Open Thread #49 OVERFLOW: Chicago Bulls at Houston Rockets

The Bulls were down 7, and Vinny brings in Noc and Kirk…the white flag has been waved

Played a pretty good game yesterday.

Surprisingly this game didn’t get completely out of hand when Aaron had to play so much in the first half….but after they adjusted to just attack Aaron, then things went out of control.

VDN would say, “Why risk it?”

yes, it was bad!

Ughhh

Especially when they look like they’ve been running wind sprints. Maybe you ought to wait till you see how long Vinny rests the starters before griping. (Not to mention, the starters aren’t exactly running away with it there.)

I’m a little partial to him anyway from his playing days. He totally won me over as an announcer when the other guy was going on about Yao getting “tackled” and Clyde’s all “eh, there was a little contact, but Yao was just leaning and fell over.”

for Gray?

and Vinny still putting out these lineups which for the life of me….

We just didn’t have a good game. BG scored 20 pts, but was almost nonexistent the entire first half (and I think he played the vast majority of it), guys weren’t looking for him on offense at all…..

Derrick really wasn’t as effective as he can be…..and oddly didn’t play too much considering what we’re used to.

Mostly though Noah was in complete foul trouble and our lack of depth at the C position especially with Gooden hurt (even though Drew’s more a 4, he can play some 5 at times) really showed as Gray got a ton of minutes)…..

Just not a great game. Still though our D (Which is normally our weakest side) was pretty good for the night.

He has only played 23 minutes so far.

picky or ridiculous. one or the other.

You gotta be kidding

Nice game all around.

you’ll get the same results

played well yesterday, the team got nothing going.

Noah in foul trouble meant more Gray….1 huge strike.

Kirk played like crap for Kirk….strike 2….

BG was nonexistent in entire first half (I think at halftime Vinny wanted to get the ball to BG more, but hime being so nonexistent in the first half when the Rockets were mostly Yao less made it too late because Yao came back and suddenly the team played better).

Bulls were missing free throws. Seriously we missed 20 FT’s at least, or it seemed, most of which by normally halfway decent FT shooters.

Our offense did not look crisp at all from the start, not from Noc.

Noc played a decent game. Folks are trying to just attack Noc as a scapegoat yesterday, and citing Aaron Brooks as an example is ridiculous…..again if you watched the rotations you’d see Noc stayed on his man and Brooks was just left wide open by the guards (likely due to a Yao screen at the other end of the court). That wasn’t a forced switch with Noc, as Houston ran those plays very well to get three Bulls on the lower end of the FT, get a PF out on the opposite FT line and have Yao set a screen so that the running guards could run accross court to the opposite 3 pt line to get an easy, wide open shot. When he got that shot opp, Noc would leave his man to at least try to get a hand in his face or distract him…..with Noc would have been Tyrus (because Tyrus’s blocking abilities are more a distraction) but Noc played well yesterday.

nobody on our team will recognize that he’s just hit 3 shots in a row…somebody like Noc will shoot next

In the NBA you need help. TT has to swat that…..

But this wasn’t gonna be a win anyway

Of course, they should probably tteach him that, too.

And Tyrus played 37 minutes, so it’s not like he got benched so Noc could get in. More like with Joakim fouling out in 18 minutes Vinny had to play someone at C. Aaron wasn’t scoring tonight – Noc may be an idiot, but he did hit some baskets while he was in there.

I’m giving Vinny the benefit of the doubt on this one – I think if Joakim manages to stay in longer, Noc sees the 14-16 minutes he’s been getting the last few. Especially after that idiotic foul where he ran over the guy running to the sideline to call a timeout.

Aaron’s D is atrocious, Tyrus needs some breathers or he starts to force too much, and Thabo can’t play the 4, and Deng was playing awesome as our 3, so why stop what was working by forcing Deng out of position against a team that is pretty stacked at the 4 and 5 spots…..

It has an elegant simplicity and an uncanny accuracy.

lot of PF can shoot and im convinced TT is one of them!

CP3 vs Kirk Hinrich

that everyone’s jumping off the cliff with you?

Noc on Yao, then Ty on him for those minutes in the 4th… Mightn’t that’ve helped the cause too?

top 5 or 10

when BG hit some 3s. Set him up for one of ’em.

They just really don’t wanna admit it

But that was a play of some awful Deng defense…..

I guess it’s hard though because TMAC isn’t as quick as he used to be, so I think Deng gave him a little too much slack there.

Me too. But, addressing your question with another one: What happens when Gooden returns (this weekend?)?

At the very least, in this game for example, Vinnie could’ve used him on Yao. But does that help, really? Maybe if Gooden hits his jumpers, but they did well in the midrange with Noah and Gray screening. Does Gooden do that as well?

kirk
BG
Noce
Gooden
Gray

yummy!!!

LA are the reason but they are getting older and the window seems to be closing. Thats why I wanna see Paxson keep a younger group around Rose and then maybe add that top free agent in 10 and maybe some solid vets. So maybe the idea would be to stay young, patient and improve to where Tyrus and Noah along with Rose become a attractive team.

but I can’t see how they’ve been picked by many (or any!) the last two years. Of the big three, I only like Yao. And he’s so limited: If you think Shaq (and Gray) are slow, well…….

It seems they play better when one or more of those guys is out. I love their role guys for what they do well: Landry, Battier, Brooks, Scola. Wafer’s okay. Don’t like Raefer either, but Adelman’s a very good coach. Overall, too many players. Too many I don’t like.

I wonder if the Bulls hit their FTs @ 75%, and Vinnie uses Gray on Yao right away instead of Noc… Do we get the win but T-Mac still thinks he had a game ’cause he got a dunk?

Is never trying hard enough to trade McGrady, or trying to add a real PG. T-Mac is their best playmaker, and he hardly plays. Kirk Hinrich would be amazing for the Rockets.

To paraphrase – Ben Gordon is wonderful and can do no wrong, and if he did have a bad game it’s clearly Kirk Hinrich’s fault. Oh, and Kirk Hinrich sucks.

pay gordon the money to play one quarter?

This should be a “key to the game” for every road game. What’s the point in getting Yao out of the game if not to attack the basket?

They play that one man zone with him in there. Attack the rim when he’s out.

Kirk especially – his FT % has been way down lately.

putting Noc on Yao should never happen. Believe it or not, I would’ve liked to have seen Kirk a little more in this game.