Open Game Thread #26: Bulls at San Antonio Spurs

I'm not looking for anything different tonight. Hopefully they prove me wrong.

My god, he comes in and on 3 straight posessions he uses up twelve seconds of clock each time. Luckily one of those resulted in a Duh bail-out 3-pointer.

And Noc had his fire&passion drives blocked twice already.

ugh ugh ugh.

I wonder if Myers is just giving someone the finger.

Especially the o-fer version of Noc.

Matt Bonner with 1 shot, 3 points, and 3 rebounds. He rules so much :)

he's been out there soooooooo long.

Kirk Hinrich D-

Terrible defense on Tony Parker. Tony is a future Hall of famer, but his scoring burst put the Bulls in a hole where they never recovered from. Offensively a non-factor.

Ben Gordon C

Showed signs of offensive life, but wasn't able to sustain his momentum.

Luol Deng C-

Missed a lot of close shots and disappeared when they needed him most.

Ben Wallace C

Played pretty good defense on Duncan.

Joe Smith C

Showed some offensive life but ran out of gas.

Nocioni D-

Chucked till he could chuck no more, unfortunately ice cold.

Duhon C

Played alright, can't fault him for being forced to play with AG.

Noah/Thomas/Thabo ND

So the Bulls played their starters pretty much the entire game so they can remain competitive yet still got blown out? Isn't this why Skiles got fired?

Maybe take my jersey off too for good measure.

I believe this duty has been Boylan's responsible.  And the organization's half hearted attempt to get P.J Brown, and Ben Wallace, Joe Smith to help teach the young guys to take over their minutes in the rotation.  

If Paxson doesn't give Boylan his pink slip today, then Paxson should give himelf "his" at the end of the season.

Obviously, when Tyrus, or Noah, or Thabo plays the right way, they are effective and even game changers.  But until they decide to play that way the majority of the time, more minutes isn't going to translate into wins.

The Spurs JV team (when both Parker and Duncan weren't on the floor) took the lead at the beginning of the 2nd quarter and never let us get closer. Duncan had an off night, so Pop pulled him with no hesitation.

Players have off nights. Noc had an off night ... so pull him before he does more damage. Hinrich had that low-confidence level stretch again ... so pull him and play Duhon, who was playing well and should've gotten a chance to defend Parker. What was Griffin doing in a close game early ... there has to be a better combination possible when Hinrich/Gordon have to sit. And does the coaching staff know that Joe Smith loses his legs if he stays in too long?

Of course hindsight is 20/20, but aren't some of those things pretty obvious to anyone following the Bulls? It's not Pete's fault that he was thrown into this, but you have to wonder if there is anyone out there who can coach our players.