The Bulls on the West Coast Monday night, played the Sacramento Kings, in what should have been an easy W. There is nothing “easy” in the NBA right? Well, except if you’re playing and kicking the shit out of the Lakers; almost everybody can stack hands on that. But the Kings… saw a familiar face, Sabonis from the Pacers; I like his game. I really like their point guard Fox; he killed us in this game. Then there was a kid from Baylor, Mitchell… he looked pretty good too. I guess they all look great when they’re winning… As for the Bulls, totally opposite side across the board; nobody really played well. The Bulls took one on the chin, and took the L to start off the week.
I actually stood up for this whole game; “stay up for what” is what I was asking myself after it was all said and done. I guess I should have just took the queue from the first quarter when the Bulls forgot the start of the game, and ended up down 10 immediately. The 2nd quarter was a carbon copy, at least with the score, as the Bulls went down ANOTHER 10 points; down 20 at the half! Couple thoughts ran through my head: Should I go to bed? The answer was no. Should I bet the Bulls 2nd half? Well, I don’t have an account, so there’s that problem, thus, it ended up being no. Bulls 2nd half would have been a fine bet.
The Bulls started chipping away, playing much better ball for most of the 2nd half, cutting the Kings lead all the way down to 1 point after some DD free throws in the 4th with about 8 minutes left. They never were able to recapture the lead that they once held way back when at 5-2. The Kings outscored us 22-14 down the stretch; final score 112-103. When you have a tough loss like this, you get upset, at least, I do. You get frustrated, especially with particular players. The two guys on the Bulls that I get the most quickly frustrated with are Vooch and Lavine.
Although Vooch did make three 3 pointers on this night, so it wasn’t a total bust from out there, I absolutely hate when he makes his first shot from long range of the game. I don’t like seeing him take 3 pointers, period. I usually say if you’re open and in rhythm, then take it, but… Vooch should not be open from beyond the arc. He needs to live down in the post; he has decent post moves. He needs to set the tone inside, and let the other guys pick their spots from deep. Secondly, his defense. Although he has his moments, in general, he gets bullied down low. Sabonis was more than up to the task of doing so in this one. After Vooch got outrebounded, he was rewarded with a dunk on top of his dome from Sabonis, and some contact to the face to boot. Ugh!
Lavine ticks me off too. We have heard he is playing with an injury; we’ve heard that many times… like OK, we got it. Respect to Zach for gutting it out; I don’t know how severe it is, or whatever. I’m sure he could just chalk it up and sit out, like DRose back in the day. But he’s not… But… we need Zach to be Zach. That nice drive to the lane which should have been an easy flush, Zach decided to finger roll it off the front of the rim; was he 2nd guessing jumping to dunk the ball, or was he just being too cute? I’ve never been a big fan of his shot selection, taking shots with a difficulty rating of 10. Now he has made these shots; he’s talented enough to make them, and in a pinch, we may need him to, but… in the normal flow of the game, a step back fadeaway 3 point shot with a guy in your face is not the shot I’d like to see Zach take. If this knee is really bothering him, then maybe cut those type of shots out; maybe you’re not healthy enough to make that at the same clip you were before.
OK, I’m done. I still love Vooch and Zach; I’m still confident in this team. Not going to let 1 tough, gut punch loss in the middle of a difficult stretch in the schedule, in a game we should have won, completely derail me. We’ll be OK; it happens. Just don’t let it happen again. Go Bulls!
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