Game Thread #15 - Bulls at NO/OKC Hornets

by Jobu on Dec 1, 2006 4:37 PM CST Comment 28 comments

[Big thanks to Jobu for doing tonight's game preview -Matt]

Tyson Chandler: Good Riddance! or The One That Got Away???

Tonight will be the first of two meetings against the New Orleans - Oklahoma City Hornets and the Bulls. The Hornets come in tonight as the better team with a record of 8-7, compared to the Bulls 5-9. The story tonight is, of course, about the Bulls' first game against former franchise cornerstone Tyson Chandler. Chandler was dealt to the Hornets last July shortly after the Bulls signed Ben Wallace. Chandler brought the Bulls PJ Brown and JR Smith who was, perhaps prematurely, dealt on to Denver for a pair of 2nd round picks.

Tyson is having a very good, if not excellent start to this year averaging 11.9 rebounds a game while (shot) putting in about 6 pts and a block a game. He's doing all this while averaging a career high 31 minutes per game. As we all know too well, Tyson's "demons" aren't so much in his head, as they are on the court wearing striped black and white shirts. Since fouling out of the first game, Tyson hasn't collected that 6th foul again this season! While this may not seem like a big deal, consider the fact that Tyson finished last season with 298 personal fouls - just three behind league leader Al Harrington.

For those outside Chicago, the primary focus of the Hornets is SuperStar Sophomore PG Chris Paul. Paul comes in averaging 17.9 ppg, 8.6 ast, 3.9 reb, and 2 steals a game. The lone offensive weak spot in his game appears to be long range shooting as he has connected on only 4 three-pointers all year. Hopefully the Bulls guards back off Paul a touch. The Bulls are catching the Hornets at an opportune time as starting forwards David West & Peja Stojakovic are likely both out of tonight's contest with injuries. Check out Hornets247.com for more of an inside scoop on their squad.

As far as the Bulls go, hopefully Ben Wallace is over "Headband-gate" and wants to show us why he's worth so much more $$$ than Tyson.

Go Bulls!

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Comments

first!

red and stacy are about to go on a killing spree here in the 4th quarter

by fireskiles on Dec 1, 2006 9:09 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

where's kirk?

did he get hurt or something?

by bullshooter on Dec 1, 2006 9:16 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

and just like that

he enters the game...

by bullshooter on Dec 1, 2006 9:16 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

foul trouble?

by fireskiles on Dec 1, 2006 9:18 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

so Thabo

played out of necessity?

by bullshooter on Dec 1, 2006 9:42 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

thought(z) before I head out

to anywhere but Bar Chicago:

Ref conspiracy theories are all true, and did I really just watch Rasual Butler almost put the Bulls away in the final seconds? Paul was getting Wade treatment out there, and it's just unseemly.

by Paxson Jackson on Dec 1, 2006 9:40 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

The refs

must have read your posts from earlier this summer about how much better he is than all the other PG's out there, especially Hinrich...

by bullshooter on Dec 1, 2006 9:43 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

The refs don't need to help

the Paxson Jackson hype-machine ;)

by Paxson Jackson on Dec 1, 2006 9:56 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

ew

by Dr0ne420 on Dec 1, 2006 10:24 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Wallace's impact,

hopefully more than his stat line would indicate.?..

by bullshooter on Dec 1, 2006 9:44 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Didn't get

to watch the game but I recorded it so I will watch it tomorrow. Glad to see they got the win. Sounds like Chapu had a good game. :)

Thabo....the accent is sweet!!

by sue369 on Dec 1, 2006 10:19 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Did Ben do ANYTHING tonight?

I didn't see the game, but did Wallace get his ass kicked by Chandler as badly as the stats would indicate?

by Big D on Dec 1, 2006 10:53 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Ben Who?

From the box score, it looks like Benny the Bull did more to help the Bulls win.

Hinrich, Deng, Wallace for All-Star 2007!!!!!

by cubbybear on Dec 2, 2006 12:02 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

No Wallace played really well

Had some nice passes. Everyone played pretty well. Sefo, Tyrus, Nocioni, Sweets. Hornets got back in it because the Bulls played the Bench at the end.

by joejoeEnglish94bulls4ever on Dec 2, 2006 2:15 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Good Riddance!

To Chandler

by joejoeEnglish94bulls4ever on Dec 2, 2006 7:07 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

didnt watch the game

so I would like somoene to verify this thought I had...

