Projected Starters:
Bulls



Pistons



(I will edit this later)

Prediction- Bulls win in a close one, 98-95

Rasheed hyper extended a finger on his non-dominant hand last night against the Pacers. He will be a game time decision.

PS don't forget to get in your picks to click

The Bulls absolutely need to win this game. If they don't win this game, they fall 1.5 games back of the Cavs. The Bulls need to win this game to stay close. Cleveland plays Miami tomorrow night. If the Bulls win and get some help, we could be tied with Cleveland by tomorrow. If the Bulls lose and don't get some help, we'll be solidly in that 5 spot.

Lets get this win! I really dont want to play the heat and the pistons back to back in the playoffs!!!!

Damn, Rasheed not playing would be a huge lift for us.

A win here will be a real statement for our playoff push. It would help so much to pass Cleveland and we would need to come as close to winning out as possible so this is a huge game.

This is set to be one of the great games of the season so far for Chicago. With Noc set for a comeback attempt Friday a Bulls win here would really help put some pressure on the Cavs.
Tyrus has been playing so great lately that Noc's return will only help to deepen our bench (regardless of who starts) and thats infinitely important to any team looking to make a real run at the Eastern Conference championship.
More than likely we'll meet the Pistons in a 7-game series if we make a nice playoff run so this game tonight has got to be solid as we look to exploit their weaknesses. Big Ben has been so important so far this year in our matchups against the Pistons because he not only helps to diffuse some of the bad blood between these teams but he possesses that Pistons insider only info. Hopefully Skiles can use Ben's advice from practicing and playing with these guys for years and draw up a game plan to give us a great chance at taking Rasheed and Co. to school.
My X-factor for Detroit is Tayshaun Prince, he had a big game against us last time scoring 26 and his defense, specifically his blocks can change a game. With Sheed listed as a game time decision Chris Webber could pick up the slack so we have to make sure and put a big body on him. Also to box out!!!!! That Prince tip in last week was horrible defense by the Bulls, we can't give up the offensive glass so easy or this ones over before it starts.
Time to shine Chi-Town!!!! Go Bulls!!!!

shoot, Ben Wallace is out for tonight, he has a sinus infection. That sucks, o well, T-TIME baby!

Oh God, that means Sweet Roll gets playing time... URRRGH.

I guess it's TT to start at PF and PJ Brown at C?

(Please not Malik at center, Coach Skiles... just... no...)

Wallace is out???? That sucks. I hope they dont have tubby out there too long. Leave TT out there...

TT is sick too. Damn

Gordon starting to play worse at the worst possible time. Were going to need his scoring in the playoffs and he is starting to slow down. Tyrus just played about 2 minutes and gave us 5 points and 3 rebounds, good effort TT get well soon

This is looking sloppy so far

For a short-handed as hell team I like the effort the Bulls are showing here... special shoutouts so far to TT (insane points to minutes ratio for a sick man), Thabo (rook coming out showing some confidence, at SF, no less) and PJ Brown (providing an offensive threat at least at C, and he's gotten some tough rebounds).

Ben Gordon really needs to get it together--he'll have a big second half. He better, or we're sunk!

I think were going to need atleast 16 points from Thabo and 10 from someone playing the 4 or 5 spot to win this game. Gordon isn't going to have a 30 point night with his foul trouble.

1 point game at the half, Pistons lead. All things considered not a terrible place to be in. Could really use some help from Gordon or Deng in the 2nd half. Hinrich with 17, 4 ast and 3 reb, really big half for Kirk.

And how could I forget the Captain? Kirk's carrying the team right now.

Let's see:

Road game against the #1 seed in the East,
9 second quarter turnovers,
No Ben Wallace,
No Andres Nocioni,
Tyrus Thomas is sick,
Ben Gordon? 2 points, 3 fouls...

And...

Down by one at half.

This team's got heart.

I'd hate to think what the game would be like if both Hinrich and Gordon were in foul trouble.. Glad that isn't happening, with that said, Gordon needs to play better and smarter to contribute in this game in the 2nd half. Lets see what this team is made of without key players.

I sense Kirk is going to have a 30 point night with the way he has played and I still think Deng will have a productive game, probably double double ish.

Predictions on the outcome..

Kirk- 32 points 7 rebounds 12 assists
Deng- 17 points 11 rebounds 4 assists
Gordon- 15 points 3 rebounds 4 assists

Rip Hamilton picks up his 5th foul midway through the 3rd.

