Warriors @ Bulls Postgame Thread: So whats new?

[bre9]

Fun game to watch. I couldn't believe the Bulls were hanging with the Warriors. Gordon and Nocioni played great tonight. I can't stand Duhon. Thabo was ok made some late turnovers. Deng was not Deng tonight he played stupid. Wallace, Smith, and Deng missed a ton of free throws. The Bulls are still poor defenders. And Baron Davis Killed us.

[Red Larrivee]

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I see what you and many others are saying, but who handles the ball if we have a Thabo and Gordon backcourt? Gordon was having dribbling issues all night. He was either overdribbling like crazy or just losing the handle on the ball. And I'm not sure I want Thabo being the primary ball handler late in the game.

I don't think Boylan's move was nearly as bad as many are making it out to be. I think our our 3 guards deficiencies were exploited tonight, making the decision harder than you'd think. However, I would have probably gambled with the Thabo and Gordon backcourt.

I thought Thabo handled the ball well enough tonight though, to be able to do it in the crunch. He wouldn't have had to set up the offense. Just handle it enough to rotate the ball, or give it to Gordon.

And there really was no point in subbing them in and out. Take out Gordon, you lose offense. Take out Sefolosha, you lose defense on Baron.

Just put both of them in, and kill 2 birds with one stone.

[Sonny_D1]

Thabo is more than capable of playing the Point, ESPECIALLY for this team.

[Susan]

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I see what you and many others are saying, but who handles the ball if we have a Thabo and Gordon backcourt? Gordon was having dribbling issues all night. He was either overdribbling like crazy or just losing the handle on the ball. And I'm not sure I want Thabo being the primary ball handler late in the game.

I don't think Boylan's move was nearly as bad as many are making it out to be. I think our our 3 guards deficiencies were exploited tonight, making the decision harder than you'd think. However, I would have probably gambled with the Thabo and Gordon backcourt.

:

They pulled away in the 2nd with BG and Thabo in the backcourt.

[The 6ft Hurdle]

Last game I watched was against the Blazers, and before that Orlando.

Ugh. Ugh. and Uhhhh...

I could've sworn our season started this way as well.

All close home games against slightly above averages teams we should've beat.

Duhon letting some guy go off on him again.

Gordon's and Noc (occasionally) have got the offense, but the other team doesn't even look like they're trying.

Many times, they "suddenly" end up with a 3-pointer that ends up being the nail in our coffin.

When we were last successful in these 4th quarter duke-it-out battles, an overlooked fact is that we had Tyson Chandler handling the other end. Or at least the other side was missing their shots and not draining wide open 3's.

Whatever is we need some kind of forceful defensive presence who will "front the post" or do whatever it is Skiles did with Chandler so we didn't let those daggers get us. I thought that's was Noah would be, but he can't be if he isn't in the game.

[CjayC]

Just tank for goodness sake.

Stop trying to salvage this shipwreck.

[BigUps]

They pulled away in the 2nd with BG and Thabo in the backcourt.

True, however GS was missing every open look at that time and there defensive pressure in the 4th was much greater than the 2nd.

Again, I'm not saying I wouldn't have played a Gordon and Thabo backcourt, but I don't see Boylan's call as being completely out in left field. Thabo is still very unproven and began to revert to his timid drive and kick ways in the 4th.

[Susan]

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True, however GS was missing every open look at that time and there defensive pressure in the 4th was much greater than the 2nd.

Again, I'm not saying I wouldn't have played a Gordon and Thabo backcourt, but I don't see Boylan's call as being completely out in left field. Thabo is still very unproven and began to revert to his timid drive and kick ways in the 4th.

Duhon is a proven terrible basketball player so it's a little better to be Thabusto than Duhon.

[NLK]

I blame bulls6pack! He infringed on the making of the game thread. Everyone knew it was girlygirl's responsibility to do that. Hell, in fact she's to blame too! Laziness! You both are now in the "AXIS of EVIL." I believe Kim Jong Il is there, in addition to Iran, Iraq, Mexico, the Economy, Dick Chaney, and the Blue Man Group (because they scare me).

[mistatwo mayn]

Nocioni just rushed that wide open shot

Game over

Bulls just killed themselves with all the missed FTs...but their total inability to guard Davis and Ellis was another huge factor. For those saying this eam doesn't need Hinrich, don't you think he would have helped tonight in trying to slow those 2 guys down? It also would have kept Duhon off the floor late in this game -- Boylan obviously didn't trust going with BG and Thabo late -- maybe because of their shaky ballhandling?

Bulls also turned the ball over too much when got any kind of defensive pressure

Chicago now 0-16 when giving up 100.

Is this team EVER going to win more than 1 or 2 games in a row?

For what its worth....

it was the only "two most heathiest bodies" in Baron and Monta (Baron looks like he's about to suit up against New England) that did the damage.

Harrington, a 40% 3 pt shooter did nothing, Jackson, nothing (he supposed to be gone for like at least 2 games as of Thursday), and Biedrins, mr. definitately 50 million dollar man looked like league minimum.

As for the refs hurting ya, I'd beg to differ but let's not get into that.

Bulls definitely need to go after a presence player, but I don't think Ben Gordon as part of the deal will get it done.

Good luck with the rest of the season...

[kyrv]

Fun game to watch. I couldn't believe the Bulls were hanging with the Warriors. Gordon and Nocioni played great tonight. I can't stand Duhon. Thabo was ok made some late turnovers. Deng was not Deng tonight he played stupid. Wallace, Smith, and Deng missed a ton of free throws. The Bulls are still poor defenders. And Baron Davis Killed us.

