at ESPN and the other sports media websites for being hard on the Bulls. The facts and stats stand for themselves so far. But since Power Rankings are more subjective than anything, you would think that the Bulls would get more of a pass, especially right out of the gates. There are plenty of examples of sports teams not playing well at the beginning of the season only to become the best team in the league by the end. The Bulls are just saving the best for last.

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Bulls to Play Phoenix Suns Tonight

The Phoenix Suns will host the Chicago Bulls tonight in Arizona. Phoenix will be one of the toughest matchups for the Bulls so far this season, as they are considered to be one of the favorites to get to the NBA Finals and they have gotten off to an excellent start this season. Phoenix comes into the game with a 6-2 record despite playing several of their early games on the east coast. Phoenix’s offensive capabilities are well documented. If you have been following the NBA for the past few years, you know that Steve Nash runs a tight ship in Phoenix, and he usually has the Suns operating at full tilt. This year is no exception.

If you’re a Bulls fan, you should be worried about what Chicago is up against, especially considering the way that they have started out this year. But if you watched the game that the Bulls played against the New Jersey Nets you might be a little more optimistic. If you will remember, the Bulls played the Nets in the first game of the season. They ended up losing in overtime, but the part that you should remember is that they played well against Jason Kidd, a point guard who is comparable to the Suns’ Nash. While Kidd did end the night with 13 assists, he was held to just seven points. If the Bulls’ guards can find a way to contain Steve Nash like they did with Jason Kidd, then the Bulls have a good shot at winning.

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