hopefully just a taste of what’s to come and not just a fresh young team playing an old tired one

on parker as you’ll see. the interior defense was good all around, with great help and recovery. the spurs also weren’t getting the long open look 3s they prefer. except for a short stint near the end, the bulls were making the recovery everywhere.

the offense was fine with 92 against that defense. had a few missed free throws been made, and a couple of those open salmons threes, it would’ve been a near blowout.

tyrus’ play in the third was key to a game that wasn’t really as close as the final 7 point differential. maybe parker was feeling bruised, but most of those guys (except duncan, finley and mcdyess) aren’t that old yet. and duncan showed no effects of the 2nd game in two nights. the bulls just outplayed ’em, thoroughly.

oh man, that was fun. blocked shots, fast paced, getting to every loose ball. it helped that Timmy had no help tonight, but it also shows that the Bulls have the youth and energy to give any team a game on any night. TT redeemed himself in the 2nd half. and i totally agree about the rotation. sure it won’t be this tight all year, or guys will be gassed by March. they can open it up against lesser teams and on nights where a comfortable lead will allow for starters to rest. but if this team wants to makes statements against the upper crust teams, the teams they might see in the playoffs, Vinny knows he has to man his rotation and have his best players out there.

and although Timmy had a great game, i mean, he is a future HoF-er, i thought Noah played great. aggressive and active all night.

i’m hoping its the ankle, but i do see him sometimes standing around after passing the ball off and also allowing the guy in front of him to blow right by him. you’d figure he’d either try to force the guy to one side and try to anticipate his move or at least cut him off when he makes a move.
…either that, or they want him to let the guy go by to get them into the teeth of the D, especially with Noah and TT blocking shots back there, but i never felt good about allowing penetration. it forces defenders to rotate and someone gets out of position.

GREAT first game and win. now lets show Boston a little something.

Sam Smith talked about it. Doug Collins… some other people on ESPN. It’s no longer the Bulls have money for a FA. It’s like Bulls are going after Wade. They just come out and say it now.

BE’ers already melting down over LMA’s lackluster play since his contract. Hilarious.

Oh, and Oden just missed two FTs in a row while the Blazers were down 1 with 4.6 seconds left. Meltdown city.

However, I remember being pretty excited after their opening night win last year only to see them crushed at Boston in the next game. Still, it was pretty encouraging to see them win a game against a top tier team with a less than 100% Rose and bad shooting from Salmons.

I still wanna see rose get to the line more. I know limited minutes and not pressing it hard.. but after watching the second game its redic how many free throws these stars shoot a game. I would love if Rose got 20 free throws a game as im sure we all would.

great writing. i laugh everytime i read.

Well done guys. I was genuinely happy when I saw that your squad had succeeded at battling the Spurs. Partly because of Rose, (I have him on my fantasy team ;D) partly because I want to see the Spurs lose (sorry, can’t stand them, don’t know why) and partly because I’ve been keeping an eye on Noah since his last college year.

But mostly, because I, like any other person that ever heard of basketball, have some red blood flowing somewhere. I won’t deny that, even though it sounds lame, MJ is still part of your history and he touched us all.

Anyway, I came here to wish you guys the best of luck in tonights game against “us”, the Celtics. I hope the game will be entertaining and I really do hope we could have a healthy little rivalry growing here.

I’ll be keeping an eye on you guys, your Twitter feed (@bullsblogger) and your results at NBA.com, and expect me to pop by every now and then for some random ramblings before Celtic games as well ;)

So in short: good luck, have fun and don’t you bloody dare to beat us.

………….. the Bulls played excellent team basketball with improved defense last night and I’m definitely pumped. Not having to overcome Gordon’s size and the ball movement make not resigning Gordon look pretty good. For the first time in years the Bulls appeared taller than the Spurs making it hard for them to get off easy shots. Salmons is a rock on defense. Rarely do you see him go for a pump fake. Duncan was on fire despite Noah playing him well. Ball movement definitely better without Gordon. I knew TT was going to get off to a bad start. He was way too pumped before the game. However, his 3rd period play more than compensated. I watched Aldridge when I got home and he is not head and shoulders above Tyrus. Our interior defense, led by Tyrus is a force other teams are going to have to deal with. Taj looked scared but was active on the glass. JJ did not get into the game and was trying hard to encourage others. I felt bad for him. I was sitting near the Bulls bench and there was a different feel to the way the coaching staff were working together. The players and coaches were intense, focused and appeared to be working smoothly, each knowing what to do and Vinny seemed in control of what was happening. There are two other coaches beside Vinny, Bickerstaff and Myers who seemed to focus on certain players and the players were responding to them. I’ve been on the fence with Vinny but I may be edging off to maybe we have something here. I’m not there yet but Vinny clearly seemed more confident and assertive and the leader of the staff. No complaints from me regarding the rotations. A fun night at the UC. Excellent summary – “rec”

how Vinny was managing the rotation last night. Made me feel that he is learning. I really want to see what the Bulls do tonight against Boston. The Spurs were a little off last night and the Celtics should come out with a stronger attack. They will also pound it inside on us, a good test to see how our post presence will be this season. Rose will be playing back to back games while he is still getting back into game shape as well.

didn’t someone here show numbers that he was a significantly worse 3 pt shooter off the catch and shoot a while back?
i know he had an “off night”, but everytime he was set up for an open 3, i just knew he was going to miss it. it’s weird.

“We’re standing around on shot attempts. We have to get aggressive. Don’t box out space. Get aggressive. Put your body into somebody.”

Translation: BOX OUT!

That’s what we did at a high level last night. Miller, Noah, Hinrich, Gibson, Thomas, Deng all had a man on their hip or back on the defensive glass.

Where do you get a box score with ORB%, DRB%, TOr and whatnot?

Tony Parker had zero 2nd half points, but he should have two 4 easy ones. They were layups that Tyrus took away from him with terrific hustle. They are layups Tony Parker makes all the time. That’s his game to slip in the paint and get easy ones. It’s how he finishes 5th in the NBA in points in the paint last season and shoots over 50% from the field.

Tyrus and his two blocks were screaming at Parker that you will get nothing.

Where was the crowd though? The Spurs rebounded one block and Bonner put in a floater. But the 2nd block should have put the fans on their feet in preparation for the transition bucket executed from a 5-4 advantage as Parker was still on his butt at the other end.

about how Derrick’s ankle feels today. I really hope he’s ready to go tonight.

A lot of positive things from last nights game. Very nice to see Derrick play even though he was in pain. Lu and Kirk looked great last night. Hope John can start hitting some of those shots he missed last night. The organization said the team was moving to a more defensive direction and it showed last night.

Last night I counted 5-7 jumpshots Duncan made over Noah all of them from the left.Remember that off the glass?Is there anything Noah could do or is it impossible to defend that kind of shots.I was kinda mad to watch that.

Kobe Bryant?

Sorry, wrong MJ, I know… couldn’t resist…