-Nice to see a good game from Boozer, but it was kind of a perfect storm of a matchup for him. Chuck Hayes is strong, but not long enough to do anything about Boozer's jump shot, and certainly can't make him pay on the offensive end. There aren't a lot of other teams in the NBA that have that kind of situation for Boozer to take advantage of (although the Bobcats and Boris Diaw jump immediately to mind), so I think we might want to wait a few games before letting Boozer out of the doghouse.
-TBN, thank you. When you're hitting jumpers and running the floor in transition, there are very few second units that can keep up with the Bench Mob. Stacey, please stop trying to shove "Chicago's Finest Brew" down our throats. He's the Baseline Ninja, as he showed on that play where Derrick broke Jimmer's ankles.
-Jimmer, I'm sorry for saying you can't win the Rookie of the Year award. The Kings truly are a disaster, and if they're going to play like a pickup team that never plays together (and doesn't like each other) all year, there's no reason you can't score enough to win this award.
-Let's talk about the Kings for a second. This game actually worried me more than the Warriors game, because it felt like we should have won that game by 30. We won by 10, and it was helped by the Kings shooting 59% from the free throw line. If they even shoot 78% (27-34), it's a 1-possession game. The Kings have a lot of scorers, yes, but they're terrible defensively and have no decent passers. From the "tweets that sum everything up" file, here's John Hollinger:
But the Kings still managed to keep it close. And the reason for that, worryingly, is that the Bulls were not good defensively. After 3 games, the Bulls are 11th in the league in points against. That number is deceiving, though, because the Bulls play at one of the slower paces in the league. Right now they're 23rd in opponents field goal percentage, and 18th in defensive efficiency. I realize it's early, and we've played some good offensive teams, but...it just looks like teams are scoring easier on the Bulls this year. And the reason for that is...
-The Bulls are going to miss Keith Bogans. DON'T LAUGH. Hear me out. It's hard to be a good defensive team when only 2 of your 5 starters are good at defense (Derrick improved, but he's still at best average.) Last year, if the Bulls starters didn't give the Bench Mob a lead, it was usually because a big man was taking advantage of Boozer. It was very rarely because a wing got hot early, because Deng and Bogans did a great job locking them down. It's a nice psychological advantage to take high scoring wings out of a game early, and even when they Bench Mob did come in, having Ronnie guard you is no better than Bogans. The only weak defensive link was Korver, and when you only have one weak link it's easier to hide them.
Now? Through three games, there have been at least 3 stretches where a wing (Kobe, Ellis, Marcus Thornton) have gotten off on Rip. Which leads to the dilemma, do you switch Deng onto the other wing and risk the small forward posting Rip up? Or do you hope Rip can step up to the challenge and get some stops. Or do you just bring in Brewer right away? All of these are not ideal options, especially if the other team has two great scoring wings (like a certain team-that-will-not-be-named.)
I have been going back and forth with one Will Taplin about this for awhile now, but there is one point I'm willing to concede to him: Rip Hamilton can not guard D Wade. Which sort of defeats the purpose of acquiring him, if we're going to have to play Ronnie 40 minutes a game against them. Either that or Rip needs to outscore Wade, which means he needs to shoot better. Here's to hoping that happens soon.
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