Starting Lineups

Chicago Bulls:

PG Chris Duhon
SG Kirk Hinrich
SF Luol Deng
PF Joe Smith
C Ben Wallace

Portland Trail Blazers:

PG Steve Blake
SG Brandon Roy
SF Martell Webster
PF Lamarcus Aldridge
C Joel Przybilla

6th mans:

Ben Gordon is averaging 19 ppg 3.9 rpg 2.8 apg 0.9 spg 0.2 bpg and he plays 35.7 mpg
Travis Outlaw is averaging 11.9 ppg 5.1 rpg 0.8 spg 0.8 bpg and he plays 26 mpg

Team Stats:

Bulls

93 ppg
43.6 rpg
21.6 apg
4.9 bpg
7.7 spg

Blazers

96.0 ppg
39.4 rpg
21.8 apg
4.5 bpg
5.6 spg

Game Thoughts:

I'm glad its on TNT, I love TNT Thursday! Double Header... ne ways, I think this will be a tough game. It will be interesting to see if Aldridge gets matched up with Tyrus though who knows if TT will even play, probably not. Were going to have to shut down Roy and contain Lamarcus. Portland gets a big spark from Outlaw who is a young, energetic rebounder who can block shots and dunk on just about anyone. There on a hot streak right now so we have to come with our best effort.

I fear that Paxson or Boylan will force Tyrus into the game to prove that the deal was worth it or some bullshit like that. Stick to the game plan, play tough defense, move the ball, get some easy buckets, and hopefully it ends in a Bulls W.

Naw, Tyrus will get very few minutes as Boylan doesn't give a spiff if Pax picked him over Aldridge or not. I'm excited to truly watch the up-and-coming Blazers and see how Aldridge has developed... along with Roy. Remember, we could have had either of them.

If Oden ever becomes anything that can stay on the court, the Blazers will be ridiculous.

Regardless, I'm thinking Joe Smith steps it up for 20/10 and Gordon drops another 30 for a Bulls victory.

I'm takin the mizz and some friends to tonights game. Hopefully its a good one. Good BULLS!!!

Drive carefully, wear your seatbelt! Haha thats what my ma says to me all the time..

Throw it down Ben! Stop with the soft layup crap.

On the other hand, Webster has turned into quite the player.

Kirk should be guarding Roy, and Duhon on Blake, not the other way around.

Hmm, Webster double-dribbles, leading to a Portland 3, then on the other end of the court, they say Deng stepped out of bounds. Time out, and the ref points to hit chest saying he missed that one. Wow.

Kevin Garnett er.. Joe Smith with a few quick points..

Good 1st quarter. Played solid defense on Aldridge and Roy, and if it wasn't for out aggressiveness on those deflections, Webster wouldn't have gotten the open shots that he did. Hinrich and Gordon are shooting well, and the team defense is good so far. I'll take the slim lead.

I really like Boylan's rotations and I'll explain that further as I'm going to make a post about it after the game..

Holy F***, a Tyrus Thomas sighting!

Tyrus Thomas in the game for Deng. Looks like Luol might be hurt.

Outlaw with a wide open shot. Tyrus was literally 20 feet away from him. Left Achilles tightness for Deng.

My god, I never laugh more watching a basketball game than I do when Tyrus plays.

That is no foul on Tyrus, that was a freaking loose ball, both players have the right to it. God damn ridiculous...

Jeez, the crowd is like dead.

Sounds like both teams are kinda playing that way also.

I'll be the first to say Joe Smith was a really good signing!

"They've made Aldridge look like an ordinary, ordinary player here in the first half. Very Ordinary" - Funk.

Joe Smith playing great, Bulls up 48-41 at half. Doing a phenomenal job defensively.

We need a rotation of Wallace, Noah, Noc, Gordon and Hinrich in!!!

Why? Smith id our leading scorer. We need to give him his minutes.

Duhon out, Gordon in please...

We've got to try and get some better shots close to the rim. Portland goes on a little run and are right back in it.

Nocioni is absolutely killing us!

Damn Joe Smith, keep scoring!

Nocioni with his usual terrible shots and as I call him, "The Chucker" Take him out please, he's no good anymore..

GET NOCIONI OFF THE freaking COURT!!!!!!!!!!! My god Nocioni as absolutely freaking killing us. Taking stupid shots and missing his open ones. Losing Deng for the game really freaking hurts right now. Outlaw and Smith is a mismatch both ways, but Outlaw is burning us. And if Noc could freaking rotate on defense we'd be alright. Crunch time, up 1 going into the 4th. Step up the D, hit your shots. Lets go BG...

Griffin before Thabo? Please... I'm sick of Adrian Griffin, he brings NOTHING to the table, give Thabo a chance my god.

What the hell was that call? Holy spiff!

What a joke of a call. My freaking god, get Kirk in the game Boylan!

Thats why Griffin is on the court instead of Thabo. intangibles. Hustle, rebounding, scrappy play, good bucket with 3 guys around him. Now get Kirk in for Duhon. Boylan is really pissing me off. How much freaking rest does Smith need? We need some freaking scoring here.

WTF are they doing on offense? Guys are just standing around. This is freaking sloppy. They need to get their spiff together here.

This game is going to kill my nerves. OT on the West Side...

Aldridge rubbing that trade in our face.

Noc is freaking terrible. freaking A. Let Outlaw shoot, awesome.

Jeezus. OT #2 coming up...

Double OT!! We have to win this.

Way to freaking go Ben. You better redeem yourself.

I'm really starting to dislike this team. And I really liked it a year ago.

That sucked..

Unfuckingbelievable. Jeez. Ben has now cost is in OT TWICE! Then Noc goes and gets his dumbass shot blocked. My freaking god I've never been more pissed after a game IN MY LIFE.

I can't even describe how pissed I am right now. Oh my..ugh......

I do NOT want Gordon handling the ball anymore in the clutch. Get him open by running of screens or something. Dwight Howard picked his pocket a few days ago, Aldridge did tonight.

UN-freaking-BELIEVABLE.

So Nocioni is finally getting to ya... I knew it was only a matter of time. His play has pissed me off the last few weeks, so much so that I don't even want him on the court AT ALL!

There was little we could do, especially with Deng out.

Well, I had the first two right... shouldn't have gone with the Bulls victory though.

True but Noc has been if anything hurting the Bulls with his horrid shot selection and his horrible %..

i hope lu is alright, thabo wasnt even dressed yesterday, and griffin was in, i still want to see JamesOn get a chance, it cant hurt us.

Thabo Sprained his ankle I guess..

just saw a stat on espn that duhon has shot something awful like 16% FG the last few games... jesus.

get it freaking together, guys.

I believe JamesOn was supposed to be on his way back to the Iowa Energy today.

that stinks maybe thabo should go there, hes been horrible. it seems like none of our G's wants to start, when BG was starting he was bad, kirk isnt himself, and Du has been terrible.

Unfortunately we will be seeing alot more of Adrian Griffin... Jim, we get that you like the vets but Adrian Griffin is not going to take us to a championship, hell none of these guys are so please do us all a favor and not play him!

IMO with the way things are, I'd almost rather lose with the young guys than win with the vets. This could just be a waste of a season if we don't play Thabo, Tyrus, and Noah extended minutes. We'll come into next year and they'll be so far behind schedule you can't count on them. At some point Pax/Jim have got to look at this team and say "Were not going to win a championship with the way things are." The goal should never be to "Just make the playoffs", it should be to win a championship.

I've been saying something like that for about a month now.