Bulls @ Knicks 6:30pm CT Feb. 20 2025

[ChettheJet]

As Billy has said, they don't have much room for error and last night they made too many mistakes. For coming off a long break they made way to many just plain lazy mistakes, weak passes, throwing the ball away and trying to pass in close quarters, getting off the floor with nowhere to pass the ball and virtually everybody was guilty.

It would be easy to get tricked into thinking they looked good against an East contender but they've done that too many times for a real observer to get fooled. They'll lose to some tanking team next week just as easily.

Pre game they talked about Billy previously wanting to play Patrick and Matas together to have a rel front line. This is possible since they've obviously seen what all the guards can and can't do so there's no need to see it 26 more times. OK PWill being out stopped that but when I heard that my thought was with Collins healthy and looking like an NBA center in limited play why not play Smith at the 4 with Vuc and Matas and see what that combination looks like? Collins can take the backup 5 minutes. Of course Smith got laid out so that may not happen soon.

[kodo]

Giddey played great. I wonder what his potential assists were on the night, pretty much everyone aside from Giddey scored very inefficiently. I have to imagine their were a lot of passes leading to shots that simply didn't go in. Putting up 27 and 16 is just awesome stuff. There's the Giddey we traded for.

Don't really have much to say about anyone else's performance. Smith could be out for a while, I feel like the NBA takes concussions more seriously than the NFL.

P Will being out, and Smith being out really hurts our ability to best diagnose what we have and who fits together well.

Giddey has been very good lately at picking up the slack when Lavine's been out...I thought Coby maybe Pat would be the big beneficiaries of Lavine being gone but surprisingly it's been Josh.

In Feb in games without Lavine, Giddey: 18 ppg 7 rpg 4 apg, 49% FG 47% 3P (2.6 per game), 62% TS.
Assists are way down and scoring & efficiency are way up...I'm definitely surprised since I didn't think scoring was in his bag.
Regardless these are excellent #s for a roleplayer.

[Red8911]

Was at the game last night. Not sure what to take away from the game. Knicks were missing 2 key starters, OG and Hart. I was surprised we kept it close. I'm not sure what happened to our playing with pace, but our pace has slowed to last year's level.

Giddey had a great night but I have to think that at least some of that was due to the Knicks missing key defenders, but Kudus to him/Billy for having him continually drive to the rim because it kept working.

Matas showed me one key area he needs to improve (but I blame the coaching staff)...his warm-up routine is very unstructured. Also, I was disappointed at his lack of aggressiveness. He seemed to catch PWill disease.

Watching Coby in person also was disappointing. He also reminds me of PWill, in that he would get the ball and looked like he had no idea what he wanted to do. Now maybe he just wants to do things (i.e. drive by guys) but just isn't good enough to do it.

I think if Smith didn't go down, we would have won. Collins doesn't seem comfortable yet, but honestly, I think he'll be decent next year.

Good to see Huerter start to find his 3pt stroke.

Giddey can’t get any credit without some of disclaimer huh? Teams have missing players every night.

Giddey had his best game as a Bull in MSG last night but can’t blame everyone for doubting him since he has been inconsistent all season long.

He ll get more respect if he plays like this in most games. Now he has the perfect opportunity to excel on offense and as an overall player since he will have more responsibility with Zach out of here.

[Red8911]

5 straight losses. Thats what you get Billy for trying so hard to win this game lol

The Sixers have managed to lose 6 straight, to avoid capitalizing on our awful play, it's infuriating.

I’m telling you all, they’re going for the tank. It’s harder and more pointless for them to outpace Chicago in wins.

Billy is trying to win games!!

Billy has been trying to win games for how long now while he’s been coaching the bulls? lol .

Last night Tre Jones and Philips were very good to put the Bulls back in it but mid way into the 4th he decided to take them both out for some reason and never put them back in.

Also threw Matas back in the 4th when he was struggling all game long. Why do that if you’re desperately trying to win?

[MrSparkle]

The Sixers have managed to lose 6 straight, to avoid capitalizing on our awful play, it's infuriating.

I’m telling you all, they’re going for the tank. It’s harder and more pointless for them to outpace Chicago in wins.

Billy is trying to win games!!

Billy has been trying to win games for how long now while he’s been coaching the bulls? lol .

Last night Tre Jones and Philips were very good to put the Bulls back in it but mid way into the 4th he decided to take them both out for some reason and never put them back in.

Also threw Matas back in the 4th when he was struggling all game long. Why do that if you’re desperately trying to win?

In his head, he sincerely thinks he’s playing the better rotations.

Why did he keep closing with Vuc/Zach/Demar lineups for 3y in a row?

[Ice Man]

Come on guys, you've been talking up Matas bigtime for a while now. If Billy hadn't put Matas into the game late, then he would also have been criticized. In fact, every Matas decision is Bill's fault.

