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- The Bulls played a solid first half on the defensive end. Kirk and Duhon nuteralized Roy which stagnated the Portland defense. Our bigs were also physical with LaMarcus(zero first half points) which prevented him from making any impact on the game in the first half. We were carried on the offensive end by Joe and Gordon, inside and outside game. I also like the fact that we're continuing to push the ball up court trying to get a good look before defenses settle. Our ball movement for the most part was really good in the first half also.

- We let Roy getting going in the third quarter which gave confidence in his teammates. Roy is the head of the snake of Portland and if we stop him like we did for the first half, we'll win, but if he gets a hand on all the plays and gets everyone involved we're in trouble. Roy had a stellar third quarter.

- Again, once we let Roy loose we were on our back heels. It didn't help that Kirk and Noc's shots weren't falling, and that Joe needed his rest as he has played the most mintues in a long while for his aching knees.

- Gordon carried us in the fourth and OT with his scoring. He took some tough shots, and off balanced shots, but he took it upon himself and did what he had to do.

- Our defensive rebounding during the fourth and in overtime was dissapointing and cost us some opportunities on the other end to score, and gave Portland some easy baskets.

- Credit has to go to Joe Smith tonight. He has bad knees, played huge mintues tonight yet he kept us in the game all night long with his hustle and scoring. If it wasn't for him tonight, it wouldn't have been close.

Where dreams go to die...

We need to replace Noce with someone more consistent. When he's hot he's great, but when he's not he's stupid.

AAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH




That was frustrating. Gordon, Noc and Hinrich were just dead at the end, no legs left to make open shots.

Joe Smith played like a man though - kudos to him. Wallace hit 4 FT in a row too, we won't see that too often....

Where Old Man Griffin gets more minutes than Tyrus, Thabo, and Gray combined.

The balls didn't bounce our way, we were missing Deng, the refs suck, Boylan's an idiot, Wallace is old. Those are all the excuses, and none make me feel any better.

Portland is just better than the Bulls

I'm starting to believe this team is not going the playoffs . They should start tanking

Is it cynical that I can't help but laugh at how predictable each game has become and how bad we are?

LOL

Good:
Joe Smith
Clutch Ben Gordon
Clutch Ben Wallace

Bad:
Tyrus not playing and LMA tearing it up.
Ben Gordon's turnover.

Where lineups like:

Gordon, Duhon, Griffin, Noah and Wallace

make me retch uncontrollably.

Ugly loss. Hopefully the Deng injury is not as bad as we think.

I was thinking of making some clever post game thread if we won. Something along the lines of "Hey Joe."

Wallace wasn't perfect but he hit big free throws, made a few baskets, and played solid defense with plenty of blocks. Unfortunately we ran out of energy as the game progressed. I felt putting in someone like Noah or Thomas would have really ignited use in over time, oh well. I don't want any more losses, but I'll take these over the ones we had against Boston and Houston.

Id like to see how the players bounce back after a heart breaking lose like tonights under Boylan..

I know Ben was tired and had turned the ball over, but Noce should never shoot a three in the clutch like that. NEVER. Let's trade him for Artest or Garcia.

SportsWorld wrote:Good:
Joe Smith
Clutch Ben Gordon
Clutch Ben Wallace

Bad:
Tyrus not playing and LMA tearing it up.
Ben Gordon's turnover.

Did "tearing it up" take on a new meaning?

He was 5 for 16 and got 12 & 12 in 40 minutes...

SportsWorld wrote:Good:
Joe Smith
Clutch Ben Gordon
Clutch Ben Wallace

Bad:
Tyrus not playing and LMA tearing it up.
Ben Gordon's turnover.

Why should Tyrus play over Joe Smith . Smith is the better player right now . He had good game tonight

We are such a bad team down the stretch of games. We commit stupid fouls (Hinrich), stupid turnovers (Gordon), don't get rebounds (Wallace), don't get stops and completely break down as a team. The Bulls are just too old for this pissing their pants in crunch time against good competition.

this team just can't get it done -

Joe did play great, but I thought the rationale of playing Big Ben and Joe 45+ minutes in a overtime game, would be because they stabilize the team and get us wins so we can get back to the playoffs?

Just maybe they got tired. But I'm glad Grif got 10 minutes and Tyrus 3.