GT - Bulls @ LAL

[OldSchoolNoBull]

The Lakers' starting lineups have been wildly inconsistent, particularly since LeBron's been out - I don't mean their performance, I mean the actual lineup...DAJ's been in and out, THT started last night despite it being his first game back, Melo started his first game of the season, Bradley's had starts, Bazemore's started a lot, Monk was starting at the beginning of the season, etc. Very little continuity outside of AD and Westbrook starting every game. So that makes game-planning a little more difficult. Still, I think we need to take a "Let AD get his" approach to this.

1. Let AD get his. We don't have the personnel to adequately defend him and if guys are too aggressive trying to stop AD, he's going to get every get call, rack up FTs, and our guys are going to be in foul trouble. We can live with AD beating us. We don't want anyone else to. This is AD on his home floor - if DJJ or Javonte or whoever contests an AD shot and it's a 50/50 foul call, they're getting called for it. And if we double that's just gonna leave somebody open outside. It's not worth it. Let AD get his.

2. As opposed to AD, we do have the personnel to lock them down on the perimeter - other than Melo, their guys aren't overly big like Durant or Giannis or whoever. Our defensive mission has to be to be to force Melo/Ellington/Bradley - especially Melo - into an inefficient/ineffective shooting night, and to limit Westbrook's ability to penetrate and rack up assists on dish-outs. I don't know how many minutes THT will be play in his second game back, but he's a guy you can afford to sag off when he's behind the arc to help on others because he's not a good distance shooter. We can throw Ball, Caruso, JeVonte, DJJ, and even Ayo, we have the weapons to give their perimeter guys trouble defensively. We just can't let any of these guys go off like Korkmaz did in that one Philly game.

3. I don't think there's much hope of winning the rebounding battle, but we need to at least minimize the margin by which we lose it. We especially can't give offensive rebounds away. If we have a bunch of possessions where we force missed shots and then allow them to get the offensive rebound, it's going to be hard to win. I can see in my head my head possessions where Ball, Caruso, et al play great defense on the perimeter, force a missed shot, and then AD or DAJ or Dwight or somebody grabs the board over Javonte. That can't happen.

4. On the other side of the ball, they can throw Bradley, Bazemore, and Ellington - all good defenders - at Zach, and worse, we may well see AD covering DeRozan for stretches. Might be a tough scoring night. Which means we need #2 on this list to translate to turnovers and fastbreak opportunities.

In one sentence - Let AD get his, play suffocating perimeter defense in order to force them into inefficient shooting and force turnovers that lead to fastbreak opportunities, and even if you lose the rebounding battle, don't get killed.

[Michael Jackson]

any status updates on Coby and LeBron yet?

[NecessaryEvil]

[NecessaryEvil]

Hoping Lakers give AD a rest day after playing him 40 last night. Come on Lakers, tank the game!

No way

I want the Bulls to whoop these dudes with AD on the floor. It would make it all the more sweeter

[WindyCityBorn]

No way they do that. Bulls are good now and teams look forward to play against them. Lebron might even return for this one and I hope he does, a win against them with Lebron would be so much sweeter.

I hope he sits. We aren’t at full strength and I don’t want them at full strength either. I want wins no matter how we get them.

I got to a point in my life where I dont care if this or this one returns or not. If Lebron returns only for Bulls who cares. I still remember times well when teams decided to rest players because they played Bulls. And it was pissing me off because that would mean we were disrespected and even if we won it was bad for our pick. And wasnt happy at all.

Bulls will be at full strenght when Zach gets surgery and returns and Coby and Vuc are fully back. Till then we just need to grind out it out and make life difficult for all teams. Be that torn in their ass, win or lose.

I don’t think Zach needs surgery. He would just need to take some time off. I don’t see him doing that either though. I think he plays the entire season with it with unless something changes.

[Michael Jackson]

Hoping Lakers give AD a rest day after playing him 40 last night. Come on Lakers, tank the game!

No way

I want the Bulls to whoop these dudes with AD on the floor. It would make it all the more sweeter

Yeah I don't want any gimmie games. To get better we need to beat better teams. They are already down LBJ. This isn't last years Bulls G League squad we need to be able to hang with any team on any night.

[Chi town]

Can't wait to yell "COOOOBBBBYYY" with my boys when he splashes his first 3.

[bad knees]

Read on Twitter

[ducler]

Read on Twitter

[FriedRise]

Read on Twitter

[Chicago-Bull-E]

I was pessimistic on the back to back, but no Lebron, not 100% AD, and a bunch of role players out? Bulls should win this running away. Hopefully Coby gives what could be a tired team a good spark. Excited for this one.

[meekrab]

Just realized both teams are playing their 3rd game in 4 days... this could be a really ugly / sloppy / low-quality game.

[Michael Jackson]

I was pessimistic on the back to back, but no Lebron, not 100% AD, and a bunch of role players out? Bulls should win this running away. Hopefully Coby gives what could be a tired team a good spark. Excited for this one.

This game will come down to a thumb.... AD or Zach

[Just_Bullz]

Trap game for us.

We have seen this many times before. One of Zach or DDR will lay an egg for this game.

The only consolation is Lakers are also on a back-to-back and they are old. Do not count them out though.

We are still a growing team, all these adversities will help early on in the season. Better come early than late.

[Chicago-Bull-E]

I was pessimistic on the back to back, but no Lebron, not 100% AD, and a bunch of role players out? Bulls should win this running away. Hopefully Coby gives what could be a tired team a good spark. Excited for this one.

This game will come down to a thumb.... AD or Zach

Yup. Would also like to see what Ball’s past matchups on Westbrook look like. He’s been awful, but doesn’t mean he can’t explode one game every couple weeks, hopefully just not against us tonight. I like Ball matched up on him

[Michael Jackson]

I was pessimistic on the back to back, but no Lebron, not 100% AD, and a bunch of role players out? Bulls should win this running away. Hopefully Coby gives what could be a tired team a good spark. Excited for this one.

This game will come down to a thumb.... AD or Zach

Yup. Would also like to see what Ball’s past matchups on Westbrook look like. He’s been awful, but doesn’t mean he can’t explode one game every couple weeks, hopefully just not against us tonight. I like Ball matched up on him

Russ has become awfully polarizing, but averaging a triple double even in an inefficient manner still takes a lot of talent. He is fun to clown and he can ruin a teams chemistry, but he can punish anyone on any given night

[Grodoboldo]

I hope we use the Simmons strategy on Russ, with his defender doubling AD on the post. If Westbrook drives, rotate to stop him. If he pulls up, let him and box the **** out of everyone, because he'll shoot under 40%.

[BeatDaCavs420]

Easy Win baby

[bearadonisdna]

1st half rotation :

Bradley-16 Alize-8
Derozan-18 Djj-6
LaVine-18 Green-6

1.Lonzo-18 Cobe-6
2.Caruso-18 Coby-6

This is a feeler out lineup . Not to go through too many mental gymnastics you like the bulls in 3 out of 5 matchups between the starters .

1st option - Demar
2nd option -Zach

Obviously we wanna play fast , transition , knock down the open 3.

[ghostinthepost1]

Watching the Clippers double and triple team Zach and DDR last night makes me real excited for what Coby might be able to do. With no Vuch and Pat the Bulls are desperately missing a third scoring option.