Chicago Bulls

In the ultimate compliment an NBA team can pay a rookie, the Portland Trail Blazers focused their entire defensive strategy on getting the ball out of Derrick Rose's hands during the Bulls' big loss Wednesday. Rose, who has been nothing short of a sensation in his first month as a pro, had his worst game of the season against Portland, scoring just six points on 1-for-8 shooting.

After testing his injured left hamstring on the court before the game, forward Luol Deng was scratched for the Bulls’ game Friday night with the Golden State Warriors. He also missed Wednesday’s game at Portland with the injury. ‘‘When I’m running, it seems fine,’’ Deng said. ‘‘The problem comes when I change direction or try to drive to the basket and try to play defense. When I’m pushing off that foot, it’s still there. It’s just one of those things. If I play, I don’t know how I would feel throughout the game. I could end up being out longer. I’m trying to be smart about it.’’ ... Earlier Friday, the Warriors traded forward Al Harrington to the New York Knicks for former Bull Jamal Crawford. Crawford was expected to meet the Warriors in Philadelphia today and could play Sunday when they face the 76ers. ... Bulls forward Drew Gooden, an Oakland native, had to scramble for tickets and came up with 17 for family and friends. ... Guard Larry Hughes is a former Warrior and heard a few boos when introduced before the game. ... The luxury hotel where the Bulls are staying in downtown San Francisco has a full-service health club with a full basketball court, so they held their morning shootaround there instead of driving 30 minutes (without traffic) to and from Oracle Arena. The Bulls also were scheduled to practice there today before heading to Denver for the next leg of the road trip.

Derrick Rose drives against Golden State's C.J. Watson in the first half. (AP) K.C. Johnson, 1:21 a.m. OAKLAND -- Perhaps this is to solve the Bulls’ big man woes: Start four guards. Better yet, this is the way to respond...

By K.C. Johnson, 8:47 p.m. OAKLAND -- After telling teammates and coaches he expected to play Friday, Luol Deng will miss his second straight game with a sore left hamstring when the Bulls tipoff against Golden State in just less...

K.C. Johnson SAN FRANCISCO -- Here's what Luol Deng said about his sore left hamstring after the lengthy shootaround finally ended: "I will go warm up and see how it feels and try to give it a go," Deng said....

The Chicago Bulls and Midway Moving and Storage will host a holiday food drive on Saturday, December 20 to benefit the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

It's not quite the significance of the first 100 days of a new administration, but the first 10 games of the Vinny Del Negro era have been completed and, like the record, there's been some good and some bad and showing some subtle signs of progress.

The Chicago Bulls and Luol Deng provided Thanksgiving dinner for more than 700 visitors to the Pacific Garden Mission on Sunday.

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After getting man handled by the Portland Trailblazers by 42 points last night, I had to find something to laugh at concerning the Bulls.

The laugh came courtesy of former Bulls bigs Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry. via Chandlers blog on NBA.com. Here is the transcript.

EDDY'S ADVICE
So, I'm not controlling the iPod this time, and I'm going to stay at the top of the bed. I'm not going past the sheet. I made that mistake last time and I almost passed out.

Eddy Curry had a baby before me and he came to me a couple of weeks before my wife was due and sat me down.

He says, "Tyson."

I'm like, "Yeah?"

"Do me a favor." He's all serious, and Eddy's never serious. He's always joking around.

I'm like, "Yeah?"

He says, "Don't look."

I'm like, "What are you talking about?"

He says, "Don't look. But you're stupid. You're gonna look."

I'm like, "Eddy, what are you talking about?"

He says, "Don't go down there and look. But you're stupid. You're gonna get curious and you're gonna go down there and look."

I started laughing, because I finally figured out what he was talking about, and I'm like, "Eddy, man I'm not gonna look."

He says, "I'm not playing, Tyson. Don't look. It'll mess you up for a while!"

I'm like, "Eddy, I'm not gonna look."

He kept going on and on. "Tyson, don't look."

I'm like, "Eddy, shut up! Enough! I'm not gonna look."

"Alright."

So the day comes and Sacha's godmother is there with us and the doctor. Sacha's godmother is down at the other end, helping hold my wife's legs and I'm up at her head. The whole time, everything's going fine and they're like, "Oh, we can see the baby's hair!"

And here I go and get curious and take a peak. I almost passed out.

It took me close to a year to get over that.

So, this time around, my wife first tried to get me to record it, and I'm like "Absolutely not."

"Are you going to watch the baby come out this time?"

"Absolutely not."

"I'm going to stay at the top of the bed. You can squeeze or scratch me as much as you want to. I'm going to be your support system and your coach up top. But I promise you I'm not going to the other end."

So to all you future daddies-to-be, take Eddy Curry's advice: Don't get curious!

 

I can co-sign to watch Chandler is saying and trust me, it will mess you up mentally and you just might faint. I'm just starting to be able to eat spaghetti again.

The Bulls (5-7) next game is tomorrow at the Golden State Warriors (5-6).

 

Last night was a busy one in the NBA, with two-thirds of the league in uniform and on the court.  A number of intriguing matchups took place, including the Cavaliers at Pistons, Mavericks at Rockets, and Bulls at Trail Blazers. Which teams came out on top, and who has been playing well of late?  Keep reading to find out who's been looking good, and who might be needing another pep talk from Lou Holtz.

Rising:

Dallas Mavericks - One of the more intriguing story lines throughout the early part of the season has involved the three Texas teams. Both the Spurs and Mavericks have been struggling, while the Rockets have been trying to figure out how to best integrate Ron Artest into their gameplan. On Wednesday night, the Mavericks got their second chance to show the world that they are still a force to be reckoned with, as they faced Houston on ESPN. These two teams played during the first week of the season, with the Rockets, paced by Yao Ming's dominant 30/13 game, coming out on top.

