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Bulls 99, Pistons 83: Bulls win on back-to-back, Rip Hamilton simply back

Rip Hamilton had a timely return from his two-game absence due to injury: playing in his former home for nine years in Detroit and looking great doing so. Hamilton got a couple late buckets to get his scoring mark up to 14 in 9 shot attempts, but was even more impressive to me was his merely 3-point first half, as it was coupled with 4 assists.

The Bulls were running Hamilton off screens consistently when he was in the game. The Pistons strategy was to overplay him on the catch, and Rip made them pay. The Pistons are just starting to try out this defense thing with new coach Lawrence Frank, so while the initial move got the ball out of Rip's hands worked, they were not disciplined enough to rotate futher. Time and again, Rip would immediately dump it to the now-unguarded inside player.

Those inside men did the job tonight, Noah seemed more settled when he made his moves (though he had 5 turnovers, so maybe my eyes deceive me). And while it's still unnerving when Boozer doesn't show explosiveness when he catches low, he was very effective as a scoring threat tonight, able to post up the more finesse Piston PFs to collapse the defense. When that threat is presented, he can then fit in well with Hamilton and the rest of the offense as a willing and able passer. He also had a nice night shooting from distance, his last few putting the game away for good and towards his final line of 9-15 for 19 points.

And perhaps the best part of Rip-to-Booz/Noah was that Derrick Rose merely had to initiate the action, not dominate it. If we're just counting shots for each and the efficiency of them, getting the ball to Rip so often isn't the best strategy. But to have the opportunity to simply not make Rose work so hard every time down the court is invaluable, and a new dynamic Hamilton has brought for much of his initial season with the Bulls. Rose was able to still assert his game in spots, especially in the 2nd half after Rodney Stuckey exited the game with a groin injury and he was matched up on smaller guards like Brandon Knight or Will Bynum.

So, overall, the offense was able to exploit the Pistons undisciplined aggression on traps through patience and ball movement, not only creating open looks but actually hitting them. Thus while the Pistons did show some life at points at the expense of some Bulls fatigue, the Bulls shooting always had them beyond double digits. Outside of an uncharacteristically poor night from Deng (and he didn't crack 40 minutes!), the shots were falling: Boozer was mentioned, but there was also Brewer's 4-6 and Gibson's 5-9.

At other times the Bulls exposed when the Pistons simply got lazy, and at one point I thought Frank was going to try and tackle one of his players he stormed on the court so furiously. Pretty strange, in contrast to the Bulls, to see a team barely even to the point of starting to figure it out.

Other notes:

  • Game 2 of the John Lucas experience was a mixed bag, though maybe as good as it can get. Lucas hit two three-pointers which was a huge factor in at least counteracting the obvious deficiencies he has on defense. The Pistons attacked the diminutive Lucas immediately, and he did look overmatched physically, but if he makes a couple plays on offense it helps, as it did tonight. Lucas didn't play in the second half until the final minute.

  • Which means Rose played a lot, though just under 40 minutes isn't outlandish for him, considering the schedule it'll be a constant point of intrigue. Especially strange to see him and all of the other starters on the floor after a timeout at 2 minutes left and the Bulls up 16. I get the hesitancy to use Lucas and the game wasn't really in hand until very late, but just something to watch.

  • Another drawback to keeping players in late is the possibility of getting an unnecessary foul, and the Pistons had three such occurrences late, and Rose was pretty shaken up after his incident though he stayed in the game. [it was reported afterwards that Rose was in obvious pain, but x-rays were negative -ed.]

  • The Pistons have slight PFs, and short Centers, so the shotblocking of Noah, Gibson, and Asik was a factor all night.

  • My guy Ben Gordon shot really poorly 2-10 in 28 minutes. I have to admit as long as the Bulls stayed ahead I would've have minded a brief run by him just to take some of the sneer out of Neil Funk's tone. To be fair to the blind one, the Pistons are an easy team to be disgusted by.

0 recs  |  111 comments

Comments

A crowd of 9126…that’s shameful.

nick friedell on espn 1000

said he thought that number was generous.

