Credit Where Credit is Due- Bulls/Hornets

This post could easily be a blame game for the Hawks (losing in a shootout for the 2nd night in a row...) but it would be pretty similar to last night. So let's focus on the positive.

Ronnie Brewer- 22%
Play of the game: 7:45 left, tie game (80-80). CJ turns the ball over to David West, who passes to Marcus Thornton going down the middle of the lane. Ronnie chases him down and blocks the layup, leading to a CJ 3 on the other end. Bulls never trailed the rest of the game. Ronnie makes plays all the time like this and doesn't always get the recognition, but are just as important as a Derrick spinning layup. Exactly why Ronnie finished with a game-high +16.

Derrick- 20%
They showed a graphic before the game I wish I had in front of me, but it was basically showing Derrick's numbers against all the other "best PG in the NBA" contenders. And they were damn good. Derrick tonight: 23 points, 6 assists (8-8 from the line. Suck on that, Hollinger). Chris Paul: 15 points, 6 assists. Derrick isn't the kind of guy to say he has something to prove out loud, but his play certainly shows it.

Luol Deng- 10%
Only two weird shot choices for Deng tonight, and despite being 0-3 from downtown, I was ok with the rhythm of the shots. He spent most of the night attacking the basket, and the Bulls are much better on offense when he chooses to do that. Also, nice D on Ariza (although I guess Ariza is really self-guarding this year.)

Taj- 10%
Not a great line for Taj: 6 points, 2 rebounds, 5 fouls. However he was +15, and that was because the Hornets could not attack the basket when Taj was in the game. He only pulled down 2 rebounds because he was coming out all over the place to play help D and contest shots, with Asik and Kurt pulling down the boards after. Now if only he would stop getting weak foul calls...

CJ- 10%
CJ only had 7 points and a +1, but he gets the 10% for his excellent D on Chris Paul and Jarret Jack all night. His D was the main reason TT felt comfortable leaving him in from the 10 minute mark (with the game tied) until about 4:30, with the Bulls up 5. Speaking of which...

TT's faith in CJ- 8%
Thank you, TT. When we can pick up a win against a good team and Derrick not playing the entire 4th quarter, it helps the rest of the team's confidence now, and will help Derrick's legs later.

Asik- 8%
4 points, 11 boards (4 offensive) +7. Nothing spectacular, but he outplayed all of the Hornets big white guys, so that's worth something.

Boozer-7%
Booze did a good job taking it to the rim for the most part. He would be higher but he was somehow a -6 in this game, which I think had a lot to do with how weak his help defense was.

Bogans- 5%
Gotta give Bogans credit any time he scores in double figures (4th time this season, and the 1st since November). But he got lit up by Marcus Thornton, so I couldn't put him too high.

No Credit:

Kyle Korver- 1-5, -7. Luckily without Okafor the Hornets aren't a team you need to beat from the outside.
Kurt Thomas- Yeah, he had 11 boards, but he also had some bad turnovers and late rotations. I certainly hate Kurt a lot less than I did earlier, but this was not his best night.

Any time we can come back from a west-coast road trip with a winning record it's a good thing. Now let's see if we can actually beat the stupid Bobcats Tuesday.

Credit Where Credit is Due- Bulls/Heat

I have my biases, I'll admit. But I like to think that when my favorite players have bad games and people I've been absolutely killing have good games, I can give them credit. Tonight, Kurt Thomas was better than Taj Gibson, Keith Bogans was worth the minutes he played, and maybe most impressively, TT saved timeouts for when he really needed them. Let's break it down:

Ronnie Brewer- 28%

It won't show up in the stat line, just 9 points and a +8, but when the Bulls needed someone to cool DWade off, Ronnie did the job perfectly. He made Wade give the ball up on the 2nd to last possession and altered Wade's shot on the last possession. I don't know if we win this game without Ronnie stepping up in the last minute.

Derrick Rose- 25%

Of course, it helped that Derrick was MVP Derrick in the 2nd half. There's no way Mario Chalmers or Carlos Arroyo should be even close to being able to guard Derrick, but he still gets credit for having 4 or 5 "wow" moments.

Kurt Thomas- 15%

Kurt is good at another thing that I haven't given him enough credit for: flopping. Seriously, Kurt gets at least 2 or 3 calls a game via just falling down or making a little noise off of any contact. He didn't get it every time he tried tonight, but sometimes it helps in little ways, to kill off momentum or get opposing bigs in foul trouble. Yes, Kurt was slow on some rotations again tonight, but he made up for it with his physical presence and surprisingly competent offense.

Keith Bogans- 15%

The stats say Bogans only played 11 minutes, which I think is wrong because he played at least the first 6 minutes of the game and I thought the first 8 minutes of the 3rd, which were the 2 best stretches of the game, which is why Bogans was +15. He played decent defense and knocked down a couple open 3s, and if he can continue to do that, then I don't have a problem with him playing 12-15 minutes a game.

CJ Watson- 10%

CJ was nothing special tonight, but he was solid on D, hit a couple 3s, didn't turn the ball over, and brought home a +5. Can't ask for much more than that.

