Open Game Thread #65: Bulls vs Philadelphia 76ers

What does that mean?

Were Doomed!!

Oh sure, the bulls Need this win, and the 76ers can definetly take the loss and still come out chipper, but that doesnt change anything.

Whats that? Boylan has some extra cool plays to run tonight? The boylan factor isnt neglectable. A must win game, usually turns into a loss for this bulls team. Its the games that you expect them to lose when they show up. Huh, that sort of puts me at an ironic paradox.

That said, I will waste another night watching this team run by a clown frustrate the hell out of me.

And I'm so incredibly sick of the pancake puff pan commercial!

Then I remembered that I get Philly Comcast.

Boylan is an idiot who doesn't deserve to coach another game.

Deng can't take over the game.  It's obvious that Iggy is a better player.

Miss playoffs & earn Lottery pick.

FIRE BOYLAN.

Sign and trade Gordon and Deng if possible; if not, I'd consider letting them both walk unless they'll accept about half of what they were (reportedly) offered.

If Paxson can package the Lottery pick with Gordon or Deng (sign & trade) or Kirk or Gooden or Hughes or all of them - to move up and draft a REAL NBA point guard, or to acquire a stud veteran - DO IT!

Go into next season with a real NBA Head Coach, a legitimate 8- or 9-player rotation, and a clean slate.

Playoffs???????  (said in my best Jim Mora voice)   PLAYOFFS????  

other than that.. noah should have been in at the end... and those charge calls were bogus. after watching the bulls this season i am pretty sure the refs do not want them to win.  like ever.  the sixers made TWICE the amount of free throws we even attempted.  oh wait... that happened the last time we lost to them, too. :P

He has a special knack for creating the spark necessary to get whoever we are playing on a serious run.  

I've never seen a coach so inept at stopping the bleeding when things begin to go bad for his team.

I can't wait to hear his postgame comments.  Something tells me that as usual he will take no blame for being outcoached.

What a joke!!

It's not even fair. We're playing with a handicap. He's such an idiot.  

My opinions about Luol certainly weren't a rant.  Mental toughness is qualitative - it can't be measured nor defined.  We don't know how Luol will perform in the 7th game of a tight playoff series because the Bulls haven't been able to put themselves in that position.

I like Luol Deng, and I think we should keep him.  The Bulls would be CRAZY to let him go for nothing.  But I don't think he'll ever be 'dominant'.

As it is, Luol - like every other Bull - is rendered completely impotent by Boylan.

I'd take Stacey King at this point. At least he knows his personal(KYP Boylan!).

Usually I can come up with some reason to trick myself into caring. Even Thomas looked completely terrible today (well, completely on offense).

Noah played 21 minutes. We have 3 actual frontcourt players and he still plays 21 minutes. Ben Gordon played 13.

I mean...we're tanking? right?

The whole point of going small is not to be smaller, but quicker.  The problem for the bulls now is that none of their smaller guys are quick.  BG, Kirk, Thabo, and especially Deng and Noc are not quicker than guys even at the next position up.  The only quickness advantage the bulls have is if they bring in Noah and TT, but that could be a rebounding disadvantage.  No, what the bulls need to do is go long.  Kirk (although he had some egregious TO's tonight), Thabo, Deng, TT, and Noah is the lineup the bulls need to play to pressure the ball and force TO's, even playing a full court press.  This "small ball" stuff has got to end because it does not provide the bulls any advantage.  Hell, if Hughes feels like working on defense and only attacking the rim on offense, put him at 2 and move Thabo to the three and put Deng on the bench to do some PT for his obviously-still -bothering-him Achilles.

By the way, the game changed tonight not on Kirk's TO's (which we're dumb) but when Mo cheeks basically gave up and put in Williams.  Cheeks went "quick" and it killed the bulls when Boylan foolishly tried to match and didn't bring back any shotblocking, which would have been the only way to counter the 76ers ability to breakdown the bulls off of the dribble.  It's ironic because Miller usually plays well against the bulls, but his back was obviously holding him back tonight and the bulls exploited him.

Noah and Thabo are clearly bright spots.  I'm glad we got rid of the Corpse.  But there something this team lacks.  I'm hoping the right coach can ignite chemistry that takes us over the hump.  Mo Cheeks has done a phenomenal job with a team you could argue doesn't have as much talent as the Bulls.  Down 18 on the road they found a way to win with the youngsters.  A clone of Cheeks works for me as Bulls coach.

I know this helps our draft position and losing may be the best thing in the long run - but until the draft no words just - pain pain pain.

I hope Pax was at this game.  He just can't accept a trade that is designed to play the kids and then watch Boylan blow an 18 point lead with those very same kids watching from the bench.

I really don't think I can even find words to say that haven't already been said in this thread.

All I can say is that this was clearly the worst loss of the season. Even worse than the Wizards loss.