Posts Tagged ‘Kirk Hinrich’

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Time For The Nets To Show Resolve

April 29, 2013  ·  10:22AM

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The Brooklyn Nets aren’t going to out-tough the Chicago Bulls. No team can do that.

Led by Tom Thibodeau, Joakim Noah and Luol Deng, the Bulls are certainly the most resilient team in the league, Exhibit A being Saturday’s comeback from 14 points down with three minutes to go in regulation and the ability to outlast the Nets in three overtimes with Noah, Nate Robinson and Taj Gibson having fouled out.

“That’s been the nature of the team all season,” Thibodeau said Sunday. “They’ll keep battling. Things weren’t going our way, but there was no give-in. They just kept going.”

Now, it’s not like the Nets are pushovers. It takes a certain amount of toughness to build a 14-point lead in a hostile environment when you’re down 2-1 in the series. And the Nets managed to bounce back from blowing that 14-point lead to make some (just not enough) big plays down the stretch. Really, if just one of those crazy Robinson shots didn’t go in, this series would be tied 2-2.

It’s not though. And the Nets are now faced with the challenge of having to win three straight games. If they can’t, we can certainly declare their season a disappointment.

So Brooklyn will have to show more of its own resilience in Game 5 on Monday (7 p.m. ET, TNT). Playing well in the face of elimination is a mental thing, especially in the wake of such a heartbreaking loss.

But the Nets shouldn’t lack confidence going forward. They have put up big numbers against the staunch Chicago defense twice in the series thus far. And though they’re 2-6 against the Bulls this season, they’ve been outscored by just 12 total points over the eight games.

“I don’t think it’s difficult for our guys to feel that they’re capable of doing this,” Nets coach P.J. Carlesimo said. “I think that they feel we can beat the Bulls. Have we done it? No, we haven’t done it enough. But they know that we can do it.”

The Nets have seemingly been a team without character all season. They’re to be praised for taking care of business against bad teams (they were 35-7 against teams that finished below .500) and for compiling the league’s fifth-best road record (23-18). But they’re to be questioned for their 14-26 mark against winning teams and their defense, which wavered ranged from poor to mediocre most of the season.

Maybe that’s just who the Nets are, a good team that can’t hang when the going gets tough. Or maybe they haven’t shown us everything they have.

If the Nets are to show some resolve on Monday, it must manifest itself in execution as much as energy. They can continue to beat the Bulls’ defense if they get into their offense early, keep their stars – Deron Williams, Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez — on the move, and knock down some shots. The absence of Kirk Hinrich — out with a calf injury — should benefit Williams on the perimeter.

Defensively, the Nets need to cut off Robinson in the pick-and-roll and put more pressure on Carlos Boozer at the high post. No other Chicago player has really been able to hurt them and the Bulls have been somewhat fortunate in that they’ve shot so well (54 percent) from mid-range. That number is not sustainable, especially if Brooklyn does a slightly better job of challenging those shots.

It’s all right there for the Nets. Chicago is certainly the tougher team, but not necessarily the better team. Down 3-1, proving that will be difficult, but nothing worthwhile comes easily.

It starts with Game 5.

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Hinrich’s absence (is status beyond Game 5 is unknown) could be a real killer for the Bulls. Here are some numbers that don’t paint a pretty picture for Chicago…

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Any Room For Bruisers At The Top?

April 14, 2013  ·  6:08PM





HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – The Bad Boys era Pistons would have been proud of the effort from the Chicago Bulls Sunday in Miami. The intent was there.

But the execution and the results were not there as injury-plagued Bulls did their best to rough up the Miami Heat before falling 105-93 to the defending NBA champs on their home floor.

“Make ‘em feel you,” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said during one timeout huddle as he rallied his troops from an early deficit. And it worked for a while. The Bulls stayed in this game because they were willing to inflict as much legal but very physical pain as allowed in order to neutralize the Heat.

When it works, it’s a thing of brutal beauty, sort of like the Bulls’ streak-busting win over the Heat on March 27. You might remember that game from the LeBron James-Kirk Hinrich floor scrubbing incident, one of the plays that prompted James to groan about the way the Bulls were allowed to muscle up on the Heat.

It appears we have reached a crossroads, of sorts, in regards to whether or not those sort of, let’s call them “chippy” tactics really work anymore. They certainly haven’t produced any championship hardware recently. The last team to play bruising defense that leaves opponents black and blue from the experience was the 2007-08 Boston Celtics, a team Thibodeau served as its defensive coordinator under Doc Rivers.

