Grizzlies 105, Bulls 96: Life After Noah

But that was expected.

IMO, there were two other big reasons we lost which weren’t expected.

First, Derrick Rose couldn’t buy a call. He finished the game with 2 FTAs, when he easily could have 8-10. If he got half the respect that the Kobes and LeBrons got…. Oh well, hopefully that’ll change next year when things truly matter.

Second, other than a flashy reverse dunk from JJ (who got only 3:31 of playing time after playing reasonably well against ATL, sigh) and a nice little 7-foot jump hook from Richard (he can do something on offense, who knew?), the Bulls got zero production from their bench offensively. And considering that our bench players are primarily offensive-minded guys, that was inexcusable. Memphis is one of the only teams in the league with a worse bench than ours, and we failed to take advantage of that. Murray was downright awful. Hinrich shot poorly, but at least he managed to get a few assists, and he was active defensively with 4 steals and 2 blocks. Murray, on the other hand, showed why Charlotte wasn’t too bent over losing him. If Kirk’s out for any length of time, the Bulls might be truly unwatchable with Murray starting at the 2 and Pargo as the 3rd guard.

One last thing, Deng did a fantastic job on Gay defensively. Deng was clearly the superior player tonight. Just something to note for the guys who are suggesting we try to sign Gay and trade Deng this summer.

They have to get their shit together. Part of it was just Z-Bo destroying the Bulls bigs but you have to come to the game focused to play. I can think of one player who really hurt the Bulls tonight, hurt or not you have to pay better than that. This is about to be 4 losses in a row. They could be knocked by Monday.

toronto will be back humming when bosh returns. basically, the bulls have to hope nazr muhammed and chandler stay hurt and that gerald wallace and jackson play like theyve logged too many minutes this year, otherwise i dont see how the bulls make the playoffs.

but he was actually 6-10 on close shots. its his 3-11 on jumpers that really hurt his offense tonight. but the idea (take half your shots close to the basket) was a good one. and of his jumpers only 4 were from 17+ feet. 17 shots from 15 feet and in is going to be successful more often than not for him. he was probably due for a night like this anyways, since its pretty hard for a lone offensive threat (and a perimeter player and a PG no less) to keep up 23 points a game on 55% shooting.

you combined hinrich’s 5-13 with murray’s 1-7 shooting to call them both “abysmal.” 5-13 is bad, but not terrible, and Kurt also had 4 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocks. You can’t call that abysmal. It’s really the bench that failed us today, along with the absence of Noah.

I mean he is a 20/10 waiting to happen…and Memphis is losing money. Perhaps he could be the Bulls 2010 target in a sign and trade if they do not get Lebron, Bosh or Wade…

steamy pile this morning. This is why I get bothered when he lauds the chemistry or players getting along when they do well, he then paints himself into a corner and has to pick out those things when they lose. At least it’s consistent.

It’s way more than that. They aren’t playing so much poorly as indifferently, though more in stretches than the entire game. They’ll have great runs, but then settle for jumpers and a lack of body or ball movement.

It also too often seems a funereal atmosphere among the players, little emotion except for several whom seem comfortable with one foot out the door.

Where the hell is he seeing this? They can’t score because they have a poorly planned and executed offense, like they’ve had all season. Worse now without the (ugly yet effective) game of Noah.

I thought VDN actually did a good job in the press conference explaining how them losing a lead isn’t some kind of focus or effort problem, it’s because they have to rely on jump shots and they’re not particularly good at them.

You do not want to play Zach Randolph in a contract year. Any other year hes got one foot on the court and one out the door on the way to the strip club.

What would a Rose/Evan Turner backcourt look like?

I didn’t get to see the whole game, but were Derrick’s drives and lack of calls on attempts to attack Randolph?

we lose to the Grizzlies. THE GRIZZLIES!!

lol at some of the Z-Bo comments but he’s had a good time of it since leaving NY. But well said on this piece, the loss of Noah will continue to be a factor

but can anybody tell me what was going on in the highlights with a bunch of kids doing some kind of coordinated cheer or something? They showed it on NBA TV and just kind of glossed over it but it looked like a college crowd.

BTW, Life after Noah sucks…