A Non-Violent Blame Game: Bulls-Grizzlies 1/16

How much of the flow of this game was the exact opposite of the Celtics game the other night? The Bulls came out flat and off-kilter on the offensive end, made a run to make a game of it in the 3rd quarter, then ran out of gas in the 4th. Why we were on the side of it-

TT- 40%
This is what happens when you play guys 40+ minutes a game. One of them can't play because on an injury and the other one looks like he couldn't hit water from the ocean. Deng ended with a line of 8-18 shooting, but 6 of those 8 were at the basket and most of the misses (2-9) from more than 15 feet away hit the front of the rim. He's tired. Know what would help? Not playing him for entire second halves.

After Jimmy Butler drove the length of the court for a dunk in garbage time I believe Doris Burke said "That's why they like him around here, because he can do things like that." Really? They like him around here? Then play him, just 4-6 minutes each half. I promise you it will not be the reason we lose a game, and will keep us from falling out of games like this.

Noah- 15%
I wish he had been able to keep the momentum from the weekend up, but he looked awful today. If you're not going to to help on the offensive end, Joakim, fine, but can you at least stop Marreese friggin' Speights from dropping 16 and 12 on you? That's where that -15 in 22 minutes came from.

Marc Gasol- 15%
I've only seen the Grizzlies play twice this year, the two times they've played the Bulls. In the first game he looked awful. Today, he looked like the kind of player worth 13 mil a year. If he hadn't settled the Grizzlies down when the Bench Mob went on their run, they might have fallen apart like the Hawks did. 19 points on 9-13 shooting and a game high +26

Boozer- 10%
Time for another round of "Is This What Boozer's Shot Chart Should Look Like?"


The answer, of course, is no. Especially because all of those xs off to the side are those stupid turnaround fadeaways with a hand in his face.

John Lucas III- 10%
I'm sorry, I know we love John Lucas because he's short. But the fact is the starting gap between Lucas and Mike Conley is just as big as the one between Derrick and Jeremy Pargo from the first game.
And also, TT, if CJ was capable of playing the entire 2nd half, why wasn't he capable of starting? He could have kept the game from getting out of hand.

TBN- 6%
He's been shooting so well we'll give him a pass for this one, but he had a couple ugly turnovers and just average D as well.

Deng- 4%
This would be much higher, but I blame TT more for how tired Deng looked. At least, I hope that's why Deng got torched by Rudy Gay and kept settling for outside jumpers instead of going to the basket.

Absolved:
Taj and Asik-
I think TT might need to take it one step further. It's not just playing Taj and Asik in the 4th quarter, it's putting them in when we need stops. I know I'm piling on TT today, but I really think that game might not have gotten out of hand if he had gone back to the bench mob with about three minutes left in the 2nd quarter (when Gasol and Gay were having their way at the rim).

CJ Watson- I listened to a Bullsbeat podcast over the weekend, mainly because it was the only recent all-Bulls podcast I could find, but I stopped it when he suggested Lucas should be getting some of CJ's minutes going forward. No. CJ is a legitimate NBA point guard who could play and contribute even more on a team that didn't have Derrick Rose. John Lucas is an injury back-up plan and that's it. Dropping 25 on the Wizards is nice, but today really showed the gap between the two.

OJ Mayo- 2-7 and somehow -12 in a blowout win. I did not want OJ Mayo on the Bulls, and I do not want OJ Mayo on the Bulls.

Free Jimmy Butler. Seriously TT, before more games like this happen.