Perspective From Oracle Arena

I just got home from Oracle Arena, I'm bitter, and I need to vent. Like I said in my preview today, I went to the game. Not a happy man am I.

I'm not sure how clear it was on television, but Rose looked positively lost in the first half. To begin with, he literally couldn't hold onto the ball- it's like his palms were sweaty or something. Multiple times he would just be dribbling and lose the ball. His drives to the basket were easily cut off by shitty perimeter defenders, and he was not at all aggressive. In the second half he seemed to get his handle back, but for the first time this year I saw him completely lose his confidence. There was one possession in the fourth quarter where Boozer passed out of a double team (one of the few times he did, but I'll get to that) and Rose had the ball at the 3-point line with 4 feet to spare between him and his defender, and didn't shoot or drive. Instead, he passed it along the line, leading to a contested mid-range jumper.I honestly haven't ever seen him play so tentatively.

When I saw the box score I was shocked at how good a game it looked like Boozer had. From where I was sitting, he was the main reason for our stagnant offense. He wasn't getting anything out of the post- instead he would pound and pound the ball, looking for the post move or the jumper even against a double team. Even when it worked it iced the rest of the team out of the offense.

Deng was, as always, quiet. I thought from watching it that he had done better from 3 than 3-8, but he put up his normal numbers in his normal way. It was at the top and bottom that the team fell apart, not at the middle.

Which brings me to CJ Watson, who for me is absolutely the bottom of the Bulls at this point. Maybe it's because I missed the Denver game, but I have never seen this guy do anything that helps the Bulls. The Rose-Watson backcourt at the end of the game was hideous, with Watson thinking it was his job to singlehandedly get back thedeficit. Unfortunately, his attempt was driven by long jumpers and contested runners, neither of which I've ever seen him actually complete. Honestly? I'd rather have had Bogans out there.

I don't want to make it seem like we just shot ourselves in the foot- the Warriors had a great game plan. They packed the paint with bodies and dared us to beat them with jumpers. On the other side, we laid out a red carpet to the paint- even when they weren't scoring, Ellis, Curry, Wright and Lee were absolutely living in the paint.

Obviously the two farcical plays were Brewer missing the dunk (he didn't do anything out there either) and Korver and Boozer running into each other to cause a turnover. The Korver/Boozer thing was just embarrassing, but the Brewer dunk was especially humiliating to me because I leapt out of my seat and yelled "RONNIE!" as he was running down the court, only to be drowned out violently by all of the Warriors fans cheering a missed dunk.

At the end, I honestly thought we had a chance to come back, if Rose could show up like he usually does. He just never did.

I was sitting right in front of media row, and Ric Bucher was right behind me. At the end, I turned and asked, "Mr. Bucher, what the hell happened to our offense?"

He said, "Booz doesn't play well against length, and he was ball-stopping. He looked like he was trying to prove a point."

I agree with him, for the most part. The last thing I said to him was, "We should've had this one."

This one stings. This one stings a lot.