Bulls struggling to put away the Knicks at halftime. The last 2 minutes of the half was the Jamal Crawford show, basically breaking down Hinrich 2 straight positions.

Most teams struggle to put their opponents away at halftime

The 2nd quarter was annoying though, but I think the Bulls pull away after halftime. I like how Ben and Joe came out defensively to start the game, and Ben was especially active getting us 2nd chance opportunities. His play has really dramatically improved under Boylan. Noc came out strong but has been ice cold since, hopefully that improves.

Joe Smith is on pace for 20 pts and 16 rebs, his game had definitely improved alot under Boylan, although some of that has to do with Deng being hurt.

Noah is off to another good game, really active and trying to dunk the ball alot, which is really the only offensive move he is adequate at right about now.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Bulls have had several opportunities to put this game away and now its close again in the 4th. If they lose to the fucking Knicks again that would be pathetic. Once is embarrassing enough.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

They can't put a team away. Pathetic.

I was there. Aaron Gray blows. VERY VERY raw mfer. Hinrich is pathetic. STOOPID mistakes all over the place. Why did they get rid of Crawford and Curry? Can Noah get a little fat? Is Noce hurt - he runs weird?

The only saving grace is that they hit 100 pts which means some free chow from Mickey D's.

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"It's not exactly a rocket surgery." D.J.

It's a stretch to call what Nocioni does "running". It's painful to watch him
bring the ball up the court the few times a game he tries to do that.

Nocioni is the perfect Chicago Bull 2007--all the desire in the world with limited actual basketball or, in Noc's case, athletic ability.

The Bulls haven't been able to put a team away since MJ was here. That was the same problem even when things were going great with Skiles. They would get big leads on teams, who were both good and bad, then end up letting them right back in the game before finally clinching it late in the game. I remember that happening constantly over the past 2 seasons.

For whatever reason, the players on this team seem to not want to go for the juggular, and that type of mentality is not going to win a playoff series, much less an NBA title, anytime soon.

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This team is brutal to watch. The NBA schedule has been up and down the last week. After a great Pistons-Celtics game Saturday and a great Warriors-Spurs game Monday, last night's games were all pretty much dreadful.

The Bulls are one of the most boring teams in the league to watch. I shit you not, the Timberwolves-Heat game was more entertaining

I was there too, Coach. Brutal. But, they've got to win to get to Big Mac.

LA/NO, GS/Portland, and Det/Dallas all would be games I would love to watch tonight, especially LA/NO.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

To see the matchup of Andrew Bynum vs. Tyson Chandler?

That'll be interesting, but the Lakers play pretty good defense(despite playing at a very high pace) and Chris Paul is as good at attacking a defense as there is in this league. I love great PG play, so any chance to watch NO Ill take, plus itll be interesting to see how the Lakers try to contain Paul(I doubt Derek Fisher 1v1 would even be semi-effective). Overall I think these two teams will be very tough outs in the playoffs and could compete for the Western Finals.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I would assume you're joking, but why? That will be a good matchup and I agree the game should be good.

I don't buy it. Ths year's Bulls don't play any harder than most other NBA teams, and there are a few teams that definitiely play noticeably harder than they do.

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Not much has changed since Skiles was fired. Yes, they have a winning record, but up until last night, that was simply because they had beaten the teams around their W-L record. Both good teams that they have played - Portland and Orlando - were both losses.

By the way, we can add Jamal Crawford to the list of players Hinrich can't guard.

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Not surprising, Crawford does have horrible shot selection at times, but he's bigger and faster than Hinrich.

Watching the Mavs/Pistons game tonight looks like Mike Tirico has a little Jurko in him. He just described Jason Maxiell as a bull in a chinese shop.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

OK, that game sucked

I wasn't going to point the error in your ways.

LA is hitting on all cylinders right now. The thing I find most interesting is that since they picked up Trevor Ariza and moved him into the 6th man role, they've been more than solid (14-4 from December). Ariza was someone I thought would blossom this year and I never understood why he got buried in orlando. He's a capable swingman.

To me though it says more about the Hornets. I though they were near the elite level, maybe not so much. Not saying they suck or anything, but maybe too early to declare them legitimate contenders in the West

Yeah actually all three games I mentioned were terrible. Detroit and GS completely mailed it in, I didnt see NO but Im assuming they didnt play very well if they lost by 29 at home. Hopefully Detroit/SA is good tonight.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

There isn't much Detroit or any team can do when the other team starts jacking 25 footers and they drop. Dallas shot 10-16 from beyond the arc:

http://www.nba.com/games/20080109/DETDAL/boxscore.html

Dallas was hot, especially Dirk early on, but Detroit didnt play the defense that they had been all year, and Rasheed was a complete non factor on both ends in the first half. Its almost like Detroit was pacing themselves knowing they were at SA tonight.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Detroit must be laughing pretty hard after that Celtics celebration on Saturday, then following it up with a loss to the Bobcats at home

Yeah I never bought into the 72+ win Celtic team though. I think they will finish around 65 wins, which is still awesome. They dont have enough depth(Without Allen last night) to maintain this pace for 82+ games, nor should they try to. They should try to get homecourt advantage for the entire playoffs, but other than that they need to focus on being healthy and ready for the playoffs, because they definitely can win their 17th title this year.

On a side note, JRich is finally coming into his own with this new team. Took him a little while, but him and Wallace have been clicking lately, which seems to mean a reduced role for Felton(Theres gotta be an explanation for how poorly hes played.)

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Hinrich doesn't do so well against the smaller guys either.

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Are you suggesting that he's a bad or overrated defensive player ? I happen to think he's pretty solid.

Alot of people seem to have this opinion. I personally agree that hes a pretty good defender. We've all heard all the same points and counterpoints when it comes to Kirk, but it does suck that he has to guard the best perimeter guy all the time on the other team. Against the Nets earlier he was switching between Kidd and Carter. Untill they get some better defensive help alongside him(Wasnt that what Thablo was for?) I think he will always look a bit worse than he is.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I would put Hinrich in the (slightly) above average defensive category. For the first four years of his career, though, a lot of Bulls fans were arguing that he's an elite defender. That's never been true.

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