Bulls Not OK In Oklahoma City: Durant Plays Jordan and Rose Falls in The Fourth
Last night was the Bulls' season opener, a date that I have been looking forward to since April 27—when the Bulls lost in the playoffs to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
However this Bulls team is almost completely different team now with eight new players.
There was a lot of good last night. The play of Derrick Rose in the first three quarters was fantastic. Through three quarters, Rose put up 22 points on 10-21 shooting from the field. Joakim Noah ended up with 18 points and 19 rebounds. Taj Gibson had a fantastic night with 16 points and 11 rebounds, and the Bulls shot a higher field goal percentage and had more rebounds than the Thunder.
Now to the bad. Derrick Rose just looked absolutely awful in the fourth quarter. He shot merely 2-10 in the fourth quarter, and commited both of his turnovers. As well, his shooting looked bad throughout the whole game. Looking back at his shooting percentage, he shot 4-22 on jumpers. I might have been off on the counting but his shot did not look good throughout.
As well, Luol Deng’s play came back down to earth. After an absolutely awesome preseason, Deng shot only 5-13 and 1-4 from three-point range. As well he hurt the team by going merely 2-6 from the free throw line. That was another theme: missed free throws.
As a team, the Bulls only got 22 attempts and converted a measly 59 percent of them.
There were many reasons the Bulls did not win, and some were not within their control. Somebody told the refs that Kevin Durant was the new face of the league because he was getting calls like he was Michael freaking Jordan.
Specifically in the first quarter, there was a blocking foul called on Keith Bogans that made Jeff Van Gundy say, “WHAT?! That was a charge!” Typically a jump shooter does not and SHOULD not get 13 free throws against a defender in Luol Deng that is known for his low foul rate.
Similar to Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook was getting any call that he wanted. Same as Durant, Westbrook went to the free throw line 13 times and knocked down 12 of them.
I was really not pleased with how the game was called. I can remember specific instances that Joakim Noah was hacked or caused a lot of contact trying to attack the basket but the refs were content swallowing their whistles on that side.
The defense on Durant, despite the fouls, was very good. They forced him to 8-24 shooting, including 1-5 from three. The defense in general was quite good, except for the defense on Russell Westbrook. I’m encouraged that the Bulls could be a very good defensive team as the year goes on.
The Bulls’ core of Rose, Deng, and Noah played well on at least one of offense or defense, but other than good work from Taj Gibson, no one stepped up. CJ Watson played alright but had some awful turnovers. Ronnie Brewer was a trainwreck on offense going 0-6 from the floor. No one else contributed enough to even really get mention.
I think if the Bulls want to use Kyle Korver as Ray Allen on offense, it has to be when the bench is on the floor. It’s not a good strategy to wait for Korver to run off screens when you have Rose, Deng, and Boozer on the floor in the future.
He should also be more involved on the three point line with Rose in the game to improve the spacing—which was suspect at times yesterday.
In general I feel that the Bulls played well against the Thunder.
The Thunder are a proven 50 win team while the Bulls are a team that won 41 games last year and are missing their second leading scorer, who could cause all sorts of problems for the Thunder in the low post and on the glass.
The Bulls’ biggest problem last night was just not enough options on the floor at a time. This could be greatly aided with the addition of Boozer. But, there are still no moral victories, because on our record it shows 0-1.
Don’t fret Bulls fans, we just need to wait until Saturday to beat up on a bad Pistons team, which is always fun!
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