I feel like the Bulls need to learn when to lose a game

tonight wasn’t that type of situation, but if the funky shots are falling for Orlando I think Thibs needs to learn how to lose a game. Esp. on the off chance Rose can’t go.

its not just thibs

i think if this team ever had a personality, and im talking about even pre rose, it was a never say die attitude. The idea of losing games is essentially to deny this team its existence, especially our mvp. I think it makes sense to let some games go and rest guys and save ourselves for the post season, but i think this team is honest to goodness just looking to wee-un, and so they will…..blame rose as much as you blame thibs i guess…

Yeah

I love it and hate it at the same time. I kinda wish Thibs and coompany had some Phil in them, the team needs to take the foot off the pedal sometimes.

Even back at teh Skiles days

That’s the bulls mo

What?

Why would you want a team to be okay with losing or learning to lose? That makes no sense…you want the team to learn how to win, and expect to win every single game. You are building the championship pedigree from day one. Practice like a champion, play like a champion.

tell that to Phil

It’s been pretty well documented and spoken about by beat writers and on the radio that he knew when to pull his starters, when to rest up, when it was ok to lose a game. And he did this in the playoffs.

I think the difference is whether or not you have a champsionship

the Bulls under Thibs have none, you don’t coast and arrogantly “rest up” when you have zero titles under your name.

I would like to see an issue

being made of the Bulls media corps refusing to step up to the plate and ask Thibs why Derrick was in the in the game at that point. Pretty much the only thing Bulls fans wanted to know and they crapped the bed.

I think they're just picking their battles

They probably don’t think the situation was important enough to risk ruffling Thibs’ feathers. And He’s shown in the past that he gets very testy with anyone that questions his superior basketball intellect. It’s one of the few traits of his that I don’t like. Just own up to your decisions

Btw, I'm not saying that I agree with their decision not to ask the question, but I can kinda see where they're coming from
I'll give them a bit of a pass, since it's not like it doesn't come up

and Thibs never really gives them an answer outside of ‘well of course I’ll play everyone, they’re fine’.

my thing is if you phrase it respectfully

it shouldn’t be a prob. something like “Coach, bulls up 14 w 3:35 to go. what would you say to questions of should derrick be resting at that point, especially with orlando up next?” if there’s a question to be asked, you’ve got to ask it, that’s why the media is there. kcjohnson responded to me and said any coach would have done the same. but i think most here would say that isn’t the case.

You can even phrase it like "isn't that a good time to get bench players some minutes"
Not good that he's acknowledging the possibility that he won't play Friday, but I guess it's good that it's not more serious
KCJHoop K.C Johnson
DRose said it’s “way too early” to know if he can play Friday in Orlando, where DHoward has knocked him out of 2 games in his career. #Bulls
KCJHoop K.C Johnson
DRose: "It’s just like any other time you fall you’re going to be sore. Thank God we don’t play (Thursday) and I can rest." #Bulls
At least it is Rose's L elbow

Although, I agree that Thibs needs to change his 2nd half rotations a little. Especially in games where we are up by 16, Rose/Deng need a rest to start the 4th quarter. Its not only about fatigue, but also risk of injury. the more time you are on the court, the greater chance you have of having a ‘freak’ injury like rose had tonight. My point is that, in games that are already in control, he needs to rest some players better. I understand playing rose/deng against atlanta, but not tonight.

At the time I thought maybe he figured he would go for the blowout and hopefully get rest for everyone then

but even when he HAD the blowout (albeit really late), they still didn’t sit, so…

Its not just playing more minutes that increases the chance of a freak injury.

Its playing tired. You play with less control. Also, the defense gets lazy and starts pushing instead of defending (which led to 3 straight rough fouls by the Pistons). I was holding my breath for the last 5 minutes.

he'll put an elbow protector over it and be out there on friday.
Ben Gordon looked like a completely different player than he was in Chicago

He seemed to have no confidence in his shot or ability to make a play. He was over deferring to other Pistons (which was usually one guy dribbling for 15-22 seconds). It didn’t seem like any of the Pistons wanted to attack the basket or pass inside, their offense is just a mess. While Gordon might not be part of the solution, he could be utilized a lot better.