It seems like wallace got into foul toruble early, and that forced us to use sweets alot, and go smaller with the rookies?

Also, I just did some calculations. If our records hold out (on road & at home)we're on pace for 42 wins...if we win tonight its up to 44

by milesgmsu on Dec 2, 2006 7:44 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

didn't watch it (carefully either)

Sweets looked good when he was in there though.

Says here that Malik Allen was sick and didn't even attend the game. So that probably had a lot to do with Sweet's PT

by your friendly BullsBlogger on Dec 2, 2006 11:37 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

should've read 'didn't watch it (carefully) either

by your friendly BullsBlogger on Dec 2, 2006 11:37 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

it was ooogly,

but the Bulls had a decent lead most of the game, which would explain the rookies getting p.t. I could go without seeing the Duhon/Sefolosha backcourt again.

by Paxson Jackson on Dec 2, 2006 11:55 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Calculations

Just some that you can do off the top of your head... if a team is currently, say, 8-8 it will end up 41-41... if you project it out like that. That also holds true if the team is 12-12, 24-24, 40-40, or 1-1. Its actually quite easy on the math front. :) Other projections can be a bit harder to do in your head.

by tofferr on Dec 7, 2006 6:04 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Sweets

(I initially posted this as a diary comment, but given the diary itself, I suspect no one will read it, so I am posting it here too).

Sweetney made great passes out of the post last night, most of which led to open jumpers that the Bulls knocked down. The post option is a real nice alternative to the motion offense stuff, which while sometimes effective, can really bog down and lead to too much aimless dribbling and contested passes and shots.

If Sweets can get some time, I think its really going to help our offense.

B-jizzle my nizzle!

by preverbal on Dec 2, 2006 10:34 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

I just

watched the game and I thought Sweetney played well when he was in there too. Nocioni played well too. I thought the ref's did a good job of giving the Hornets the home court advantage. Good for Kirk from the bench calling carrying on Paul which gave the ref no choice but to make that call.

I thought they played well as a team last night. Hope they play well tonight.

Thabo....the accent is sweet!!

by sue369 on Dec 2, 2006 1:35 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Refs

There are few fundamental truths in this world, but one is that Jannero Pargo should never get to the line 11 times in an NBA game. :-)

by your friendly BullsBlogger on Dec 2, 2006 3:33 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

hahaha!

I'm loving this comment.

Is it just me (as a Bulls fan) or were the Hornets getting every call last night?

by Option27 on Dec 2, 2006 3:47 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

It's not just you.

Thabo....the accent is sweet!!

by sue369 on Dec 2, 2006 4:54 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Tyrus Thomas

The people in New Orleans/OKC have an interest in Tyrus Thomas too. Well mainly the New Orleanians.

http://www.nola.com/hornets/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-2/1164956406166850.xml&coll=1

Quick article about him, nothing new. Byron Scott sounds like he believes in him though.

by astroview on Dec 2, 2006 1:48 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

I Live in New Orleans

There are hoards of LSU faithful in the city, and the city was definitely cheering for the team to win the Championship. They always love to have LSU players on their teams.

Hinrich, Deng, Wallace for All-Star 2007!!!!!

by cubbybear on Dec 2, 2006 1:56 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Stats Mislead...

I finally saw the game, and stats can be very misleading. First off, all the foul trouble we had, was not really our fault. Before the tip off i saw paul walking with one of the refs, and i thought "huh, wonder if hes buttering him up" guess he was cuz man were there some horrid horrid calls on our bulls. Nocioni had taken a bunch of charges not called, sefolosha and hinrich can also be added to that list, also wallace had one or two uncalled charge takes. Nocioni WAS RED HOT, wallace did what he was supposed to though deng beat him to every rebound, not a bad thing really. Im gonna say thus far this was probably the bulls second best game of the season, they did everything they were supposed to, the way they should have. If they play like this, they can defenitly get to the playoffs (yes i thought for a second last week that they wouldnt make it). If you havent seen it yet, find some website with a torrent to it and watch it, and watch it using the chicago announcers so you can see all the bad calls the bulls got. Oh, and red kerr is awesome, he actually points out all the bad things the bulls do, which is refreshing, makes it seem like he actually knows the game rather than just being a biased announcer.

im trying hard to become the next kirk hinrich, therefore im doing nothing more than being the next chris duhon.

by piccolomair on Dec 2, 2006 2:25 PM CST reply actions 0 recs