Rob Grabowski-USA TODAY Sports
Do not take this statement out of context Pippen Peoples, but this recap is a waste of time. Why do I say that you ask? Well in my preview, Discipline vs. Fundamentals, I started the article with this question…Pippen Peoples are you over your LeBron being LeBeat hangover? I also warned that things were not going to get any easier against the Spurs. Since Pippen Aint Easy and the other great websites at FanSided aren’t lazy writers, I won’t just copy the preview over and add a couple of stats. I will say that I could because it went down pretty much the way I said it would. The Bulls have dropped to 1-2 in their home stand after being smoked like a pack of Kools cigarettes by the San Antonio Spurs 104-96. Please don’t let the final score fool you. It wasn’t close. It took a 30-14 run in the 4th quarter by the Bulls just to get it this close. I’m going to use a term the guys use on TNT. I hope they don’t mind but the last quarter was basically “looting in a riot”. That means a whole lot of empty calorie scoring that NEVER mattered.The Spurs have now won seven straight and ten of their last eleven games. I’ve said it once and I’ll keep right on saying it, Pippen Aint Easy is going to keep it real and tell the truth. So to break this game down in recap we are going show what happens to the Bulls “When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong!” Ready Pippen Peoples? Let’s go.
The Bulls drank the proverbial Kool-Aid.
Remember back in the day when the United Center used to be rocking, the cardboard cut outs of Joakim Noah was being run all around the arena, if you listened hard enough they were chanting Noah’s name…MVP! MVP! MVP! Oh, that was two days ago. For the past 48 hours there was a whole lot of talk about Noah’s MVP chances. The questions came out asking was he the best center in the league. Well let me tell you all what happened. The Chicago Bulls lost focus. This is what happens with a team that does not know how to win championships yet. Last night, the Bulls came out feeling themselves and got smacked upside the head, HARD. The Bulls came out slow and sluggish against a team that is kind of a big deal in the Spurs who have the best record in the league. I guess the Bulls have something to do with that. Since Chicago beat San Antonio back in January, the Spurs have won 14 of their last 17 games. The last I checked they do well on the road, yep they’re 24-6, best in the NBA. The Bulls are in a playoff run and for the last 48 hours they acted like they had just won the NBA Finals on Sunday. The Spurs beat the same Heat team a few days earlier and got on a plane like it was another day at the office. That’s bad Pippen Peoples, VERY BAD! The Bulls thinking that they are better than they are leads to blowouts and that happens “When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong!”
Taj Gibson was bad, real bad, I mean making Boozer look good bad.
Look we all have bad nights. Taj had his last night. He had one point. That’s all. If you close your eyes and see nothing, that’s what he scored from the field. Gibson went 0-5 from the field and did little to stop the offensive clinic the Spurs put on last night. The low point of Taj’s night was when he missed a dunk on the break and the ball landed in the third row. Let me tell you this, when Jimmer Fredette outscores you five points to one. You know your game is malodorous and that happens “When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong!”
The Chicago Bulls need to stop depending on their defense to bail them out.
I don’t make statements based on the regular season because in the Leastern conference a lot of the teams stink. In the playoffs, the teams are better and they have time to prepare for what you are bringing to the table, then these teams go and come up with a strategy. The Bulls are notorious slow starters. Last night, they didn’t start until about the 4th quarter. How do you get this far in the season with a third seed on the line and fall in a 38-14 hole in the 1st quarter? After you figure that out explain the 61-33 debacle going into halftime. Some nights the defense will not be there and last night was a PRIME example. The Spurs shot 51% and hit 12-21 from the land of three. Outside of DJ Augustin and Jimmy Butler who shot well, the rest of the team left them out in the desert with no shade or lemonade. When you depend on your defense to bail you out and it’s not there this team can’t win ball games and that happens “When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong!”
Quick guards make Kirk Hinrich look real bad…almost as bad as Taj Gibson looked last night.
Tony Parker scored 20 points and had nine assists. You say so. Here’s the problem, it was in 25 minutes! That’s half a game. Did you see how he did it? He looked like he was out on a leisurely stroll while making Kirk Hinrich look like a broke down “Billy Hoyle” from the ”White Men Can’t Jump” movie. By the way, Hinrich scored three points on 1-9 shooting. When you can’t put the ball in the basket and let the opposing point guard do whatever he wants, you are definitely part of the reason “When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong!”
The Spurs demolished the Bulls even though three of the starters gave little to nothing.
Tim Duncan scored four points. Tiago Splitter and Danny Green scored the same amount as all of you reading this recap right now. Despite all of that the Bulls got run out of the United Center. The Bulls were embarrassed basically by the bench led by Manu Ginobli’s 22 points on 9-11 shooting. I’m trying to figure out if the Bulls thought he was in a rhythm. Was is before or after he shot 4-5 from the land of plenty. He did all of this in 21 minutes. Marco Bellinelli came back to Chicago and dropped 10 points on them as well. When the starting line-up stinks up the joint and the Bulls still get hammered at home, it’s a prime example of “When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong!”
Ah, the Boozer Report. We can all look at the score and can figure out the guy didn’t play a lick of defense. Let’s recap the score at the end of the 1st quarter 38-14. Odds are good he played little defense then. Let’s check the halftime score, 61-33. Let’s move on. Carlos Boozer scored eight points and five rebounds. Hey Carlos, don’t you think you can give more to your team? Your sure gave to the Spurs turning the ball over a team leading five times. You know there’s a rant coming on the website right?
Oh things don’t get any easier Pippen Peoples. The Houston Rockets come in on Thursday. The Thunder come to town a couple of games later. I hope that hangover will be gone by then.