Don't forget that we have a really good defense though

I thought I read that he was playing really well in their other games this year

I've been on the Pistons band wagon

having watched two games that they’ve won, and everyone on the team looked solid, BG8 included. Maybe the Bulls are that much better than the Magic and Pacers.

Hinrich, Nocioni and Gordon all look like they forgot how to play basketball after leaving the Bulls.
Hinrich? He's looked pretty good with the Hawks at times

As for Noc, his spiral down to suckville started while he was still with the Bulls

(waits for inevitable Chapu4you comment)

Still nowhere near as good as he was with the Bulls. They have no dog.
I think that knee injury in the summer games for argentina

Slowed noc a step and virtually killed his career since he was never terribly athletic or really skilled just played so freaking hard that he had success when he was a bit quicker.

Hinrich’s still alright just not a focus pt for the systems like he was with skiles

And bg is the odd one, I don’t know what’s happened with him, he was a gym rat who worked hard and now that he’s been paid he still looks like he’s kept up his work regimen, just his skills don’t mesh with the fairly awful as a starting Pg but would be a nice backup 2 stuckey.

I mean it was 2.5 yrs ago that BG and Ray Allen had that ridiculous back and forth playoff game (and unlike what Ray say from the van defense, BG faced Thibs system and still was out of this world that game…and much of that yr….

The van defense was VDN defense

Stupid iphone

I have no idea why/

But, for some reason, “van defense” seems appropriate for VDN’s defensive “schemes.”

He's had a few nice games before this one

Bens always been super streaky and when he’s off he’s harmful to the team bc he’s so small and plays very little d anyway.

I think Frank will keep using him which ultimately will be good for Detroit.

Also I’ll add that Greg Monroe is hardly slight, he’s the best thing they’ve got and will get better.

This isn't streakiness

It’s playing in a different style than I’m used too from when he was a Bull.

Also, he wasn’t really that streaky his last two years here, he was way more consistent.

Plus

the Bulls game planned for him. He got hit with a lot of double teams tonight which led to him deferring. Not that the Pistons have that many other options either.

He was doubled a lot...

When he was with the Bulls…primarily because he does not react well to that look, panics, and will often make bad decisions with the ball…

I agree about Greg Monroe...

He could develop into the second best center in the NBA…he has good size, footwork and hands…he just needs to adjust to the speed of the NBA game, and could become a dominant force for them…unfortunately, beyond him, their pieces do not fit…they really a consolidation trade…

its mental, thats the only explanation

seeing that he left the bulls he thinks about what could have been. if we would have kept gordon/he would have signed with us (whatever, whoever’s fault it is, bleh) we would have won the title last year, easily. the bulls can still win a title without him but BG may never get that chance again.

thibs needs to realize hes coaching human beings that need rest

must be hard for him to adjust after coaching an alien for two years in boston

Scalabrine

Is still on Thibs’ bench.

Boozers defense was much improved again.

He seems to be getting his hand on everything, and was pretty good when put against a player isolating.

is it really his defense getting better?

or is he just getting lucky with those swipes at the ball.
i mean you dont really see noah or omer or taj swiping at balls. they are usually contesting a guy.
i tend to think what boozers been doing is just him getting lucky on his pathetic gambles on defense

lol boozer haters

you can do better than that

Don't worry

Mr. Bobble-head will disappoint us once again, sooner than later I’d bet

Well...

1st of all, it’s been happening a LOT more this year, and it didn’t usually happen last year, and 2nd of all, his defense when guarding someone isolating has been far above average. I haven’t really paid attention to how his help defense has been, but I no longer freak out when I see him guarding someone 1 on 1.

yeah i just wish he would make an effort to contest a shot more often

most of those swipes are cause his man has already blown past him or is already on the way up while boozer’s cement feet are still on the floor

I have actually been pretty impressed with his help defense this year...

although he still had a few lapses last game. He seems to consciously be trying to make the right rotation and is doing so. However, I have noticed that he breaks down a bit in more complex situations where the proper rotation is somewhat less obvious. Hopefully, as time goes on, this defense will become more second nature, which it is not quite at this time.

Maybe he got that from Kurt

thomas that is

I'll believe it

When he’s consistent agains quality opponents.