TT- 5%

TT in the credit side? I love two things about tonight: TT saving timeouts for a close game at the end, and recognizing that Derrick needed to play the entire 2nd half in order to win, and altering his standard rotation. Thank you TT, you will undoubtedly be killed here in the future, but tonight I'm proud of you.

Kyle Korver- 2%

Just for the clutch 3. He was 0-3 from beyond the arc before that and a part of that brutal end of the 2nd where they went from up 13 to down 5, which is why he was -13 at the end of the night. But nice shot, Korver.

No Credit-
Luol Deng- Just when I was ready to fully trust Lu again, he pulled this stinkbomb. 5-14 with 3 turnovers, awful defense, and I made as many "WTF, Deng?" comments as "Wow, Derrick" comments in the liveblog tonight. At least these have become the exception instead of the rule this season.

Carlos Boozer- Disappeared against the not great interior defense of the Heat. We're not beating the LBJ led-Heat team if Boozer doesn't play much better than he did tonight.

Taj Gibson- Taj did play decent help defense and forced a few turnovers, but he wasn't good offensively, and needs to learn the art of not getting called for every little thing. This isn't entirely his fault, for some reason the refs think everything Taj does is a foul, but it doesn't always help when he swings his arms wildly instead of going straight up.

Credit Where Credit is Due- Bulls/Suns

I introduced "The Blame Game" in the beginning of this blog's life, where we assign percentage values to everyone responsible party in a game. Credit Where Credit is Due is the flipside to that, where we assign percentage values to the heroes in important games (or in this case, "character-building, season defining wins"). The envelope please:

Derrick Rose- 25%
I love that Derrick took 33 shots, and I don't even mind that some of them were forced. I know I would be killing Ben Gordon if he had the same stat line at the end of the night (14-33 from the field, 1-5 from downtown) but the difference is many of the shots Derrick missed were good shots, where he got some separation or at least was in position to draw a foul. Ben would have drawn the same line by taking bad fall away threes over two defenders. It also doesn't feel like everyone else is taken out of the game when Derrick goes into takeover mode, but that might be a testament to the next name on the list.

Tom Thibodeau- 25%
I texted a few buddies when TT was drawing up the last play in the 2nd OT with "Derrick to the rack. Book it." Everyone in the building thought that play was a high pick and roll with Rose and Noah, which is why it worked so well. That was the kind of play VDN never had the creativity to come up with nor the guts to call. I've heard in the past that the only time an NBA head coach really has a direct effect on the game is coming out of a timeout. With VDN, 9 times out of 10 the play was " dribbles around for a little bit and jacks up a shot." Now we have a coach who calls real plays! It's very refreshing.

Joakim Noah- 20%
Maybe it's unfair, but from Joakim I've come to expect at least two great hustle plays in a close game, plus for him to get every rebound in sight. Noah gets extra credit for treating Nash like his personal ATM every time he switched on to him, and for both great passes in OT (the back-cut to Rose and the feed for Korver cutting to the basket). I love that Noah can do all these unique things most big men can't, I love that I'm never more confident in our defense and rebounding than when Noah is in the game, and I love that I'm going to Joakim Noah bobblehead night next Wednesday.

Ronnie Brewer- 10%
If you just look at the stats, you'll wonder why Brewer is getting so much credit. His final line is 1-2 for 3 points, 5 rebounds, and a -17 on the night. But the +/- is so low because he was on the court for a lot of the first quarter, but that mess wasn't really his fault, and he played amazing defense on Grant Hill and Jason Richardson in the overtimes, forcing them to take bad, contested shots. And I thought Bogans was supposed to be the defensive stopper.

James Johnson- 5%
I got a text from my buddy Smitty during the game suggesting JJ is Tyrus Thomas 2.0. I want to give him until the end a season where he has actual coaching and doesn't have him minutes jerked around (although TT has already done a little of that, and probably will see even more of it when Boozer is healthy.) But I think JJ's immaturity can be fixed. If not, the nice thing is we're deep enough for it not to be too big of a deal. Until then we'll see a lot of sequences like the end of regulation where he hits a huge 3 to cut the lead to 1, then bails Nash out with a dumb foul on the other end.

Luol Deng- 5%
I know, I know, he dropped 27, he deserves more credit, I'm a Deng hater, whatever. At the end of close game you can't miss open layups and let Hedo freaking' Turkoglu get rebounds over you.

Grant Hill- 5%
I don't fault Hill for getting beat on the back-cut by Rose. But a lot of open looks were created throughout the game by taking Hill to his left or running around screens. Hill can't keep up anymore, and the Suns are going to have a hard time being competitive this year if they need to rely on Hill as their wing defensive specialist.

Kyle Korver- 3%
I'll give Korver a little credit for hitting some shots to help bring us back in the 4th, but my god did he suck in the overtimes, and was a huge defensive liability. Any open look the Suns got was when Korver wasn't quick enough to help and recover. I know you need him on the court to spread the floor for Rose on offense, but then he needs to make his open looks.

And that shot he took on the play Derrick fouled out on was moronic. Even had it went in, it's better to run 24 seconds off the clock than take that shot. Be aware of the game situation, Korver.

Jason Richardson- 2%
Thanks for missing your second free throw and keeping the window open!

There you go, feel free to dispute my grading in the comments.