I heard alot of boos for Ben Gordon but almost as many people asking why the boos? I heard some rumblings of it being because he left for more money, which might make sense in this anti-capitalist state of mind we find the mass public in, but that is not why I was booing BG.
The bottom line is the man was a disease for the Chicago Bulls. It really was amazing to watch Gordon and Salmons on the court and just compare the two. Now i know they were not traded for one another, but essentially Salmons signaled the end for Ben in Chicago.
Ben Gordon played his typical game tonight. Sure, he had 18 points, but on 6-16 shooting. Many of these shots were off-balance and after a long series of dribbling.
He was 2-8 from downtown and consistently threw up 3s early in the shot clock. It looked like he didnt have teammates out there and the 0 assists back it up.
He committed 5 fouls, most of which were just down right silly fouls to begin with. Now I understand the man wasn't 100%, and if he was, he just wasn't in game shape his first night back. But if he knew this was the case, why lead your team in shots?
Now the Bulls did not play their best overall game, and I'm not sure they have since opening night. But there were stretches tonight when the team looked good enough to make it out of the first round. At times the energy was very high and the crowd reciprocated. Most of the excitement came on 2 seperate Brad Miller to Derrick Rose alley-oops. Both seemingly on set plays and both executed to perfection. Rose was good with 19-4-6 but did get a little sloppy with the ball in transition from time to time and had 5 TOs.
The story of the night had to be John Salmons. He played stellar defense, including his late steal which lead to a give and go with Deng. He hit clutch shots for the second night in a row. But most importantly, these shots came on either rhythym shots, or by cutting/driving to the basket. Salmons was on the attack all night.
A critical piece to letting Ben walk was to ensure Luol Deng would be back to normal this year, and hopefully even beyond. Luol being steady at 3 allows the Bulls to move Salmons back to the 2 and upgrade from a 6'3 body to a 6'6 man. Deng in the 3 stands a long 6'9 so the Bulls can now play big with Miller and Noah helping in the post. Deng so far has been brilliant. Sure he's had his off nights but they happen, the nice part about this year is they've been fewer and far between.
Deng was an animal early attacking the basket. He had the recognition to take Gordon into the post each time that mismatch ocurred and it worked early on. Deng finished with 14 and though the percentages were down he took decent shots. He added 8 boards but more importantly 4 off the offensive glass. It was nice to see him crashing the boards and banging around with the big guys.
Brad Miller and Joakim Noah just did what they do combining for 23-21-11. Their interior and high post passing may have won them the game as they continually hit players in rhythym increasing the chances of a made basket. If the Bulls Bigs can keep this up, it will be a nice change having big men who can get the job done offensively. Tyrus Thomas needs to be able to come back strong and productive to help out the duo as they 2 combined for 76 minutes...
The Bulls need to learn from this game and carry a little of the momentum into Cleveland where they've already won once this year. Big Bad Brad has been great at stopping the Shaqtus and Deng matches up nicely on LeBron. The Bulls need to keep turnovers to minimum and not give up 2nd chance points or easy buckets. If they play within themselves, they match up very well against these Cavs. Back to back division wins would be a great way to erase a dismal west coast trip from the memory especially in the process of getting healthy.
I would like to see more tick for James Johnson. The Bulls short rotation played a ton of minutes tonight and could probably afford to save the legs with back-to-backs on friday and saturday. Johnson was one of the lone bright spots against Utah dropping 10 and 5 in limited minutes on good percentages with only 1 TO. We have not seen him on the court since.
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