Hard to take any performances against This awful Pistons team then with more than a grain of salt.

That is a myth, last year he averaged 2 ppg less against above 500 teams.
The comment was in reference to his

Supposed defensive improvement, not on offensive( not that his offense is game changing either )

And it's also not a myth that his best games

This season were against terrible teams ( both offensively and defensively)

This season?

All 7 games of it? Besides, Memphis was his best game, and he also had good games against the Lakers and Clippers, he just didn’t get enough shots for it to show.

I think it's impossible to be objective with Boozer

people usually either like his numbers or hate his style.

Memphis came Out flat and zbo went down

Sp that performance was definitely inflated

It's not like ZBo is a defensive presence...

I like how you can make excuses for the other team, but none for Boozer.

Bulls win that with or without boozer easily
Because we beat them by 40?

He was still the best player out there that night.

Of course he was (sub par competition)

Wake me up when he carries this team to a win against a good team instead of being benched for period of the game because others players are “being a spark”

Not to mention how both

Blake griffin and pau gasol had their way with boozer, completely negatin boozers offensive contributions.

Blake has his way with every pf in the league on o

And gasols a top 20 player for a reason… Those two aren’t chopped liver

I mean, I'm not a fan of Boozer's defense either

but dude could’ve picked two better examples.

I dunno, I think he’s played ok in spots, but given what he means to the team he needs to up his game. Don’t know if it’s possible, but for the Bulls to beat the Heat they need another solid, reliable offensive option.

So..because those two are good players

its fine that they completely obliterate our front line.

I see, well then, why be accountable for anything ?

Noah guarded both of them.

Stop.

Actually

Boozer also guarded both of them.

Actually no, you might want to stop just making shit up.

Boozer and Noah split duty on Griffin and Pau.

Learn how to read:
Boozer also guarded both of them.
Is that good?

You keep providing that number with absolutely no context. How does that compare to Rose and Deng? To other similar PFs in the NBA? On its own, the number is meaningless.

I don't think it's meaningless

He thought the previous comment was proposing that (offensively) he feasts on the scrub teams and drops off a cliff when facing good teams. I’d say a stat like that counters it pretty well. One less FG against a good team vs a bad team doesn’t seem like a huge difference to me.

without context its meaningless

i would expect Rose to score more against over .500 teams. The games are tighter, you expect your star players to play more minutes and get more shots – so it doesn’t necessarily follow that its a good thing that your 2nd option doesn’t score against quality opponents. Are the Bulls scoring less points against over .500 teams? What is Deng doing? Is Boozer scoring less b/c he is getting less minutes? Is his fg% worse?

2pts is a big dropoff in my view when you are talking about an average. And context definitely matters. In the playoffs Boozer averaged 12.6 pts a game. When faced with the Bulls toughest opponents, he was not good.

Last year during the regular season he averaged -

8.5 pts vs Atlanta in 2 games
16 vs Boston in 3 games
13 vs. Miami in 3 games
11.3 vs. Orlando in 4 games.

Those teams were the 2-5 seeds in the Eastern Conference last year. Boozer had a good game against Detroit. I think anyone could have predicted that.

Rose against those 4
25.3 v Atlanta
26 v. Boston
29 v. Miami
25 v. Orlando

At or above his season average. You guys don’t think its a problem Boozer feasts on bad teams and plays his worst against the best? Who do you think the Bulls have a better chance to meet in the playoffs Detroit, Charlotte and Washington or Miami, Orlando and Boston?

I'm not sure the quality of our opponents has any bearing on our players' minutes.

Consider how much shit people around here have given Thibs for not resting Deng and Rose.
As for Boozer sucking, I never claimed he was good against good teams, just that wrigley’s assertion that his numbers on average weren’t that much worse against good teams has some meaning.
Sure, it generalizes the hell out of the situation as a whole, but where does it end? I mean, I could say your 4 game examples up there are meaningless without the context of injury status during those games, lineup variations over the course of the season, etc. It’s a bit subjective, no?

Booz doing what Kurt did while he was here

Kurt is slow as hell but had active hands, Boozer’s hands are more active is how he’s getting those steals.

