Bulls Beat Heat 99-92

The Chicago Bulls beat the Miami Heat 99-92 last night at home in the United Center. If you would like a very stark, numbers-based view of the game, I suggest you check out the coverage at basketball-reference.com. This site will just give you the box score, but there are tons of other great things about this reference page. If you like basketball stats, there’s really no more convenient way to get just the facts, just the numbers, no pictures or commentary. But now I’ve gotten off topic. Back to the Bulls game last night…

Chris Duhon started for Kirk Hinrich, who is slowly coming back from injury. Hinrich pulled a Ben Gordon, as he came off the bench to lead all Bulls scorers with 24 points on 10-18 field goal shooting. Joe Smith added 19, Andres Nocioni added 18, and Thabo Sefolosha added 17. The win puts the Bulls at 21-31, and they won’t play again until after the All-Star Break—next Wednesday the 20th. Have a great weekend everybody out there in Bulls Nation!

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Cooling Down the Heat on Valentine’s Day

The Chicago Bulls are set to play the Miami Heat tonight at the United Center. Things look good for the Bulls for several reasons. One, they are playing at home, and they always play better at home. Two, they are coming off a loss to New Orleans, so they are looking to rebound and get back on track. Three, the Heat are in a tailspin right now. And finally, the Heat do not have Shaq. That’s right! The Heat just recently traded Shaquille O’Neal to the Suns for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks. The trade hasn’t helped much, as Miami has lost eight in a row. Let’s make it nine, huh Bulls?

As a special Valentine’s Day feature, the Bulls Blog is going to hand out Valentine’s Day cards to some of the people who have really been special for the Bulls. The first goes to interim coach Jim Boylan, for doing a good job in a tough situation. Having Gordon come off the bench turned out to be a good idea, too. The second Valentine’s Day card will go to Joe Smith, who has a bad name, but has stepped up his game while some other Bulls have been injured. The third goes to our favorite Bulls cheerleader, Victoria.

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Hornets Top Bulls

Kirk Hinrich played last night, but his return could not help the Bulls overcome one of the best teams in the Western Conference, the New Orleans Hornets. The Bulls fell 100-86 at the United Center. They were no match for the triple threat of Stojakovic, West and Paul, who ended with 27, 27 and 25 points each. Nocioni was the team leader with 28 points for the Bulls. Hinrich scored 15. There’s a picture of Ben Wallace at Sports Illustrated’s game recap that pretty well sums things up as far as the game went. The Bulls were in it in the first half, and they could have closed the gap on the fourth quarter, but they went dead in the final period, only scoring 36 second half points.

The Bulls are now 20-31, and they are looking forward to the All-Star break. Luol Deng and Ben Gordon were out, as usual, and they need them back healthy as soon as possible. The Bulls play the Heat tomorrow, but then they don’t play again until February 20th when they play the Nets on the road.

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Free Insider Scoop: Bulls Interested in Trades

The Chicago Bulls are set to play a tough opponent tonight, the New Orleans Hornets. The game, at 8:30 PM ET at the United Center, will pit the 20-30 Bulls against the 34-15 Hornets, a mismatch that will be hard to overcome. The Hornets have won seven of their last ten games, while the Bulls have only won four of their last ten. All in all, it should be a very hard game to win, even if Chicago can get Kirk Hinrich back into the starting lineup. Let’s make sure to get some tickets and cheer on the Bulls tonight. They will need all the help they can get.

In other news, the Bulls are reportedly very interested in trading for some new players. There’s a free “Insider” preview at ESPN that tells about the possible deals. The Bulls might just be open to trade anybody at this point, as their season has not gone according to plan, to say the least. There’s something to be said for staying put through this unlucky time, though. This could just be a freak, no-sense unlucky season that will quickly repair itself as time goes on. But in pro sports the pressure is on to either win or make sweeping changes to stop losing.

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Bulls Move Up in ESPN Power Rankings

This past Saturday the Chicago Bulls lost to the Utah Jazz, but that didn’t stop them from moving up the ESPN Power Rankings this week to the No. 21 spot. They were previously at the No. 24 spot. The Bulls were able to move up with a decent showing on their tough west coast road trip. The Bulls had to play their last six games on the road against some tough teams. They wound up losing to the Timberwolves, Trail Blazers, Kings and Jazz, but they won versus the Warriors and Sonics. The Bulls are also one of the most hobbled teams in the league, without three of their best players, Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich and Ben Gordon.

Personally I wonder why the Bulls were moved up the rankings, as they have not been playing well, and they are not at full strength. However, you should not question progress. The Bulls will start to get healthy here again, and they will soon be back at full strength. The next few weeks will be a bit easier, schedule-wise, so they might move up the ranking even farther. Let’s hope.