That Celtics team would qualify as the last team to utilize that brutal, throwback defensive style on its ride to a title. That’s not to say that you don’t have to be an elite defensive team to win a title, because you absolutely do.

All four teams to hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy since then — the Los Angeles Lakers in 2009 and 2010, the Dallas Mavericks in 2011 and the Heat last year — have finished among the league’s elite in defensive rating. In fact, the last championship team to finish outside the top eight in defensive rating was the 2001 Lakers, who finished 18th.

There is only one non-playoff team in the top 10 this season, the Washington Wizards. So again, you have to play defense at an elite level to even get into the championship conversation.

But that doesn’t mean a team will be able to bully its way to the title the way the 2004 Pistons did. We might not see another team built on that sort of rugged defensive bedrock the way that Pistons team was or the 2008 Celtics were when they won it all.

The Bulls have tried it in recent years and seen it go up in smoke in the playoffs.

They had the best record and defensive rating in the league in each of the past two seasons, and lost to the Heat in the Eastern Conference finals two years ago and in the first round to the Philadelphia 76ers last season, after losing 2011 league MVP Derrick Rose to a knee injury that has sidelined him this entire season.

It makes you wonder, if and when we might see another bruiser riding down the street during a championship parade?

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LeBron Must Keep Cruisin’ Past Bruisin’

April 3, 2013  ·  4:27PM

 

HANG TIME, Texas — Whether it’s Friday night in Charlotte, Saturday at home against the Sixers or even Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs, LeBron James will be coming back to a different game than he left.

More rough, more tough, more down in the dirt, use-everything-but-the-kitchen sink.

Because it worked in Chicago. Because it’s the only thing that put James on the wrong end of a scoreboard since Feb. 1.

Because the rest of the NBA is desperate.

If it wasn’t already with his third MVP, the 2012 NBA title and an Olympic gold medal, the 27-game winning streak stamped this as LeBron’s time, an era of contentment, fulfillment and waltzing up and down basketball courts to music that only he can hear.

When it got to the level where Danny Ainge was taking shots at his toughness and Pat Riley was responding quite earthily, then the point had already been made. Opposing defenses might as well be shooting spitballs at a battleship.

The only other answer, of course, is to bring him down by any means, which was the path taken by Kirk Hinrich and Taj Gibson.

James’ response was predictable, a variation of “How Dare They?” that was really no different from the indignant reactions of Michael Jordan when he was soaring above the game.

The irony and hypocrisy is that it was none other than Riley as the Designer Don of the Knicks in the 1990s who built on the Detroit Bad Boys approach and did as much as anybody to have enforcers Charles Oakley, Larry Johnson, Patrick Ewing and friends try to take a piece out of Jordan when they couldn’t stop him.

Everybody now will poke and prod and push and shove and flat out body slam James to throw off his shot or throw him out his comfort zone.

“We know what’s coming now,” said Miami teammate Shane Battier. “We know that’s Eastern Conference basketball, especially in the playoffs. Teams are going to try to make it a game without spacing, without pace and we’re going to try to do the opposite. We’re going to create a bunch of space and try to create tempo. That’s our strength.

“We know that every other team is going to view that Chicago game as some kind of blueprint maybe. That’s OK. We can play any style of basketball that’s required and I’m pretty sure LeBron can handle himself.”

In the end, that’s all that matters, how James handles himself. When opponents tried to body up Jordan, it only stiffened his own resolve. When anybody took him down to the floor with a bit of extra flourish, Jordan usually got back up and made them pay with a bit of extra mustard mixed with venom.

It is a different game now, one where it’s almost impossible to impede a player on the perimeter without setting off the kind of alarm sounds that accompany airport metal detectors. It’s why point guards have never thrived more at any time in the history of the league than today. The rules have been tweaked and rewritten to put less emphasis on brute strength and more on speed and skill.

The dilemma is that James, at 6-foot-8, 260, has the brute strength to overpower while giving up none of the speed and skill. Until somebody finds a way to put a muscle or two on Kevin Durant, LeBron is a cut above, in a class by himself.

Being so talented makes him singular and makes him a target and in the history of stars in any sport that does not make him special. The other guys don’t come to praise you, but to chop you down.

It’s a fact of life and complaining about a lack of whistles from referees or retaliating with a bull rush at Carlos Boozer will not stop it, only let them know that they’ve gotten under your skin.

Jordan channeled his anger into a raging fury that was belied by that photogenic smile that launched a thousand ad campaigns. Oh yes, we all wanted to be like Mike. But never ever forget that Mike, when provoked, could be a very bad man with a ball in his grip.

