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Bulls coach Scott Skiles was pleased with the team's effort in defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers Saturday night at the United Center. After the game, he talked about shutting down LeBron James and the team's great record on their home court.
Scott Skiles on Bulls win over LeBron & Cavs
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People are asking, "When are the Bulls going to beat a real good quality team?" Well, this week, coming up at home they've got 3 quality opponents in Miami, Cleveland and Phoenix.
Miami has struggled most of the year without Shaq, but they are always a threat with Dwyane Wade in the line-up.
The Bulls had a look at Cleveland in November without much success. LeBron James is a great talent and will prove to be another test for the Bulls.
Phoenix just ended a 15-game winning streak and this game is always a popular and fun game for the fans.
There's no question that the Bulls have taken care of business since coming off that November "Circus" trip and now they will get a chance to see how they stack up against some of the real quality opponents of the NBA.
The Bulls were out in the community on Wednesday and as he has been all year, Luol Deng led the charge as they celebrated Christmas with a holiday party for youngsters in Chicago.
Luol Deng Heads Up The Holiday Effort
Tribune beat writer KC Johnson visited the WGN Bullseye show Saturday night and gave us updates on the PJ Brown situation, as well as tidbits about Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant .
KC Johnson On PJ Brown, Iverson & Kobe
Ben Gordon returned to the United Center Saturday night after the team visited New York and his favorite arena - Madison Square Garden. He talked with Wayne Larrivee about meeting up with his college teammate Emeka Okafor during Saturday's game.
Tonight is a bounce-back game for the Bulls. They feel they didn't play very well last night in New York. I think Coach Skiles was disappointed in his team's toughness and post defense. Eddy Curry had his way in the paint in the 2nd half.
So, it's a bounce-back game against a team with only 7 wins...but 6 of those 7 wins are against divisional leaders at the time they played them.
Wayne
I don't think the Bulls players are taking this team lightly. Charlotte may be an expansion team, but they have some talent that was chosen very high in the draft and that certainly has the attention of the Bulls.
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Early in the season as the Bulls were trying to put things together, they had to go on the road and face the likes of Cleveland, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, and Denver. They lost all of those games in November. The Bulls at that point in time were not the team they are today. The win over the Lakers last night was definitely a step in the right direction, even though the Lakers were without Lamar Odom. Nonetheless, the Lakers did come in with a winning record.
So the subject persists - do the Bulls have any quality wins? Certainly I would rank Tuesday night's win as one of them. The Bulls will now get the chance to measure themselves with some of the NBA's elite as there are now games on the near horizon with Cleveland, Phoenix, Detroit, and Houston all coming up in the next three weeks. We will be able to find out where the Bulls rank and how far they've come by looking at those games and believe me, they are going to be exciting.
Wayne
I don't think the balance between the long road trip and a long homestand is good, but if you want to play for the Chicago Bulls, you know that you're not gonna be in the United Center in November.
The neat thing about this year is that the Bulls came home to a record 8 games at home and were able to catch up. Their record is now 13-10, 3 games over, and they got healed with the situation the way it is.
The Bulls were able to make hay when they got back home and I like the schedule-maker who balanced it out for us.
Red
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Tribune NBA writer Sam Smith is never at a loss for words, or proposed trades, or for good gossip from around the league. Sam took a few minutes to offer his thoughts on a variety of subjects with Wayne Larrivee before Saturday night's game with Minnesota.
Wayne Larrivee with basketball writer Sam Smith of the Chicago Tribune
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The big thing that I have noticed about the Bulls in these last three games, is that they are a team that is starting to mature offensively. In the past, if they got 100 points, that was a big night. This year, the team is getting production from more than one source....Nocioni one night, Gordon off the bench, Hinrich and Deng are all in double figures and that gives them balance. This is a good thing as long as they are big enough scorers. Detroit won a title a few years ago without a "stat sheet" leading scorer like Michael Redd in Milwaukee, but the Pistons also got big games from Rip Hamilton and Chauncey Billups on a regular basis.
The Bulls may be developing that with Deng, Nocioni and Gordon, but I see the Bulls as a team whose offense is all about moving the ball and sharing the ball.
Wednesday night's game against Philadelphia should be interesting in that I think the game in Philadelphia a couple of weeks ago really opened their eyes when they saw the Sixers put up 123 points on them. The Bulls know that wasn't the way they want to play basketball and they have toughened up on the defensive end of the floor ever since.
The Bulls built up a big lead over the Wizards on Saturday thanks to a huge 2nd quarter and this time, they kept the pedal to the metal by out-scoring Washington 30-21 in the 3rd quarter. The 4th quarter was pretty much garbage time.
I thought the Bulls put together a solid and sustained effort...coming off a victory on the road in Oklahoma City the night before. It was their best 4-quarter effort of the season. We've seen glimpses of this type of effort in a good 1st half at New York and in Miami to start the season.
Tyrus Thomas had a solid effort during his time on the floor. Coach Skiles said that the hardest thing for a young player is "to let the game come to you." Prior to Saturday night, everytime he got the ball, he shot it.
What I saw, starting last week really, was a player starting to figure it out....and the result was a 9-point, 10-rebound effort in his 26 minutes on Saturday.
Wayne
As the Bulls kicked off an eight-game homestand, Bulls coach Scott Skiles talked about the team's chances to get better with some home cooking this month.
Andres Nocioni was on fire Friday night in the Bulls win over the Hornets. He spoke with Dan Roan before Saturday's game about the need for the team to jell in the upcoming homestand.
Andres Nocioni On Playing As A Team - 12/2
Going into Saturday's game against Washington, only 4 Eastern Conference teams are over .500 - and three of them are in the Bulls' division !! So the Bulls have to get things in gear pretty quickly, starting tonight on this 8-game homestand.
The team opened the season 6 and 9, including 11 road contests. That's not disastrous, but with 13 of the next 17 at home, the Bulls need to not only get above .500, but pretty WELL above .500 if they are going to compete in the Central Division.
I'd like to see Michael Sweetney get some more time on the floor. He's one of the few guys on our team who is a true post-up player. He takes up space and he's difficult to guard because he's so wide. He has a great advantage in just moving easily to the basket.
I'm not sure his conditioning is top shelf or where the coaching staff would like it to be, but he can sub for Ben Wallace when the Bulls want to play a center on offense or he can play alongside Ben...like he did last year when he had Tyson Chandler on the wing as a shot-blocker.
Red