1) Billy doesn't play Matas - Billy is an idiot, we lose because of that
2) Billy plays Matas and Matas misses his shots - Billy is an idiot, we lost because of that
3) Billy plays Matas and Matas makes his shots - Billy is an idiot, we're trying to lose the games, we won because of that

I guess if he plays Matas, Matas makes his shots, and the Bulls still lose that Billy might escape criticism. But he wouldn't be praised, either. People who just not talk about him and rave in the PG thread about Matas instead.

[Stratmaster]

Billy needs to be fired if he's trying to win these games over development

You had me at "Billy needs to be fired". You could have stopped right there.

[Stratmaster]

Come on guys, you've been talking up Matas bigtime for a while now. If Billy hadn't put Matas into the game late, then he would also have been criticized. In fact, every Matas decision is Bill's fault.

1) Billy doesn't play Matas - Billy is an idiot, we lose because of that
2) Billy plays Matas and Matas misses his shots - Billy is an idiot, we lost because of that
3) Billy plays Matas and Matas makes his shots - Billy is an idiot, we're trying to lose the games, we won because of that

I guess if he plays Matas, Matas makes his shots, and the Bulls still lose that Billy might escape criticism. But he wouldn't be praised, either. People who just not talk about him and rave in the PG thread about Matas instead.

You had me at "Billiy is an idiot". You should have stopped right there.

[WindyCityBorn]

Philly only keeps their pick if they pick top 6, i'm not sure they're tanking for that. They're in a super weird spot. Best case scenario in my mind is that they finish with the 6th worst record and then have to pray no team jumps them in the lottery.

If I had Embiid, Paul George, and Maxey and a pick i'm not likely to keep. I'd be pushing for the playoffs. They are a legit - anything is possible team. They could lose the play-in or make the Finals. That's how wide their variance is.

Paul George is cooked. Worst contract in the NBA. Philly had zero chance of making barring serious injuries to real contenders.

Paul George played 10 games in January and put up 20, 6, and 5 on 59.6% TS%

They don't need him to be the Paul George of old, or need him to do so on a nightly basis.

They just need him to be good for a stretch and really anything becomes possible.

January showcased a 10-game stretch where he played well. He still has his hot streaks and his moments. They just need him to have one during the playoffs.

He is a known playoff choker even in his prime. You would be trashing the heck out of him if he was on the Bulls.

[drosestruts]

Paul George is cooked. Worst contract in the NBA. Philly had zero chance of making barring serious injuries to real contenders.

Paul George played 10 games in January and put up 20, 6, and 5 on 59.6% TS%

They don't need him to be the Paul George of old, or need him to do so on a nightly basis.

They just need him to be good for a stretch and really anything becomes possible.

January showcased a 10-game stretch where he played well. He still has his hot streaks and his moments. They just need him to have one during the playoffs.

He is a known playoff choker even in his prime. You would be trashing the heck out of him if he was on the Bulls.

He's advanced beyond the 1st round of the playoffs 5 times, making the Conference Finals 3 times.

Pretty hard to look out across the past 15 years and turn my nose up at Paul George's "lack of playoff success"

[WindyCityBorn]

Paul George played 10 games in January and put up 20, 6, and 5 on 59.6% TS%

They don't need him to be the Paul George of old, or need him to do so on a nightly basis.

They just need him to be good for a stretch and really anything becomes possible.

January showcased a 10-game stretch where he played well. He still has his hot streaks and his moments. They just need him to have one during the playoffs.

He is a known playoff choker even in his prime. You would be trashing the heck out of him if he was on the Bulls.

He's advanced beyond the 1st round of the playoffs 5 times, making the Conference Finals 3 times.

Pretty hard to look out across the past 15 years and turn my nose up at Paul George's "lack of playoff success"

I meant you would trashing him if he had just signed a max contract with the Bulls this past Summer. And rightfully so.

[drosestruts]

He is a known playoff choker even in his prime. You would be trashing the heck out of him if he was on the Bulls.

He's advanced beyond the 1st round of the playoffs 5 times, making the Conference Finals 3 times.

Pretty hard to look out across the past 15 years and turn my nose up at Paul George's "lack of playoff success"

I meant you would trashing him if he had just signed a max contract with the Bulls this past Summer. And rightfully so.

Yeah. He has sucked this year.

Will be interesting to see if it's the start of a big drop-off or just a down year and he plasy better in the future.

[WindyCityBorn]

He's advanced beyond the 1st round of the playoffs 5 times, making the Conference Finals 3 times.

Pretty hard to look out across the past 15 years and turn my nose up at Paul George's "lack of playoff success"

I meant you would trashing him if he had just signed a max contract with the Bulls this past Summer. And rightfully so.

Yeah. He has sucked this year.

Will be interesting to see if it's the start of a big drop-off or just a down year and he plasy better in the future.

With Embiid rumored need another major knee operation 76ers might be screwed for next half decade. Might have won a championship if they had kept Butler over Simmons

[dougthonus]

With Embiid rumored need another major knee operation 76ers might be screwed for next half decade. Might have won a championship if they had kept Butler over Simmons

The hindsight move is that they could have traded Simmons for an absolute haul and then kept Butler and had a ton of assets to rebuild with.