10th January, 2012: Bulls @ Timberwolves

Bulls: 8-2

After 10 games of a fairly tough schedule we’re 8-2, I’m fairly happy with that. One anomaly loss to Atlanta, and a rusty start loss to Golden State. Minnesota today, K-Love and Ricky, Let’s Go! – JK


Gist:

1st quarter:

• Crowd looks a bit thin in Minnesota tonight. Surprising because I would’ve thought there’d be a lot of buzz with K-Love, Ricky and Derrick Williams.
• DRose with a nice spin and easy dunk from a Luol pass. That was pretty. He could get a lot more easy points on quick cuts and spins around the post like that. 
• Wolves are shooting well, they’ve got the shooters on the wings in Ellignton, Love and Wes Johnson, even though Johnson has struggled so far this season.
• Boozer shot is on again. Hopefully this stops surprising me every game and just becomes the norm. 
• Luol hits a 3 and is looking nice so far with 3-4 FG as the bulls open up a 15 point gap. 
• Bulls shoot 74% FG in the first quarter and are up 33-17. Great start. 

2nd quarter:

• DRose heading to the locker room after a hard fall. Hopefully he’s all good. We haven’t had a great run with injuries, although it’s been an epidemic all around the NBA. CJ hasn’t played in what seems quite a long time, same as Rip. 
• Defense looks great so far, rotating well and really making it tough for the T-Wolves to even find an open man, let alone open shot. 
• Thibs riding the bench mob early in the 2nd and they’re doing a good job on D and getting out on the breaks. And Korver with a 3! Shooting great last few games. Bulls up 22. 
• John Lucas over dribbling again and turns it over. He’s my whipping boy so far this season. Pass the ball! And then pulling the trigger early twice. Grrr. 
• Jo’s hustling tonight, losing it a bit, but still hustling. Energy is a good sign. Wolves making a run and cut the lead to 11. Rubio and K-Love making the push, that’s their future and something to build around. Add some creative wings/shooters and a defensive center and they really have something. 
• Bulls miss 9 consecutive shots to finish the half, but stay up 6. Bad finish to the half after such good shooting early on. 

3rd quarter:

• Jo with a strong board and layup. That’s what he’s gotta do to break the funk, get those hustle points. 
• Bulls let an offensive rebound go and Thibs and half the coaching staff nearly fall off their seats. Get back and board boys! I guess that’s why Thibs never really sits down during games. 
• Boozer has really cooled down now.
• Wolves have pulled it to 3 now. I’m not liking this trend where we smash teams early and give up leads. It happened in Orlando and Detroit last night even before they blew them away in the 4th. Wolves within 1 now with a Rubio layup.
• Luol with a couple of ice cold jumpers. So solid and holding the bulls up right now. 
• DRose gets stripped and then bullets a pass to Noah who gets fouled on the layup. That was fast! Then Deng with a 3!
• T-Wolves tie the game on a Ridnour 3. Pretty entertaining game now. Both team just going at each other back and forth. 
• Brewer with an and-one against JJ Barea, nice work to post him up and use the advantage. That’s one thing the bulls do well is find those guard mismatches and try to take advantage with Luol or Brew in the post and they both have good footwork. 
• DRose with a couple of turnovers. Had that red hot start and has been deferring quite a bit since then. Bulls up 5 to finish the quarter 79-74. 

4th quarter:

• DRose with a slicing layup and flipping the ball in. Time to take over boy! Bulls up 10 now. He’s looking really aggressive now with his drives.
• Luol with another jumper. Nice bounce back from yesterday’s game. Looks to have his shooting stroke back.
• DRose with a fake pass and hits a 3. Pretty play. But then Derrick Williams hits a 3 and gets fouled at the other end for a 4 point play. Its been some pretty knucklehead kind of defense out there in the second half. 
• Turnovers killing us! Just missing passes and giving it up easily. 17 already this game. 
• Luol again. Just awesome. Pushes it to 9. 
• Bulls hold off the T-Wolves well enough and you got the feeling it wasn’t more time Minnesota needed but more will. Bulls take this one 111-100. 

Good Stuff:

• Bulls hung tough tonight. T-Wolves threw a lot at them and played very well. The bulls despite the turnovers, spotty D, really held up tough which is a sign of a mentally tough and mature team.
• Deng was a cold blooded killer tonight. He held up the ship early in the 4th and was just draining tough jumper after tough jumper. Such an important player for us.
• DRose’s passing tonight was very good finding the open man. The amount of attention he gets with the soft blitz or hard double and he was spotting up Luol and Brew really nicely on the wings.

Bad Stuff:

• Turnovers killed us tonight. 18 all up vs. 10 for the T-Wolves. Kind of shows how well the T-Wolves played and how poorly we played. But you really can’t be that careless.

MVP: Luol Deng

• Luol was great tonight and held the bulls in it. 21 points, 11 boards, 4 assists and a block is a very nice game, but the moment of the game he inflicted that damage was the impressive part. Something you have to watch the game to understand, not just looking at the box score. He was the strongman of last season and is backing it up well so far this season if not for a bit of up and down play last couple of games.

Good win tonight. Bulls hung tough and showed their strength as a group and team tonight. Minnesota were impressive, Rubio in particular and they’ll have good days ahead for them. Washington tomorrow, let’s win the last of the back-to-back-to-back!

JK

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