clock menu more-arrow no yes

Filed under:

Bulls vs. Mavericks final score: Joakim Noah hurts shoulder again in trash loss

New, comments

This game was terrible, and Joakim Noah reinjured his shoulder.

By JayPatt
/ new
David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

I'm honestly not even sure what to say about this game. It was pure trash, and it was made even worse by Joakim Noah reinjuring his shoulder in the second quarter. It looked really, really bad when it happened, as he went straight to the locker room screaming expletives. The Bulls' training staff apparently couldn't make up their mind about what the injury was, but it turns out it's a dislocated shoulder, and it seems bad:

Oh yeah, the game. The Bulls lost 83-77 in an utter abomination from both teams, but Dirk Nowitzki and Deron Williams made enough big shots down the stretch to pull the game out.

The Bulls had somewhat of an excuse to struggle playing their fourth game in five nights, with a grueling overtime affair the night before. Jimmy Butler certainly looked gassed after his superhuman 53-point effort, and he coasted throughout much of the night. Still, four points on 2-of-11 shooting is just plain bad no matter how you slice it, and his teammates didn't pick up the slack enough.

Derrick Rose did play pretty well with 18 points on 8-of-18 shooting, and I was hoping this was a game where he'd take over down the stretch. But right when it looked like that would happen, he missed a few shots and got burned defensively by Williams, turning a nice game into just a so-so one.

Pau Gasol was okay, but 17 and 8 in 36 minutes doesn't really cut it with Butler not looking for his offense much of the night. A handful of those points came late when Pau finally turned up the effort, but it wasn't enough.

There's really not much else to say. The game featured Tony Snell moving back into the starting lineup over Nikola Mirotic, but both players were awful. In fact, the trio of Snell/Mirotic/McDermott shot 1-of-14 combined. E'Twaun Moore played a standard solid game, but he passed up an open three late and missed both of his three-pointers. Bobby Portis and Aaron Brooks made little impact in limited minutes.

Finally, Kirk Hinrich left the game with a quad contusion after getting knocked around in the first quarter.

While a loss here isn't inexcusable given the schedule, the fact that the Mavericks played like garbage and the Bulls still couldn't win was terribly disappointing. It's made even worse by the fact that Noah appears to be hurt pretty badly, which not only sucks for Noah but affects possible trades if the injury is bad.

But I guess there's a silver lining for yfBB:

The Bulls play the Pistons on Monday.

Loading comments...