PG: 8 more games to go

[DASMACKDOWN]

At least Patrick WIlliams finally woke up. Probably the best game of the season for him.

Thad was great. Theis with his normal good play.

8 more before this is over.

[Dominator83]

Didn't read the game thread yet. But I'm guessing during the 1st half it was littered with "look our offense is better without Zach and Vuc" posts that didn't age well.

[Clocian]

Good to see Pat getting more shots up. Only thing I'm looking forward to these remaining games.

[Neonblazer]

Didn't read the game thread yet. But I'm guessing during the 1st half it was littered with "look our offense is better without Zach and Vuc" posts that didn't age well.

But the offense in team sense was better. They actually had to move the ball to get baskets. Shooting 6-24 from the 3p line explains alot.

[Red8911]

No Vucevic or Lavine, are they now officially tanking ? What a joke this has become, Orlando is going to end up with a better pick, not top 4 but a pretty high pick. Sick of this team and their losing.

[weneeda2guard]

I wonder if AK and ME already know they have the 4th pick locked in so they shutting things down for the season to make the pick look organic?

[Ice Man]

This is what I was thinking when watching the first half. "Excellent job by the Bulls, missing their two key players and having nothing to play for. But man, the Hawks are disgusting. Jogging around the court, getting beaten to every rebound and loose ball, getting smoked on back cuts defensively, and that after being blown out twice straight by Philly. Has that team no pride?"

Well it turned out that the Hawks do have pride, and once they tried, the game was over. I would have been surprised had it been otherwise.

The only other thing of note for the Bulls was Patrick, obviously. Good stuff.

[HOTCARL_o]

As long as PWill wakes up and does something the remaining games that would be great. Then off to the lottery and hope we get rewarded for not tanking.

[Stratmaster]

Didn't read the game thread yet. But I'm guessing during the 1st half it was littered with "look our offense is better without Zach and Vuc" posts that didn't age well.

But the offense in team sense was better. They actually had to move the ball to get baskets. Shooting 6-24 from the 3p line explains alot.

Shooting 53% from the field and 42% from 3 in the first half explained a lot.

Scoring 34 points in the entire 2nd half explains a lot.

Sent from my SM-G965U using RealGM mobile app

[Ice Man]

Shooting 53% from the field and 42% from 3 in the first half explained a lot.

That and the Hawks dogging it. Their first half performance might be the laziest effort I have seen this season in the NBA. I have seen worse basketball, due to a lack of talent, but I think not such disinterested basketball.

[chefo]

I'm convinced that, at the very least, Donovan doesn't care that we're losing. I wouldn't say he's throwing games, but he doesn't look like he's particularly trying to win either. Either that, or the staff is a bunch of near-sighted guys who collectively forgot their lenses in the hotel and had to go by sound only or something. That's also the second game where Coach Nate or somebody on his staff has run circles around Donovan in the second half.

I don't think our guys on the sidelines are that awful... probably that's their way of waving the white flag on the season. However, the rotations were quite WTF most of the second half.

Player-wise:
* Coby was bad Coby
* Thad was superb Thad on O and bad Thad on D
* Pat had his best game of the year--excluding the couple of times when he took a nap on D; on a sidenote, why does our staff insist on him chasing guards and wings around screens on the perimeter? He gets lost more often than not and he's not good at it. Put him on their 4, especially with the lineups they were running.
* Theis tried hard but it wasn't his night
* Temple was a big doughnut on the floor--couldn't slow down Trae when asked to, couldn't do anything on O

On the bench:
* Denzel has all the confidence in the world to shoot contested jumpers early in the clock... and that's not a good thing
* Lauri--if Lauri can give you that kind of effort on D and the boards every night--damn, did the FO and Donovan F-up in the grand scheme of things. He was our best defensive big tonight (with occasional missed rotations sprinkled in)--especially on switches and less noticeably on contests, and he was really going after it on the boards. Yeah, he couldn't buy a shot today, but it's not like they ran a single play for him all game.