Attendance: 9,125

man, that place was more barren than a GM factory

this comment is three years too late

now, a Saab factory….

Sucks that I rarely get to watch games but based on the replays I've seen and everything I've read

I’m fine with a different guy stepping up every night. If Boozer wants to show up one night, and RIP the next etc etc … That’s a great formula for success. Of course it would be amazing to be clicking on all cylinders at once but as long as one of these guys doesn’t stay in a funk, I’m so into it.

Most teams go into a game saying, “If we can shut down ______ and _______, we’ll have a good shot at winning”

Well that really doesn’t apply to the Bulls. The defense will always be there to keep us either well ahead or in games, but then you seem to have Rose and a different guy every other night having a great night.

It’s great knowing that if RIP is off, Brewer may play well enough. Or if Boozer is off, Jo or Taj made up for it and so on ….

I understand the formula decreases in a seven game series, but we just have to hope RIP has blended in well enough at that point. Obviously yet to be seen

rose has had some really gorgeous left handed finishes around the rim so far this year.

some really inventive dribbling as well.

Just looking at the schedule

and other than these next two games in Orlando, and Atlanta, and a game in Miami, this month looks pretty easy.

Although that does overlook the way the games are crammed together. We do have a back to back to back mixed in there. But as far as opponents go, if we can go 2-1 in those tough games, we can really do dome damage record wise

Yeah and they've just begun a stretch of 11 games in 15 days

It’s gonna be rough

and we play on the road 20 times out of the first 30 right?
I think the quality of opponent can be deceiving this year.

All these games crammed in, guys getting knicked up here and there…my guess is that usual assumptions based on the quality of opponent can be tampered a bit. We will just have to wait and see.

Yeah, that's why I qualified it a bit

But like I said, that opponents don’t really strike the fear of God in you

Im worried about Rose. Hamilton and Noah too.

I really hope there aren’t any lingering injuries. Fuck the pistons for hulk-smashing all three of them. The Rose fall, landing on a funny bone…i’ve done that before. It’s not very enjoyable.

I just hope Rose will be okay. That fall gave me and I'm assuming the rest of you a mini heart attack.

I understand not wanting to sit Rose too long because of the CJ injury, but why not give Butler some burn? He can’t be that bad for 2 maybe 3 mins each half. Give the kid some experience, and let Deng BREATHE.

Thibs should learn to rest his bread and butter players

in blowouts.

I think there is still time for Thibs to evolve in his thinking as this year goes on.

My fear, however, is that he will only learn after something bad happens. Let’s just hope Derrick’s little scare yesterday might have shocked a little sense in him. I doubt it though.

one gripe

Noah needs better aggressive post moves..a couple times he got some sweet passes down low but he had no go-to move…that’s something that I wish we had a dwight or what I thought boozer would bribg (as this post mentioned..he has non either). I think the closest is asik but he’s not there yet..and its a shame b/c we could use that on the team

...Boozer has several moves.

They just lead to fade-a-ways, but he has post moves.

Finally watched the game

Lucky me where I have a job that I can watch the Bulls on League Pass at work.

I’m really impressed with Ronnie Brewer this year. He is nailing everything. Booz is also impressing me with his D this year. I think that 20 lbs has helped him as far as being quicker to help and having more energy, which helps.

do you watch the game still knowing the outcome is a loss?

just curious.

I avoid ESPN and Facebook until I get to work

That way I don’t know what the outcome is.

it's gotta suck

when idiots start texting you about the games. i have to throw my phone somewhere where i wont be able to reach it if i ever need to re-watch games spoiler free. the first game of the year i was enjoying it and then my dad spoiled the ending for me as i was watching.

one annoying thing

is i was watching on LP broadband last night. paused it to go eat dinner. when i came back and tried to put it in full screen mode it went to live and wouldn’t let me rewind, so then i had to go out of full screen mode and then rewind (but i still couldn’t watch in full screen mode without it going to live). and then even though i went back to where i was, when the game was over (i had just finished the 3rd quarter) the game stopped. like why can’t i finish watching it? WTF. luckily i was also taping it on my dvr, but i was watching it on the comp so my husband could play skyrim lol. fortunately he’s awesome and let me finish watching the game right away.

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