No time for a full blame game (although I have some suspects), so we'll do this bullet-point style:
-I'm really not going to kill TT for having White Mamba in for the last minute. He was obviously in for a defense/offense switch with Boozer, but the Bulls got a fast break and TT didn't want to ruin the advantage with a timeout. While I'm not sure Scal is really a defensive upgrade over Boozer in terms of guarding David West, the whole last 5 minutes were really the type of game when having a healthy Taj would have changed the game. I think having either a healthy Taj or Lu would have meant a 10 point win for the Bulls, which is a comforting thought since we're playing one of the better teams in the East.
-I love that Derrick is the type of player to pass the potential game-winning shot off to the 12th best player on the team. We picked up an L tonight, but that decision will pay off down the line, when teams have to think twice about collapsing on Derrick in situations like that.
-Joakim looked alive again. If I was doing a blame game, I think he'd be absolved. Maybe Boozer too, although there were some brutal lazy defensive plays by him down the stretch.
-Rip, CJ, and TBN were a combined 0-12 in the 4th quarter. Looking at the stats, it's amazing it was even close.
-We really need Turkish to play better than that while Taj is out. 0 points in 13 minutes tonight. While I love Scal and think I'm probably on the upper half of the scale in terms of respect for him as an NBA player, it would be nice if TT could have faith in a Asik/Noah frontcourt when Boozer needs a rest, but that's a combination you rarely see, and it's not going to be more likely with Asik putting up gooseggs.
-Ahh...Jimmy Butler. I've been leading a #freejimmybutler twitter campaign, but this is not what I had in mind. I want to see Jimmy get some significant playing time, but maybe we should start with games where one or two possessions isn't going to be the difference. Tonight it was, and some of those 2nd quarter turnovers were ugly. I still like Butler getting about 8-10 minutes a game, though.
-I wonder if TT listened to critics in not putting Derrick back in until there were 7 minutes left in the 4th, despite CJ not being able to hit water from the ocean.
-Just watched the White Mamba shot again. The worst part of the play: Scal is standing in the corner, while Rip hangs out on the short corner of the baseline, clearly trying to spread the floor for Derrick, but Scal is already in the spot he'd normally go to. Taj, had he been in, would have been right where Rip was, while Rip would have been in position to take that shot, which would, of course, been a much more ideal situation.
No comments:
Post a Comment