David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
I have one question? Can we bottle this game up and save it for another day? Can we record it and burn it to DVD? The Chicago Bulls might have had one of their most dominant games in recent memory last night. I’m sure the Philadelphia 76ers will definitely co-sign that statement. The Bulls basically ran the 76ers out of the United Center last night, clobbering them 103-78. This was not even close. I am not going to waste time even talking in detail about the Sixers performance. Let’s concentrate on the Bulls dominance shall we? We might not see something like this again for a while. The Bulls were led by the frontline of Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer who took the Sixers frontline of Thaddeus Young, Evan Turner and Spencer Hawes to the shed. Noah scored 21 points and grabbed 16 rebounds. Carlos Boozer followed his lead with 15 points and 13 rebounds. But the player of the night was DJ Augustin who is trying to get Gar Forman the “Executive of the Year” award this year. He scored 19 points and had 8 assists off the bench. As a team, the Bulls had 27 assists on 40 field goals. This just in to Pippen Ain’t Easy…that’s pretty good.
If you have not been watching the Bulls in-depth this year, you would be shocked that this team is under .500 based on last night’s performance. This team has been transformed with the signing of DJ Augustin. Since his arrival, the Bulls are 11-8 and have won seven of their last nine (For some reason these guys can’t beat the Wizards!) He basically sent the United Center in an uproar with a cross court pass to Jimmy Butler for a slam dunk and hitting Joakim Noah in transition with a two hand pass for a safety dunk. What does this tell us Pippen Peoples? The Bulls are using some of that athletic ability to get easy baskets. Augustin is six feet with elevator shoes, there is no need to play a slow grind it out game with this guy in your lineup. In the second quarter alone, DJ had nine points and seven assists to put things away for the Bulls early. To take things one step further, he combined with Joakim Noah to hit eight of ten shots to outscore the Sixers 17-12. If you have time, read the feature on DJ Augustin, then send your comments to our Facebook page Pippen Ain’t Easy. We want to hear from you.
While we are discussing Mr. Noah, let’s go into the impact that he had on this game. He came out of the gate aggressive and looked for his offense. Sometimes it makes no sense to watch him render centers like Spencer Hawes useless like he did last night, after shooting only five times against the Wizards in a loss the night before. Joakim Noah has to score for the Bulls to be effective. He does not have to put up 20 points a night, but he does have to make opposing centers halfway pay attention to him on the offensive end. This team has to have all hands on deck when it comes to scoring. That means Joakim, SHOOT THE BALL! I’ve said this time and time again, when Carlos Boozer is aggressive, the Bulls usually win. The 15 points is nice but the 13 rebounds are important. He had four on the offensive end! That means more offensive possessions to wear down the defense. These two led the Bulls to a whopping 41-26 edge on the boards. Incredible work.
When you do things like this on the offensive end, sometimes it demoralizes your opponent. Philly missed their first 11 three pointers to finish shooting an anemic 10.5% for the game. They shot 35% from the field total and had 17 turnovers. The Bulls held the Sixers to the lowest scoring total of the season with 78. Philly was led by Thaddeus Young with 12 points but he shot 6-17 from the field. Rookie Michael Carter-Williams scored 10 points but he couldn’t hit the side of a barn if he was leaning up against it, shooting 5-22 from the field.
Next up is the Los Angeles Lakers. It’s a winnable game considering the Lakers are heading for the lottery for the first time since the early nineties. Bulls finally get to .500 in my opinion.