“We’re aware of what everybody’s game plan is against us,” said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. “They want to prevent layups and dunks and highlight plays at all costs. That can mean hard fouls. We know that.”

Battier views from across the court and across the locker room and sees an awesome physical specimen and a supremely talented player who is finally at peace with who he is.

“I’m pretty sure,” he said, “that LeBron is ready for anything.”

He’ll have to be, since now the plan and the game is going to change.

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Could 80s Flashback Fire Up Heat?

March 30, 2013  ·  10:09AM

 

HANG TIME, Texas – So much for the notion that all of the energy and drama was sucked out of half the playoff bracket by the Heat’s 27-game win streak.

Suddenly the Eastern Conference is dripping with more subplots than a Russian novel with LeBron James complaining that the Bulls abused him, Taj Gibson cleverly telling the best player in the game that he’s too good to whine, Danny Ainge foolishly and typically wading into the middle of the war with his mouth and Pat Riley suggesting that Ainge should “shut the (expletive) up.”

Oh baby, the only way this could only get more delicious is with whipped cream and a cherry on top. Or maybe Kevin McHale taking down Kurt Rambis with a clothesline.

Just like that, we’re back in the 1980s with LA Gear, parachute pants and an urge to sing “Beat It.”

Is the manipulative genius of Riley at work here with LeBron? Has the blueprint for beating the Heat been put on display? Does anybody actually need to light a fire under an imposing team that just went nearly two full months without losing?

Do we really have to wait three more weeks for the playoffs to begin?

Miami vs. Chicago. Miami vs. Boston. And you thought Indiana was the Heat’s only minor roadblock to The Finals.

Don’t we really have to pull for the Celtics to tumble into the No. 8 seed and open up against the Heat in the first round?

Before the opening tip, Riley and Ainge could square off at center court for an MMA bout, complete with the octagon cage.

Hopefully, the winner of that first-round street fight would then face Chicago in a series presumably played with helmets and full body armor.

Look, we can’t really blame James for feeling that the Bulls used him as a tackling dummy on Wednesday night. After all, he’s been raised and cultivated and ascended to his seat on the throne in this 21st century era that has become so polite and contact-averse that any day now you can expect the NBA’s discipline czar Stu Jackson to rule from the league office that defenders must play with their pinkie fingers extended, as if they’re attending a tea party.

“Let me calculate my thoughts real fast before I say [what I want to say],” James said after the game. “I believe and I know that a lot of my fouls are not basketball plays. First of all, Kirk Hinrich in the first quarter basically grabbed me with two hands and brought me to the ground. The last one, Taj Gibson was able to collar me around my shoulder and bring me to the ground. Those are not defensive and those are not basketball plays.”

Of course, those of us who were around in the 80s and 90s or have learned from the drawings on cave walls about the times when prehistoric figures named Oakleysaurus, Mahornasaurus and Laimbeer Rex guarded the paint with sharp elbows and pointed attitudes, know that those used to be routine basketball plays. As James is trying to climb the ladder of greatness to catch Michael Jordan, let him ask His Airness if he was ever given a bump or two at The Palace of Auburn Hills or Madison Square Garden.

All of the good will and gosh-almighty admiration for Miami and for James that was built up during the construction of the 27-game streak could go out the window if the Heat players start to believe they should be unchallenged physically and simply carried on the shoulders of tributes to a second consecutive NBA title.

“I think he’s too good of a player to do that,” Gibson zinged when asked about James’ complaints in a radio interview.

The big question is what in the world could ever have possessed Ainge to enter the fray. Then you remember that he was just being Ainge, agitator and instigator and never a finisher during his playing career.

“I think that it’s almost embarrassing that LeBron would complain about officiating,” Ainge said.

And that’s when the real fun started.

“Danny Ainge needs to shut the #$!* up and manage his own team,” Riley said in a statement released through a Heat spokesman. “He was the biggest whiner going when he was playing and I know that because I coached against him.”

Give Riley credit. The guy who copyrighted the term “three-peat” back in 1987 could have another T-shirt selling bonanza on his hands with the blunt “STFU” combined with that fireball Heat logo.

It might not only have been the first official statement in known team sport history to include the home-run word, but also the artful, Machiavellian Riley’s way of delivering a just-as-short message to LeBron ahead of the 2014 opt-out clause in his contract: I’ll always have your back.

At first, Ainge backed off a bit.

“Pat Riley’s right,” he said. “I should manage my own team. I complained a lot to the officials. And I’m right, LeBron should be embarrassed about how he complains about the calls he gets.”

But just before Friday night’s game against the Hawks, he could not resist one more shot:

“I stand by what I said. That’s all. I don’t care about Pat Riley. He can say whatever he wants.