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Duhon Powers Bulls Past Webbed Warriors

The Chicago Bulls got that breakthrough performance that this blog was waiting for. If you will notice, yesterday’s blog specifically called out Chris Duhon when anticipating the undermanned effort the Bulls would have to put up against the Warriors on the road last night. C-Du came up huge, netting a career-high 34 points last night in Oakland, allowing the Bulls to come away with a 114-108 victory. Ben Gordon, Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich were all on the bench, but Duhon and Joe Smith (27 points in the game) took over on offense at just the right time. Chris Webber was playing for the Warriors, resuming his NBA career with Golden State after having left the team over a decade ago.

This is yet another example of something that this blog touched on a few days ago. The Bulls always seem to play their most inspired ball when the odds are stacked against them. They played well against Portland, and then beat Golden State on the road, even though both games the Bulls had to play without their three top offensive weapons. You have to like what you are seeing out there with the guys stepping up and the gutsy play. We need some consistency, though. Perhaps that will come when the injures settle down.

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Late Run Can’t Save Bulls

Chicago fell to Portland last night at the Rose Garden 97-100. Andres Nocioni and Thabo Sefolosha both scored 22 for the Bulls, but it was not enough to give the ragged, injury-riddled Chicago team a win on the road versus a solid Western Conference powerhouse team. Luol Deng, Ben Gordon and Kirk Hinrich were all unavailable to play last night due to injuries. Even if everyone on the team had an inspired performance, it would have been a miracle to pull off a win in as bad of a condition as the Bulls are in currently. The Bulls are now 19-29 overall.

Things don’t look good for Chicago, who will now have to play another good Western Conference team tonight at Golden State. Who will rise to the occasion? Can the Bulls get more out of Chris Duhon? Will somebody be able to come off the bench to give the Bulls a lift? Let’s hope so, because right now the Bulls need a hero to emerge from this unfortunate situation.

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Bruised Bulls to Battle Behemoth Blazers

The Chicago Bulls are set to play the Portland Trail Blazers tonight in Portland. The Bulls will have to come with an inspired effort tonight if they hope to leave with a win. The Blazers are good, and the Bulls, so it seems, are hurting. Reports are coming in that starting guard Kirk Hinrich, who has been somewhat of a catalyst amid injuries to Ben Gordon and Luol Deng, is not going to be making the trip to Oregon. Apparently he suffered an injury to his ribs, and is expected to remain at home base. So far, there is no word on how long the Bulls will be without Hinrich. Chris Duhon will likely get the starting nod at point guard.

As you probably have heard, the Blazers are looking very good right now. Despite the fact that No. 1 overall draft pick Greg Oden has been sitting on the bench for the whole season, Brandon Roy has this team working like a well-oiled machine. They currently have a 27-20 overall record, much better than what was expected of them coming into the season. They are 19-6 at home.

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Offense Comes Together in Win over Seattle

The Chicago Bulls took down the Seattle SuperSonics on the road in Seattle last night, wining 118-108. The big story for the Bulls was the unlikely performance of Joe Smith. Earlier in the week Smith was sick in bed, not eating while battling off the flu. However, it was his game that was, in the most modern interpretation of the word, sick, last night. Smith exploded for 25 points, 10 rebounds and some great interior defense. Smith helped the Bulls out-rebound the Sonics 17-6. Ben Gordon added 20 in a spark plug role off the bench.

This was a good game for the Bulls, though it came against a team that isn’t all that scary. The Bulls played at a good clip, getting turnovers and running the fast break well. They had 15 fast break points compared to Seattle’s 7. They also were effective down low, scoring 52 points in the paint, compared to Seattle’s 36. If the Bulls can continue to play like this, we’re looking at a team that could make the teens in the next ESPN Power Rankings. They will play several tough Western Conference teams on the road in the next few days. Tomorrow they play Portland, Thursday they face Golden State, and Saturday they take on the streaking Utah Jazz.

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Chicago Bulls Fall to Kings; Don’t Fall in Power Rankings

The Chicago Bulls fell to the Sacramento Kings over the weekend 105-101. The story of the game for the Bulls was the return of Ben Gordon, who played rather well off the bench (33 points in 34 minutes, 3-4 for threes). However, even Gordon’s inspired effort was not enough to overcome the Kings at home, who were lead by Kevin Martin, Brad Miller and Ron Artest, who all scored over 20 points in the game. In the grand scheme of things, this isn’t that bad of a loss, and one has to wonder if the Bulls had been able to use Deng, would the score have been a little different?

In other, slightly related news, the Bulls stayed at their No. 24 spot in the weekly ESPN Power Rankings. The comment on the standstill basically says that, although the Bulls might have been jealous about Pau Gasol going to the Lakers, they can take some solace in the fact that they didn’t lose any ground in their division over the past week. Eastern Conference foes Indiana and New York kept their respective No. 25 and 23 spots from last week as well.

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