The box score I have shows Smith was 5-6. Medium Ben missed five free throws and Noah and Deng, four each.


http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/boxscore?gi ... &refresh=0

[kyrv]

Does anyone else think Medium Ben is going to be upset about only getting 21 minutes? He's put in a lot of effort sucking up to soon-to-be-former-interim-head-coach Boylan.

He didn't look happy in the fourth quarter, after the game, who knows.

Boylan, better take care of your dude.

[sporadiclee]

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I think our coaches trust Duhon way way too much and it's backfiring and the sad thing is that - they don't even know it. Sad but true

Exactly.

We did win the most important stat, though: Bench points.

Chicago-59
GS-16

I don't know how that didn't translate to a victory.

Hopefully, someone in the next 10 years can get the rotations right, because this last decade has been maddening.

[kyrv]

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Exactly.

We did win the most important stat, though: Bench points.

Chicago-59
GS-16

I don't know how that didn't translate to a victory.

Hopefully, someone in the next 10 years can get the rotations right, because this last decade has been maddening.

I assume you wanted that in green? Bench points is one of the silliest stats announcers use. If bench players decided the games they would probably make more money than non-bench players.

[sporadiclee]

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I assume you wanted that in green? Bench points is one of the silliest stats announcers use. If bench players decided the games they would probably make more money than non-bench players.

Oh, yeah. That was sarcasm. I was just doing my best Ben Wallace impression by giving the least amount of effort possible on my post while still giving the illusion that I was trying.

GONG!

[theanimal23]

Deng was like a library tonight. You never would have guessed that he had 12 rebounds tonight, unless you saw the box score. 0 impact on the game.

How often do we say that? Ya know. It's not that uncommon to hear that about Deng.

I taped the game and prolly won't watch it. I'd watch a loss if the youngters played, but hell, my friend bet on the game and I told him to take GSW. We just suck. Build a huge lead and it doesn't matter. Never does. We can't ever maintain one.

[theanimal23]

[quote="sporadiclee"][/quote]

Bench points won't translate into anything when guys on your bench could start and your starting lineup can't put up points as it is.

[fudgie]

Boylan's decision to ride Duhon was terrible and it cost us this game. He did nothing in the first half while Thabo and Gordon were kicking ass. The second half starts and he goes back to Duhon, I foolishly assumed he would play Duhon for about 6 minutes just to buy some time for thabo and Gordon to get a little rest.

Meanwhile Baron starts going off on Du and I do mean going off. Du got blown by a bunch of times by Baron and I saw Ellis abuse him a couple of times on switches. When he was guarded by Du, Davis was getting into the lane without problems and when Thabo was guarding him he was mostly taking some tough shots. He hit some of those tough shots but regardless, when Du was guarding him he was getting easy shots, when Thabo was guarding him he was getting tough shots.

This was just and idiotic decision which I have a hard time believing that a professional basketball coach made. Duhon was simply terrible on both sides of the ball and in the game thread it was obvious to everyone. How Boylan did not realize this I do not know. Simply terrible.

[JeremyB0001]

I was pleased to watch a game for the first time in a week and a half but haven't read the thread. My thoughts:

- Defense! This team is officially lost. We've slipped to the middle of the pack in the league in defense and we simply can't be a competitive team without being amongst the best defensive teams in the league. We need to be blowing teams out when we shoot 50% from the field, do a decent job on the boards, and don't turn the ball over a ton. Instead, we let GS shoot 46% and lost.

- Props to Boylan for benching Wallace late (IIRC that's the first time he's done so in a close game) even though he showed a pulse tonight and for playing Thabo late. Unfortunately, he loses points because I perceive benching Wallace as a highly reactive move (a la Scott Skiles). I think Boylan benched Wallace because Nelson likes to play hack a Wallace and because GS went small and not because Wallace isn't a very good player these days. I hate these types of moves. I'd much rather see us go big against small lineups since our team is very well suited to do so. Still, you can't blame Boylan too much for riding Smith, our best player this season, and Noc, our hottest player tonight, down the stretch. Which brings me to my next point...

- I've said this before but Pax absolutely has to move one or two players to alleviate the log jam in the front court. Boylan sat Wallace a lot tonight and yet the young bigs still didn't have nearly enough minutes available (18 whereas I've been lobbying for them to see 35 MPG) because Noc had the hot hand. Noc and Smith are both having good seasons but I think two of the three out of Noc, Smith, and Wallace probably need to go. One of my only criticisms of Bolyan's rotations tonight is that Deng had a solid game but not the type of unbelievable game that warrants 44 minutes. Also, playing Tyrus for two minutes is the epitome of jerking him around; I think I'd rather Boylan saddle him with a DNP.

- There was a point in tonight's game where I started rooting for the team to lose for the first time this season. We were stilling winning at the time but I wasn't pleased with how we were winning. It was almost entirely the product of a flukish shooting night where we shot 50% for the game (and even better earlier) while riding the vets pretty hard. Our defense has regressed considerably and the kids aren't seeing the floor much (unless there are injuries). We need a change and unfortunately losing seems to be the only way that can occur. I blame Pax/Boylan that losing is the only way that change may occur.

- I would've preferred Thabo playing over Du down the stretch but apparently a BG/Thabo backcourt leaves us without anyone who can successfully bring the ball up the court and initiate the offense. I'm not so sure BG can't do it but he wasn't given the opportunity tonight and he has made some awful turnovers while handling the ball late in recent games. What on earth happened with the offense/defense sub where BG went out of the game and then didn't get back into the game on offense for a critical possession? What on earth was Boylan thinking there?

[sporadiclee]

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Bench points won't translate into anything when guys on your bench could start and your starting lineup can't put up points as it is.

I couldn't agree more. I brought that up in jest because this team's mantra when they're losing has been the need for more bench points. The rotations, pretty much for the last ten years, have made little sense.