Rob Grabowski-USA TODAY Sports
Boy this was ugly if you were a Golden State Warriors fan. Lucky for me this is a Chicago Bulls website. The Chicago Bulls basically took the ball away and played amongst themselves. This was a total team beat-down as the Bulls beat the Warriors 103-83 for their seventh win in their last eight games. After letting Stephen Curry go buck wild in Oakland, the Bulls threw him in the cellar harassing him to a season low five points on 2-10 shooting night. He wasn’t alone in that cellar either. No starter for the Warriors scored in double figures. The Bulls gain a half game on the idle Toronto Raptors for the third seed in the Leastern Conference.
The Bulls have topped the century mark in scoring for the third time in the last four games. When was the last time anyone could say that about this team? The Bulls basically put this game to bed outscoring the Golden “Plated” State Warriors 59-35 in the second and third quarters. Remember Pippen Peoples Chicago is last in the NBA in third quarter scoring. After this week, that may no longer be the case. The Bulls have improved their record to 18-2 when they score more that 96 points. To add further analysis they are now 13-1 against teams that they hold to less than 90 points. What does this tell us? If the Bulls offense can halfway catch up with the defense, the Bulls team can make a dangerous run in the playoffs. I’m not saying they can beat Indiana and Miami four times in a week, but you’d better believe it won’t be a sweep.
For the second night in a row, this was a TOTAL team effort on both sides of the court. Taj Gibson led the Bulls in scoring with 21 points. (You can cue the Welcome back Kotter music here) Welcome back Jimmy Butler! After missing a couple of games with bruised ribs, he came back to score 16 points with two rebounds, two assists, two steals and three blocks. I think his absence was very telling. He has pretty much filled Luol Deng’s responsibilities very well since the trade. Especially on the defensive end. The Atlanta Hawks backcourt had a field day the other night, Jeff Teague had 26 points, Shelvin Mack had 17 (I bet you can’t even guess what college he’s from) and Kyle Korver had 16 points. When Butler came back, he helped lock down Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson aka the “Splash Brothers”. After last night they looked like the “Damp Duo”. The biggest plus was Tony Snell could go back to the bench where he looked much more comfortable. Not to slight Snell, but the rookie looked like he was in over his head in the starting lineup, especially against the Miami Heat. Mike Dunleavy had 15 points one night after running for nine seconds short of the entire game against Atlanta. By the way, he played 36 minutes last night. Hey Mike, go to sleep man! See you in the morning. Joakim Noah scored eight points and grabbed 17 rebounds and had seven assists. Can we just Fed-Ex the Eastern Conference Player of the Week to this guy? Please! Just sayin!
We interrupt this Pippen Aint Easy recap for a Nazr Mohammed bulletin.
I’m going to save this paragraph for my man Nazr Mohammed. I basically clowned him for not scoring a basket for the last two games in my last recap. Well last night in nine minutes Nazr scored eight points and grabbed three rebounds. Not only that he shot better than 50% from the field going 4-7. Nothing personal Nazr, just business man.
This has been a Nazr Mohammed bulletin…Back to your regularly scheduled Pippen Aint Easy recap.
Ah, the Boozer report. Carlos played well in this game getting his second double-double in as many nights scoring 15 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. Granted this was against a frontline of Jermaine O’Neal who is about as old as Elton Brand the guy you played the night before… 73. David Lee just got out of the hospital after suffering from the effects of the stomach flu (get better by the way David…I know that was rough) and Andrew Bogut who PLAYS like he’s day-to-day. Get at me when you play Dallas and their frontline. But for the time being, follow the “Blues Brothers” Taj Gibson and Joakim Noah, do what they do, and you’ll be fine.
Bulls head out to Dallas on Friday. It’s not a cakewalk, the Mavericks are gaining their stride.