The Blame Game: Bulls-Magic

What a disappointment. First Sam and I get there an hour early, but are still too late for the Joakim Noah bobblehead giveaway, then the Bulls come out and gave easily their worst effort of the year so far. Let's see where the blame lies, shall we?

Joakim Noah- 50%

Joakim's bobblehead ended up with as many rebounds as he did. This is the first time Joakim's ever ended up without a board when he's played more than 7 minutes (he played 26). The Magic played a very similar style of offense as they did in the 2009 playoffs, where they basically dumped it in to Dwight Howard, and if the double team came, they kicked it out to the shooters. It worked against Cleveland, who kept falling for the trap and leaving Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu open. It didn't against the Lakers, who left Pau Gasol alone on Howard and made him try to beat them. He couldn't. Tonight, unfortunately, Joakim was no Gasol. Even though Howard didn't put up a very impressive line (5-12 for 13 points and 12 boards), it was obvious the Bulls were afraid of Howard being left alone with Noah, which led to the Magic being 10-21 from beyond the arc (a few of those were contested Jameer Nelson 3s, but most were the result of late rotation on the collapse.) I expect more from Noah at this point. If you're going to be the heart and soul of the team, when you don't bring it, almost nobody is bringing it.

Anyone assigned to guard Vince Carter- 25%
Mainly Keith Bogans and Kyle Korver, a little Ronnie Brewer, although I think Brewer was mainly matched up with Pietrus or Richardson. Vince Carter looked like the 2000 version tonight, which he really shouldn't against a good defensive team. Some of those baskets I blame on Noah (the 2nd and 3rd buckets of the game for the Magic were both easy put backs on boards in front of Noah, I believe), but Carter was also getting to the rim whenever he wanted. The 2010 version of Vinsanity shouldn't be able to do that, even against Kyle Korver.

TT- 10%
Speaking of which, why was Korver spending so much time guarding Vince? He didn't have his shot tonight (2-5 from the field, -25 on the night) yet he played the second most minutes behind Derrick. Couldn't JJ have gotten some minutes in the first half? He came in and brought some great energy with a couple of nice blocks and hustle plays at the end of the 3rd quarter, once the game was already decided. (Being JJ, he then undermined himself with a dumb 3, dumb foul, and a missed dunk from too far away when he could have just layed it up, but he still at least looked like he came to play tonight.)

Whoever decided Carlos Boozer was ready to play- 10%
God, I hope it's just that Boozer isn't 100% yet, and that's not what we're paying 14.4 mil a year for. Too slow on the defensive rotations, and he didn't have any type of post moves, not on Howard, Lewis or even Brandon Bass (who, by the way, was a beast tonight). All Boozer's points came on jump shots, which while nice, doesn't really give him a reason to get minutes over Taj Gibson, especially since Taj is a much better defender. If Carlos is 100%...we might have signed the wrong Jazz power forward.

Derrick Rose- 5%
Two reasons for Derrick being here
1. Jameer Nelson abused him at the defensive end. I know Derrick's defense isn't his strong suit, but if we do happen to run into the Magic in the playoffs, they could exploit that matchup all day.
2. The tried-and-true method to beat the Magic is get Dwight Howard in foul trouble. But I can think of very few times Derrick went to the rim and tried to draw a foul on Howard. That should have been our offense for most of the first half, but I don't think Dwight even picked up a foul until the very end of the half.

Absolved-
Taj Gibson- The Bulls were much better defensively when Taj was on the court. He was a -11, but when you by 29, everyone's +/- is ugly. I wish there was a +/- for rebounding, because I bet Taj was the only Bull anywhere near the positives there.
Luol Deng- Lu was 2-8 from the field, and late on a few rotations to get back to Lewis, but I give him credit for at least shedding the soft label for one night and being the only player to attack the basket.
JJ- Like I said above, the complexion of the game changed a lot for the better when JJ came in, then he showed why he didn't play until garbage time with some bonehead plays. I have high hopes for JJ, though, as soon as he gets the mental mistakes out of his system, we could have even more depth on the wing, plus another guy that can guard a Lewis-type big wing.

Let's put this one behind us and make a statement against the other behemoth in the East right now, Boston on Friday night.