“I don’t want to mess up his Armani suits and all that hair goop. It would be way too expensive for me.”

Can’t we start the playoffs right now?

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Shots Fired, Now Get Off LeBron’s Back

March 29, 2013  ·  11:00AM

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HANG TIME SOUTHWEST – LeBron James, a whiner?

The man wins 27 consecutive games to propel the Miami Heat to the second-longest streak in NBA history, he finally losses for the first time since the Super Bowl and everyone jumps on the game’s most dominating force for complaining that refs should have been more liberal in calling the Chicago Bulls for flagrant fouls?

Right because in the NBA, no one does that.

Get real.

Here’s a refresher as to what LeBron said after the Heat’s streak-ending, 101-97 defeat in Chicago:

“Let me calculate my thoughts real fast before I say [what I want to say],” James said after the game. “I believe and I know that a lot of my fouls are not basketball plays. First of all, Kirk Hinrich in the first quarter basically grabbed me with two hands and brought me to the ground. The last one, Taj Gibson was able to collar me around my shoulder and bring me to the ground. Those are not defensive … those are not basketball plays.

“I’m not sitting here crying about anything,” said James. “I play the game at a high level, I play with a lot of aggression, I understand that some of the plays are on the borderline of a basketball play or not. But sometimes, you know? I don’t know … it’s frustrating.”

For some reason, perhaps boredom, Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge provided his two cents on LeBron’s ref rant, calling it “embarrassing.”

“I think the referees got the calls right. I don’t think it was a hard foul,” Ainge said on WEEI Radio on Thursday. “I think the one involving LeBron against [Carlos] Boozer, that was flagrant. I think the officials got it right. “I think that it’s almost embarrassing that LeBron would complain about officiating.”

We’re kind of wondering how Ainge might describe his team’s recent choke job on their home floor against the Heat and the losing skid that ensued.

At least Bulls forward Taj Gibson was an active participant in the actual game. He, too, went on the radio to express dismay that a frustrated LeBron would question the officiating.

Gibson’s response on ESPN 1000 in Chicago:

“I think he’s too good of a player to do that [complain]. You just play, two teams really going out there and play hard, going to the basket extremely hard and physical. … I didn’t try to collar him. I just fouled him. It wasn’t intentionally. I just tried to make a play on the ball, but I fouled him. When he fell, it looked like I collared him. I was really trying to grab him, just not hold him up. Nobody was intentionally trying to hurt anybody out there. When he said those comments, I was really shocked. But it’s part of the game, I guess.”

Shocking is the unnecessary negative jabs generated by LeBron’s comments after an intense and meaningful game which followed nearly two months of blowout wins, amazing performances and remarkable comebacks. And the Heat did this the last couple of weeks while being trailed by a national media horde.

Amazing the tiny cracks that opportunists will squirm through to get in their shots. During Miami’s 27-game win streak, LeBron averaged 27.0 ppg, 8.0 apg and 8.1 rpg. He shot 57.5 percent overall and 37.4 percent from 3-point range. He had 50 steals and 25 blocks, and was a whopping plus-344 — say that last one again, plus-344.

So thank you, Mr. Ainge and you too, Mr. Gibson, for your concern over LeBron’s foul frustrations, warranted or not.

Ainge might want to implore his battered club to stay out of that eight-hole or watch LeBron complain his way to a methodical sweep of his Celtics. As for Gibson, far more shocking than LeBron’s comments are his mostly stagnant season statistics — 7.9 ppg, 5.5 rpg and 68.7 percent from the free throw line — with that nice, little pay raise kicking in next season, and over the next four.

Then again, haters apparently will hate.

Ridiculous.

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Facing Tough Task, Bulls Toughen Up

March 28, 2013  ·  1:40AM

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CHICAGO – This is the way a 27-game winning streak ends: With a lot of bangs and a few whimpers.

Undermanned almost beyond credulity, the Chicago Bulls stiffened defensively, tried to whack twice for every one they absorbed and toughed their way to a 101-97 upset over the Miami Heat that snapped the NBA’s second-longest streak of consecutive victories. The 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers’ mark of 33 in a row rests easy, which is more than can be said about Heat star LeBron James, who ended his night both battered and a little cranky.

The Bulls met arguably the NBA’s most imposing and unstoppable physical force with force of their own. Point guard Kirk Hinrich managed to grab the cow catcher, crash to the floor and live to tell about it when James barreled straight at him in the first quarter. In the fourth, Taj Gibson put James on the floor with a two-handed swipe as the Miami forward drove to the hoop. Initially and incorrectly ruled a flagrant foul, the refs got it right upon review but James didn’t appreciate going down, his legs twisted like a pretzel.