The Hawks are all about driving and kicking and driving and lobbing. When you cut off the drive (like Lauri was able to) or force them into a tough spot, their offense kinda' sputters a bit. The best defensive sequences we had were with Lauri on the floor. Yeah, Trae and Galo hit a couple of really tough shots over his contests, but that was good D anyways. His D has been trending that way the last dozen or so games... but he can't see the floor for more than his 20 min so it doesn't really matter.

If his improved D is a continuation of the trend of:

* God awful help D first couple of years
* Poor help D under Jimbo
* Passable help D first half of season under Donovan
* Good help D and good switch D, and good man D, to close the season

I lot of our recent defensive improvement has been (apart from Temple coming back) during Lauri's minutes on the court. Sprinkled with some bad now and then, there's been a TON of good defensive plays recently.

Sigh. If we end up finally making him a good defensive player only to lose him for zilch because the FO and coach treated him like shyte and probably burned that bridge nice and bright--we'd be right back in GarPax land of ineptitude. If you didn't like him and had no intention of playing your 18ppg, 62% TS player in the second half (which you obviously didn't)--you've got to get something back for him at the deadline. Just have to.

If I didn't know a thing about his history and simply watched today's game, he played like a high-quality, high energy defensive big off the bench. Given that he has 2nd / 3rd option scoring talent as well... another royal F-up from everybody involved, including him. It seems like everybody who touches this franchise is being forced to take stupid-pills.

* Archi--should not see the floor. Period. Even at his best, he's a major drag on the lineup. Other teams don't even bother guarding him. He's like Noce on D--lots of energy, but end result is he's in the wrong place or getting beat over and over. Love that a guy like that can get an NBA contract, but he should be your 15th guy on a minimum salary, not a rotational piece.

[beeshma]

I watched most of the game. The one thing I won't do is make any conclusions about any players, coach, plays, or system.

We are in the dog days of the season without our 2 best players. Clearly none of what we see on the court matters.

[SfBull]

No Vucevic or Lavine, are they now officially tanking ? What a joke this has become, Orlando is going to end up with a better pick, not top 4 but a pretty high pick. Sick of this team and their losing.

They're developing PWill.

[madvillian]

I watched most of the game. The one thing I won't do is make any conclusions about any players, coach, plays, or system.

We are in the dog days of the season without our 2 best players. Clearly none of what we see on the court matters.

God Bless. Wake me up on ping pong night.

[MJPipRose]

Trae Young gets the most fouls that are just not fouls. What was that quote from someone saying what he does is not basketball? Man it looked suspect tonight. Anyways Bulls with yet another loss, cant put together a 48 minute game.

[Just_Bullz]

Nice game, those hawks can't even beat us by 15 with Vuc and Zach out.

PWill woke up.

We won more games than last season.

We likely sign Lonzo in the off-season

We have a chance to get a top 4 pick

Lots of positives entering next season. Get ready folks.

[Mk0]

Trae Young gets the most fouls that are just not fouls. What was that quote from someone saying what he does is not basketball? Man it looked suspect tonight. Anyways Bulls with yet another loss, cant put together a 48 minute game.

It was Steve Nash

Watch on YouTube

[CobyWhite0]

Trae Young gets the most fouls that are just not fouls. What was that quote from someone saying what he does is not basketball? Man it looked suspect tonight. Anyways Bulls with yet another loss, cant put together a 48 minute game.

Young is taking over for James Harden as the "superstar" nobody wants to see play because of the crap fouls the officials call in their favor.

I fully expect him to disappear in the playoffs, just like Harden always does because they aren't being given 6-8 points per game on bogus foul calls.

[MJPipRose]

Trae Young gets the most fouls that are just not fouls. What was that quote from someone saying what he does is not basketball? Man it looked suspect tonight. Anyways Bulls with yet another loss, cant put together a 48 minute game.

It was Steve Nash

Watch on YouTube

Respect to the former 2 time mvp for speaking up about it.

[meekrab]

Can we just have Pat play point forward for the rest of the season? Results can't be much worse than what we've been getting lately and he needs the experience.