TT comes in and immediately the Bulls run off a 10-2 run to increase their lead from 5 to 13. 9 points and 5 rebounds in 7 minutes for him. (does a little bit of math) That would average out to a 62 point, 34 rebound performance over 48 minutes at that rate.

Come on kiddies...let's put this game away!

Oh, and Sheed just picked up his 4th foul

Tyrus has been a spark offensively for the short stints he has been on the floor.

84-69 after 3...wow!

15 point lead @ the end of the 3rd. Come on team, keep it up just a little longer, finish them off, and let Cleveland and Detroit both feel some heat!

Tyrus in 7 minutes has put up 9 points and 6 rebounds, incredible. Remember, all this while having the flu.

Detroit comes out with 0 starters on the floor to start the 4th.


9 minutes, 13 points, 7 rebounds now.

Wow.

Eastern Conference--this is your wake up call. Beware.

all this without wallace....

if you look at the schedule from here on out, we're looking pretty good... watchout cleveland

If the Heat beat the Cavs tomorrow night, we're tied. Not sure who has the tiebreaker.

Rip Hamilton comes back into the game and promptly fouls Mr. Thomas, removing himself from the remainder of this game.

So those watching, can someone tell me what the Hell just happened?

Rasheed Wallace can GO TO HELL!!! What a PUNK ASS B*TCH!!!

WTF DID TYRUS DO TO GET EJECTED? HE DID NOTHING! HE WALKED AWAY!!

Of course a Detroit fan throws something at TT, classy..

I still don't understand what Tyrus did to get ejected.

Like we're going to get any calls in Detoilet?

Like we get any calls anywhere?

Oh well, Bulls still the Pistons in the face so it's all good.

that was bullshit, Rip Hamilton is a little punk. Tyrus was walking away the entire time and yet he still gets ejected

The official was being a douchebag. I still don't understand why Tyrus got the first Tech. Clearly Rip got in his grill and grabbed him and alls TT did was stare at him for a minute and then walked away but that punk ass beach Hamilton kept following him, provoking him into doing something but TT kept walking. Then the douchebag official threw them both out when It should have just been Hamilton.

Hamilton and Posey are my two most hated players in the NBA. Hamilton always does cheap crap to our players, mostly Kirk.

Piss-tons = PWNED

I think Hubie Brown used the word "beautiful" about 40 times describing the Bulls team play. Every play was beautiful. Their passing was great, especially the extra pass.

I just can't believe they basically did that tonight minus Wallace, Noc, and Gordon.

This was a huge game and a nice statement. What are we like .5 back of Cleveland now?

Yup.

And Cleveland gets Miami and Washington (granted, probably w/o Arenas) back to back.

Muhahahaha.

We NEED to get that 2nd seed. Lets win out and put the pressure on Cleveland to withstand there spot. I doubt they can.

Great game tonight. Really like the effort. Good games by Kirk Hinrich and Deng. Do you think that Skiles will play this small line up more often, cause it seemed to create a lot of match up problems when the pistons were on defense.

Tribune said it was a playoff preview of skiles designs on how to handle the pistons

thabo is a perfect matchup for Prince, too...nice to see him get some burn

But tyrus was even more impressive-13 pts and 8 boards in ONLY 10 minutes!!!!!!

Great job by the Bulls tonight. They really got into the Pistons heads if Hamiliton had to resort to trying to bully the rookie. I watched that whole sequence by the way, and it was one of the worst officiated that I have ever seen. First Hamilton elbowed Tyrus, not once, but twice, and only got a personal foul. Then Hamilton goes back to talk to Thomas and the referee has to push him out of the way, and he STILL comes back for more. At that point, all the ref has given is double technicals, when Hamilton probably should have had a foul for the first elbow, a technical for the second, and a second technical for going back after the ref pushed him away. Then Hamilton proceeded to follow Tryus all over the floor, taunting him the whole time, without drawing anything. It wasn't until a referee grabbed Hamilton AGAIN, and he went back to taunt Tyrus a third time that Hamilton got another technical, and then they gave techs to both of them. Thomas literally said NOTHING to Hamilton after the first techs and kept trying to walk away. It was just a horrible, horrible job of officiating, and hopefully the NBA reviews that and resinds the second T of Tyrus's.

Tyrus is going to be a Monster and the ref shouldnt have gave TT a 2nd tech RIP intiated everything!