Bulls @ Nets, 3/17/11, 6:00 CST, WGN Options

[Balta1701-B]

Don't take this team lightly. They just took out the Celtics. Boozer is likely to return either thursday against the nets or Friday at the Pacers, and will be traveling with the team. Hopefully Joakim feels better.

[rockren]

Don't take this team lightly. They just took out the Celtics. Boozer is likely to return either thursday against the nets or Friday at the Pacers, and will be traveling with the team. Hopefully Joakim feels better.

With the way Kris Humphries ate Boozer a live to the tune of 20 points off of the bench causing Thibs to bench Booz for the 4th quarter last game out....Booz can take another game off.

I'm sure the Bulls remember losing in the closing seconds at this place last time out and would like another plate of revenge. I'm also hoping Kris Humphries GF is there....always great to see some eye candy in the crowd and it's always better to see Kim Kardashian do anything.

[rockren]

http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/nba/news/story?id=6224226

Joakim Noah returned to Chicago Bulls practice Wednesday and is expected to start against the New Jersey Nets on Thursday.

Noah missed Tuesday's victory over the Washington Wizards because of flu-like symptoms.

"I think he'll be fine," Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said. "He was back to normal today ... for him."

[rockren]

Another grind it out victory for the Bullies as the Nets actually tied it up with less than four minutes to go. This puts us back in sole possession of first place in the East with the second of a B2B coming up in Indy tomorrow while the Celt start a B2B in Houston tomorrow night followed by a trip to New Orleans on Saturday. We could very well have a full game lead over Boston should the Bulls take care of business and get some help.

*I understand D-Will has a bad wrist and is getting acclimated to a new club/system, but wow. Rose didn't play his best game and made D-Will look very pedestrian. Rose not only show more athleticism, quickness and explosiveness than D-Will (not that we already didn't know that), but he looked more fluid than D-Will...more polished. I never thought I would be saying that about Rose this early in his career reference comparison to D-Will. Regardless of D-Will going 1-12, Rose blew by him whenever he wanted. I thought the Nets bigs were fantastic in offering help forcing Rose into tough shots as he went 8-23 in the ballgame. That leads me to my next post game note...

*The Nets were getting away with allowing their big man to sag off of the screener for Rose and camp in the lane. Thibs was working the officials all game on this and in the last 4 minutes of the game, the Nets were called for two crucial defensive three seconds violations. Avery Johnson was extremely upset with these calls as I believe he expected the Nets to be able to get away with this...at least at home. I'd probably attempt to guard Rose the same way, but great coaching/lobbying by Thibs has it came up big. The calls were the right calls as well- Mike Fratello (Nets play by play) said he agreed 100% with the calls made by the officials on those two plays.

*New Jersey was pretty feisty and looked as if they believed they could win tonight's game. The arrow is pointed in the right direction for them as they figure out how to utilize D-Will and they're already off to a great start. I liked their defensive philosophy throughout the game as they showed zone against the Bulls and attempted to trap Rose at half court to do everything they could to get the ball out of his hands. That was probably the most pro-active I've seen a coach in his approach against Rose. It didn't work all that well...but they had the right idea.

*Korver should have played more...I know hind sight is 20/20, but he should have. On a night where Bogans couldn't hit the broad side of a barn (neither could Rose) we needed his outside shooting. It wasn't like we were at full strength. We could have gotten away with Deng at the 4 at times while sliding Korver to the 3. Maybe Thibs was afraid to go small due to the Nets rebounding with us. I don't know. Thibs even went with Noah and Asik on the floor at times, which I loved. Asik was terrific and continues to show how important he is to the Bulls. The Bulls not dealing Asik for Lee was one of the best decisions they've made.