Houston is on fire and Bulls just came off arguably the best played game all season. Can the Bulls back up that performance?

Yes because we have Gooden and Hughes compared to Smith and Wallace.

are they playing for sure?

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/basketball/...-bull24.article

Yep, they're coming off the bench tonight, same lineup as the Nuggets game.

Yeah It'll be weird seeing who comes off the bench first, Gordon or Hughes? Or maybe both? I'm excited to see our first game with them. It looks like Simmons and Brown will be inactive though :[

should make brown active and nichols sit.

I really hope the Bulls come out with that same energy they had against the Nuggets. That game almost seemed too good to be true, so I'm definitely not sold on a Bulls team that can actually beat tough opponents consistently. Win or loss tonight, I'm really excited the game is on ESPN. I'd hate to miss the new guys in uniform and playing.

You just made my day. Didn't realize the game was on national TV. I'm so happy I'll be able to see all the newbies in their first game.

Cmon Bulls! The season isnt over, the inner-homer in me still has hope!!!

Thabo the ManChild With A SICK BLOCK on Yao!!!!!

Gooden in the game for Tyrus.

Its going to be a very difficult challenge to guard Yao tonight. It'll take a collective effort. Tyrus showed some sick skills with that coast to coast basket around the Big man.

Good to see some post up game from Gooden. Nice touch around the bucket. Hughes makes his 1st bucket with the Bulls on his 1st shot...make it 2 for 2. Creating his own shot, very nice!

YES!!!!! GOODEN HITS HIS FIRST SHOT AND HUGHES WITH 4 POINTS!!!!!

Ben Gordon is annoying me

Gordon not playing too well right now. Turnovers and he's not finishing around the basket.

I'm liking Hughes alot right now; he's creating things off the dribble, and he's doing it with a purpose. That feed to Luol Deng displayed some court awareness. Lets see what TT and JK can do when they enter the game again. I like the pace of where were running things right now.

Good to see Deng back and hitting those transition jumpers.

Why is Ben Gordon in the game? He is throwing up shots like he's the only player on the team, keep Hughes in.

Joakim Noah takes it coast to coast and dunks on TMAC!

I'd like to see a rotation of Hughes, Sefolosha, Deng, Gooden, and Noah right now. I could see that working well in the halfcourt game. In transition, I like the lineup we have out right now. Long, athletic, and can run the court well. Defense creates offense.

Also, the more I watch, the more I see Gordon as the odd man out.

Joakim is playing TREMENDOUS defense!

Holy cow, were the youngest team in the NBA????

did they say that? sounds right, we only have 2 guys who wernt born in the 80's.

red said lets get some TNT action thabo noah and tyrus lol

Thabo rejects the oop to TMac. Very nice.

The Rockets are annoying me, All they do is shoot threes.

Over/Under 1000000 three point shots by the rockets/

These officials have been freaking pathetic.

The Rockets do nothing but shoot 3's and hit them. Ben Gordon has managed to do nothing tonight.

GGO)OOOOOOODENN WITH A freaking FACIAL

With that "54 foot 3 attempt" by Gooden the Bulls now have more 3s attempted than free throws.

"Hey Jim Boylan, ever heard of a guy named Tyrus Thomas?"

The Rockets are the best 3 point shooting team ever.

What is going on with this game? The Rockets are drilling 3's all over the place. Not exactly what I wanted to watch.

The ROckets are the luckiest team in the NBA right now. "Hey lets chuck three pointers on bad shots and watch them fall in the basket!!!" 22 personal fouls to 13 fouls for the Rockets is a flat out joke. THis officiating sucks, this team hasn't played that bad

You're getting ridiculous now. They aren't lucky. They're hitting their shots. We haven't played as great as it seems. 22-13 isn't that big of a gap, especially considering Scola's 5 fouls have pretty much ALL been BS. This is just the case of a team full of new guys playing the hottest team in the NBA.

I can't watch anymore. This is a total disaster.

Cedric Simmons in the game now. Dunks it off a nice pass from Tyrus on his 1st touch. Gordon finally decides to hit a shot.

Notable stat-lines:

Hinrich: 10 pts, 10 asts (back-to-back double-doubles)
Thomas: 18 pts, 6 reb
Gordon: 2-11 fg, 5 points
Gooden: 12 pts, 8 reb
Hughes: 13 pts

Ben Gordon's downfall is, was, and always will be his inability to keep himself in control and just play basketball. He tries to be a showman-superstar and he's just not that type of player yet. When he just plays with his head he can go out and hit anything and drop 30+ points... when he has to prove a point to the organization he goes 2-11 and turns the ball over half a dozen times.

I think notable too, is a team total 13-14 at free throws. Yeah, not many attempts but they at least shot well.

This game stunk except it was cool to see the new guys. Just not much you can do when the other team is draining the 3s like that.

Well, maybe I'm at fault for this one. I think I jinxed him with my 2-15 shooting performance with Gordon on NBA 2k8, lol... No, but seriously, I was rather pissed when I lost to my friend in 2k8 today by 6 points and most of my blame went along the lines of "Ben Gordon would never shoot that poorly. This is one of the best shooters in the NBA. 2 for 15 is bullshit." Well, I guess I was wrong.

Nice post. The Rockets are the hottest team and we were close until the last half of the 4th. With new players and no real offense being run I say we did pretty well. Not to mention players were probably confused about their assignments and rotations on defense. Hopefully, all that will improve and we'll start to dominate.

As for the Rockets getting hot, it's nice to see since I picked them before the season to win it all. Of course that was before they traded Bonzi but I guess Bobby Jackson is proving to be a valuable member of the team (moreso then I thought he would be). Anyway, the Rockets can beat anyone if their game is on. It is really going to come down to who they have to play in the post season. They are a deeper team this year than they were last year (with Scola, Landry, & Jackson being key contributors) so it will be fun to watch them and the Western conference playoffs in general.

They still can't compete against LA with a healthy Bynum, San Antonio, New Orleans, or Utah. I think the Rockets are a good team but I want to see them actually win a playoff series before talking about them winning it all or making it to the WCF.