Boxing Day Blame Game: Bulls-Warriors 12/26

I've had to talk multiple other Bulls fans off a ledge tonight, so I'll just say it here to everyone: Wait until we've played some freaking home games before declaring the Bulls the worst team to ever play basketball. One thing you're going to see a lot of this season is ugly, turnover-filled games. Hopefully going forward the Bulls will be on the other side of these games, but every now and then, the bar eats you (like, for example, in Golden State last year.)

Blame time:
Derrick- 30%
We're not going to win a lot of games when Derrick goes 4-17 for the field. More importantly (and more worrying), I think we're going to see a lot of teams this year follow the Warriors defensive blueprint of this game, which is to collapse everyone when Derrick drives, and make him finish over 3 people, kick it out, or pull up and shoot. For some reason Derrick didn't do a lot of option 3, but it didn't help that Derrick was 1-8 from beyond the arc. That's not going to free up a lot of driving lanes.

Mark Jackson and Monta Ellis- 20%
Mark Jackson was never known as an offensive mastermind, so I was expecting the Warriors' game plan to be "Monta Ellis dribbles around and shoots, Stephen Curry dribbles around as shoots, repeat as necessary." I was aggravatingly surprised by how many creative screen-and-rolls and backcuts were in the Warriors playbook, and how effectively they were run with David Lee in the middle and Dorell Wright keeping Deng honest on the perimeter.

And when the Bulls finally woke up and starting playing their A defense in the 4th quarter, Ellis did what Kobe couldn't last night and made big shots to kill the Bulls' momentum. That's the kind of thing the Warriors and Ellis do sometimes.

Carlos Boozer- 20%
When TT tries to tell me Boozer plays underrated defense (as he did this past offseason), I'm pointing to the play at 7:15 of the 2nd quarter as exhibit A in my rebuttal. Ellis gets by Derrick in the open court, and Boozer, despite being in perfect position to stop the ball and let Derrick recover, just sort of watches Ellis go by. At some point after it was too late it looks like Boozer thinks to himself, "oh, I'm supposed to help here", and springs into action. Thanks, Boozer.

And his non-help defense on David Lee left a lot to be desired, too. Last night Boozer didn't hurt us defensively and helped offensively. Tonight he didn't help on either end.
Rip Hamilton- 10%
The best we can hope for from Rip is what we saw in the 2nd preseason game against Indiana, where he was opening up shots for everyone, scoring in transition, and knocking down open jumpers. The worst case scenario? That was tonight, when he was Boozer 2.0. Rip was 5-12, but some of those 7 misses were wide open, and he just got absolutely torched by Monta when he was on him. You can't be a guy who's defensive liability and disappears on offense, Rip. We already have one of those.

TT- 5%
I very rarely felt like TT was outcoached last year, but he was tonight. TT is not dumb, he knows the right thing to do (switch to Deng on Kobe last night, bring in Taj to help protect the rim tonight), but it's taking him way too long to pull the trigger. I have no idea why that is.

On the flip side, I've always loved how if the bench mob takes a game that looks out of reach and makes it interesting, he leaves them in to finish. Kudos for that, TT.

Baseline Ninja- 3%
Ronnie, it makes it sooooo hard for me to defend you as a viable shooting guard on a championship team when you can't make shot to save your life, even from the free throw line. He had a game worst -16, but the D wasn't bad, Ellis just made tough shots over him.

Turkish D- 2%
Last night's rebound rate was 8 boards in 20 minutes. I like that. Tonight's rebound rate? 0 boards in 10 minutes. That's...not OK.

Absolved:
CJ Watson
3-10, yes, but he changed the momentum and the energy of the game when he came in. Tom tried to convince me the Bulls need what Bill Simmons calls an "irrational confidence guy". I think CJ fits the description.

Fredo
Just when you think we have him figured out, the Bulls defense actually improved with Korver on the floor in the 4th quarter (a lot of that is because he came in at the same time as Taj, but Kyle did his part and knocked some 3s down, which is all we can ask of him.)

Luol Deng
Lu continues to be our most consistent player, keeping us in the game in the 3rd quarter. Something I want to see from TT going forward: don't be afraid to switch Deng onto a smaller guard when they're hot. Deng might have made some of those shots Ellis hit a lot harder, and I think Rip and TBN could have handled Dorell Wright if he tried to post them up.

Think of this opening trip like the circus trip, people. If we come out of it .500 going home, we'll be OK. If you feel anxious, consult the Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy advice at the top of the post. Thank you and enjoy the flight.