Last night was a different story. Both teams were missing key players: Yao sat out because of a sore left foot, while the Mavs' Josh Howard was nursing a swollen ankle and couldn't go. Howard's absence gave Jason Terry a little motivation to perform off the bench, as he led the Mavs with 31 points, while Dirk Nowitzki added 24 and 12 as the Mavs beat the punchless Rockets, 96-86, for their third win in a row. Dallas will play nine of their next 11 games at home and should be back above .500 and in contention within a few weeks if they can keep up their solid play.

Dwyane Wade - The Miami Heat might just be an average team at this point, as they lost to the Raptors last night to fall to 6-6 on the season, but their main man, D-Wade, has been blazing all year long. Last night he notched a career-best five blocks to go along with 40 points and 11 assists. The last time someone put up a 40-10-5 game was 1977, five years before Wade was even born. There might not be anyone else in the league right now aside from LeBron James and possibly Chris Bosh that's playing up to the ridiculously high standards that Wade has set. It's still too early to start talking about MVPs, but this guy is certainly on my short list of candidates so far.

Marvin Williams - The Atlanta Hawks came into Wednesday night's tilt versus the struggling Wizards on a four-game losing streak. Washington, which still has only one win on the season, seemed desperate for a win last night, but it was Williams who refused to let the Hawks lose for the fifth straight time. With both Josh Smith and Al Horford injured, Williams was forced to play power forward and came up big. Even with having to defend Antawn Jamison, Marv scored 21 points and tied a career high with 14 rebounds. But best of all, he hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 26 seconds left to give the Hawks their seventh win on the year.

Others:  Minnesota Timberwolves (snapped eight-game losing streak in win over 76ers), L.A. Clippers (moved to 2-9 with 20-point win over Thunder), Greg Oden (puts up 11/10/3 in only 17 minutes in home debut), John Salmons (29 points to lead Kings to road win over Hornets), C.J. Miles (25 points in helping to boost Jazz's home record to 6-0) and Denver Nuggets (now 7-1 with Billups after beating San Antonio).

Falling:

Chicago Bulls - I was really looking forward to the Bulls-Blazers game last night, pitting the last two #1 draft picks, Derrick Rose and Greg Oden, against each other. Too bad Rose and the Bulls barely showed up, as Chicago fell behind by 21 after the first quarter and ended up losing by 42 points, 116-74. I turned off the game and went to bed at halftime, because Portland was absolutely having their way with the hapless Bulls. Rose had by far his worst game of his young career, scoring only 6 points off 1-for-8 shooting, with one assist and zero rebounds. Chicago, 0-2 so far on their seven-game road trip, looks to get back on track against the Warriors on Friday night.

LeBron James - The Chosen One actually scored 25 points last night, barely below his season average, but upon close inspection you'd see that he had an off night in yesterday's loss to the Pistons, which snapped Cleveland's eight-game winning streak. James went only 8-of-21 from the field, including 0-for-4 from downtown, but did manage to add his usual LeBron-like numbers of six assists, six rebounds and four steals. I realize I might be nitpicking in saying that James didn't play well, but his game over the last couple of weeks has made me raise my standards for him to near-MJ heights.

Michael Beasley - Over the last two games, Beasley has averaged only 14 minutes and contributed a combined 13 points, easily his worst two games production-wise of the season. Last night he picked up two quick fouls after barely playing a minute, and didn't even get into the game during the fourth quarter when Miami tried to make a comeback. Look for him to rebound on Saturday when Miami hosts the defensively-challenged Pacers.

Others: Oklahoma City Thunder (league-worst 1-11 and losers of nine straight), Bulls backcourt (Rose/Gordon combined 5-of-20 from field in loss to Portland), and New Orleans Hornets (underwhelming 5-5 after home loss to Kings).

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AP Photo/Chris Carlson

As much as I was concerned about Kobe Bryant going off last night, I was equally concerned with the Los Angeles Lakers (8-1) front line of Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol.

Even though Derrick Rose (25 points, 9 assists) and Ben Gordon (23 points, 4 assists) combined to score 48 points and 13 assists, it was offset by Bynum (18 points, 9 rebounds) and Gasol's (34 points, 6 rebounds) 52 points and 15 rebounds.

Bryant finished the game with 21 points, but Gasol bested that number by halftime with 24 points in the first half, 18 of those coming in the first quarter alone on 7-9 shooting from the field.

The Bulls (5-6) made the game close in the fourth quarter, by coming back from an 18 point deficit to get to within ten, but Bryant was inserted back into the lineup with under four minutes remaining and made a three pointer during his first possession back into the game, to keep the Bulls back.

Final score 116-109

You may look at this score and say, Only a seven point loss against a championship calibur team, not bad. Wrong, you would be. The Lakers had control of this game before making their way to the arena. Gasol had his way inside, Bryant played as cool as a game as I've ever seen him play and the Lakers simply played the Bulls like puppets.

Did anyone happen to see Luol Deng (9 points)?

The Bulls traveled to Portland, Oregon following the game and are set to take on the Trailblazers (6-5) tonight.

I'm very interested in seeing this game because of several mathups and there are two players that could have been in Bulls uniforms, Brandon Roy (21ppg) and LaMarcus Aldridge (15 ppg), that are sure to give us some trouble. We'll also be getting our first look at Greg Oden (9ppg, 7rpg), who had 22 points and 10 rebounds in a loss to the Golden State Warriors last night.

The Blazers depth is almost unfair as they have several of options of the bench with Rudy Fernandez (13 ppg), Sergio Rodriguez and Travis Outlaw (11ppg), not to mention rookie Jerryd Bayless, who hasn't seen much time after averaging 30ppg in summer league play.