This post originally was going to be a blame game, at least during the third quarter. The Bulls have been making a habit of letting teams get back in games instead of turning them into blowouts. Derrick talked in his ESPN post-game interview about being a 48-minute team, and there's still obviously a little way to go to get there. However, they got the job done, and since it was so nice to see the starters (besides just Derrick and Lu) have such a big hand in it, I think they deserve a post about it.
Joakim-25%
I'm not trying to grade Joakim on his own curve, but it was nice to see Joakim have the kind of game that was commonplace last year. The trick to a good Joakim game is having him run the floor in transition, be active on the offensive glass, and be engaged in a good one-on-one matchup on the defensive end, and he was three-for-three tonight. Let's hope this is the start of a trend.
Boozer-25%
While I mentioned it in the comments the other night (which I know everyone reads), I decided to go back and find the actual stat. Quote from Matt McHale at Bulls by the Horns (via TrueHoop):
"The one troubling difference in Boozer’s game this season is where his shots are coming from. According to Hoopdata, from 2007 to 2011, Carlos averaged between 7.4 and 6.0 shot attempts at the rim. This season, that number is down to 3.1. Meanwhile, his attempts from 16-23 feet have jumped from 3.0 last season to 5.2 this season."
As my lovely wife likes to say, I'll take any shot from Carlos where he's going to the basket, and cringe when he takes his turnaround baseline fadeaways. It's always nice when he's hitting the outside shot, like tonight, but it doesn't really do the job we signed him for, which is to score inside and take pressure off of Derrick on the outside. Instead, he's basically been Kurt Thomas with less defense.
That being said, I'm giving Carlos credit tonight because he was active on the defensive end tonight, and I think did a more effective job guarding Brandon Bass than Taj and Turkish did. It helped, though, that Pierce and Rondo only decided to make him play help D for about a five minute stretch in the third.
Derrick-20%
With KG being old and slow, and Perkins not around anymore, the Celtics are suddenly ripe for the plucking at the rim, and it seemed like Derrick could get there whenever he wanted. He loses a little credit because it felt like he could have wanted to get there more.
TBN- 15%
5-7 from the field and solid defense on Ray Allen. Pretty much all you can ask out of the Baseline Ninja (although he hasn't performed a good baseline ninja move in awhile).
It's time for the question to be asked: Should Ronnie remain the starter when Rip comes back? I was against it at the beginning of the season when Judson threw it out there. I liked Ronnie's chemistry with the bench mob and thought Rip's offense would help take the pressure off Derrick to carry the starters. However, the Bulls with Ronnie starting are back to where we were last year, with opponents' starting wings not getting going early because of Ronnie and Deng's defense. TT, of course, can be stubborn at times and I'm sure will start Rip as soon as he's healthy, but I still think the question is worth asking now.
Deng- 10%
ESPN has Deng as the top performer due to his great line: 21 points, 16 boards, 2 assists, a steal and a block, but he loses some percentage points for his shot selection, especially in the first half. He was settling for the kind of weird jumpers he liked to take in the VDN era that made me annoyed with him a lot.
Fortunately this is an exception now, and it'll be a travesty if Deng doesn't make the all-star team for once. He has clearly been one of the 5 best forwards in the east, but right now he's currently at 7th, behind LeBron, Melo, STAT, KG, Bosh, and Pierce. Fan voting is, of course, stupid (hey, look, everyone ahead of Deng plays for one of three teams! And Boozer and Hedo Turkoglu are somehow 9th and 10th), but they should still pay a little attention. Deng has been better than everyone ahead of him except LeBron and maybe Melo, but it's close. I'm sure the coaches will fix this, though, if the fans don't.
TT- 5%
A very wary 5% for TT. I think the starters needed a confidence boost, so I'll give him a pass on the fact that they played a combined 192 of 240 minutes on the front end of a back-to-back, especially because Noah and Boozer clearly could use a game when their minutes were in the 30s. But please, please, please, TT, find some more time for Derrick and Lu to rest. We want them to be OK in the playoffs, too, you know.
No Credit-
Bench Mob
It's OK, they've been great all year, so they're entitled to a bad game every now and then, but just look at the Bulls' +/- numbers tonight:
Boozer +19
Deng +16
Noah +13
Brewer +15
Derrick +16
Fredo -9
Lucas -7
Taj -10
Turkish -4
Ouch. And the Celtics ain't a deep team.
While we're on the subject of the Bench Mob...I'm not a big fan of the "Scal-A-Bree-Nee" chant. It feels incredibly condescending. I know White Mamba has a good sense of humor about it, but Scalabrine isn't just goofy-looking white guy, he would be a rotation player on about half the teams in the NBA, and was killing over in Italy before the season started. The Bulls have the luxury of having a deep frontcourt, but I would feel comfortable with Scalabrine playing important minutes for the Bulls in the (knocking on wood) event that one of our four big guys gets hurt. You want to chant for someone on the bench? Let's do it for Jimmy Butler. Then maybe we can see what he can do, finally.
Free Jimmy Butler.
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