There have been a lot of them in this stretch of basketball from the Bulls, but Thursday night at New Orleans, even without DeMar DeRozan, was an ugly loss. The Pelicans, really? They don’t even have Zion, or that Ingram kid that LeBron shipped out of LA. I don’t want to hear any excuses. When is this Bulls team going to get back on track?
I liked what I saw late in this game. Problem is, it was too little too late. The few plays I’m referring to, are actually 2 hard fouls and 2 technical fouls. The first one was a Pelicans guy cherry picking, and Caruso hustled down the court, and gave him a good hard foul, causing him to miss the layup, sending him to the line to earn those points. Yes, the game had already been decided, but there’s no free cheese here… at least that’s how it should be. Caruso looked mad… good, he should be. Shortly after that play, that little guy from the Pelicans that just so happened to be on fire in this one, caught a pass in the open court. Instead of going in for his free two points, he looked back at Ayo, taunting him… like you can’t catch me… like game over punk. Ayo ain’t no punk. He chased him down and gave him a hard foul, causing him to miss the basket. Good, again, no free cheese. We shouldn’t be allowing this type of stuff on our watch. Following that foul, the refs went to the video, which eventually lead to changing the foul to a flagrant, which was soft as hell by the way. During that review period, TT, Tristan Thompson, mouthed off, got 2 techs, and got tossed from the game. Good! Let them know. Show some sign of a pulse. These three “plays” showed me that the Bulls heart is still beating; where was this “effort” earlier in the game? You need to bring this 1st through 4th quarters, not just when the game is over, and you’re pissed off. Don’t let it get to this point.
I hope the Bulls stay mad as they take the court for a critical matchup with the Cavs in Cleveland on Saturday night. Forget about the playoff seeding at this point; let’s get back to the number one goal this season: making the playoffs. The Bulls need to come out with a purpose. I don’t think their heads got too big with the early season success; it shouldn’t have, because they haven’t won shit yet. I don’t think these other teams are that much better than us, even if our record against the top teams shows otherwise. I’m not sure what it is, but if these few plays at the end of the Pelicans game was any indication, we ain’t dead yet. Get fired up boys! Let’s take that court on Saturday, and going forward, with that chip on our shoulder, the one we carried around for a good portion of this season. In this league, you need to prove yourself, game in, game out. As the Bulls take the court for these last 9 games of the regular season, and prepare for the second season, forget about who we have or don’t have; forget about who is 100% or not. Let’s get our heads right. Let’s bring it. Let’s take it to the opposition; let’s not allow them to take it to us. Is this team able to do that? Show us. Go Bulls!!!
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