Moments later, James drove one of his massive shoulders into a screen set by Chicago’s Carlos Boozer. That one was a flagrant foul, a spill of frustration not so much that the streak was about to end – it was 90-82 with 3:52 left – but that he was getting abused in the process.

“I believe, and I know, that a lot of my fouls are not basketball plays,” James told reporters afterward. “First of all, Kirk Hinrich in the first quarter basically grabbed me with two hands and brought me to the ground. … And you know, the last one, Taj Gibson was able to collar me around my shoulder and bring me to the ground.

“Those are not basketball plays. It’s been happening all year and I’ve been able to keep my cool. But it is getting to me a little bit.”

First things first: No one can blame James for disliking the thumping. But what Chicago did apparently was within the bounds of Doc Naismith‘s game – OK, maybe Doc Lecter‘s – because none of the Bulls got tossed or ejected. Not that their depleted roster could afford any ousters.

“He probably got a little frustrated,” Gibson said. “But you got to keep playing. These are two physical teams. The refs did a great job, because they let a lot of stuff go.”

Besides, what were the Bulls supposed to do? The NBA’s hottest team in, sheesh, 41 years was bearing down on them. And they were light in the loafers – no Derrick Rose, no Joakim Noah, no Richard Hamilton, no Marco Belinelli. Absent those players and their skills, Chicago’s only real alternative was to dial up the grit.

“Obviously having those guys out is not easy,” said Hinrich, who stuck in his nose and jaw wherever he could, from attacking James off the dribble with some – ugh! – inevitable results to ripping the ball away from Chris Bosh for a critical takeaway at 92-85. “But we realize, collectively, if we share the ball, team defense, have good energy and intensity and play with that edge, we’re going to have a chance to win some games. … We just grinded.”

That play where he grabbed James and all but tackled him? “I was just hanging on for dear life. Just didn’t want him to get the ‘and 1,’ ” Hinrich said. “You just don’t realize how powerful that guy is. With his speed and strength you can’t take anything for granted. I still feel I got the worst of it.”

Hinrich, at times in the second half, found himself guarded by James, the bigger man’s extra six inches and 70 pounds or so eclipsing his view of the basket. So what did Hinrich do? He drove left and got snuffed. He drove right and got snuffed. Then with just over two minutes left, Hinrich went up the gut again – and kicked the ball to Gibson on the left baseline for a 16-footer that made it 94-85.

“Kirk is one of the toughest guys I know,” Gibson said. “He has so much swag every day in practice. He’s a real vet. He doesn’t shy away from anything. He’s always in the middle, especially on big men – he switches out with centers. He really doesn’t care.”

Miami, throughout its remarkable streak, had played numerous teams that were missing key players: Orlando (no Nikola Vucevic), Cleveland (no Kyrie Irving or Anderson Varejao), Milwaukee (no Luc Mbah a Moute to guard James), Boston (no Rajon Rondo or Kevin Garnett). The point of which isn’t to sully the Heat’s accomplishment but to marvel at how hard and well these various depleted rotations play when their coaches’ options are limited, their minutes are high, everyone’s expectations are muted and the opponent is toting around a huge bull’s-eye.

The Bulls claimed streak-busting had little or nothing to do with Wednesday’s outcome. They were driven more by the 86-67 hairball they spit up against Miami at United Center on Feb. 21, back when the streak was just nine games old.

Said Gibson: “We didn’t like that. We felt like we got punked on our own court. They blew us out.”

If the players that end such a streak get credit. so does the fellow who coaches those players. From the outside, Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau looks to have painted another masterpiece of X & Overachievement. But while Hinrich acknowleged, “Yeah, he was fired up,” other Chicago players saw or heard nothing different from their guy on the sideline.

“Honestly, the dude is the same every game,” said forward Luol Deng, who scored 28 points and made the most of those reprieves when James shifted over to Hinrich. “No matter who you’re playing. I didn’t see any difference. He’s intense. He’s always focused.”

It was that way for both teams Wednesday, but the only way out for the Bulls.

“We just came in with that dog mentality that we weren’t going to go soft,” Gibson said. “We really had it in the back of our head. Once the game came, we knew we had to do it. There was no talking. Guys just understood, to go out there and play hard. Take hard fouls when you need to.

“Every time we play that team, we try to send a message. They sent the message the last game we played them. So we had to keep pushing. Every time to play this team, it’s like a new testament.”
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Bulls’ Rookie Teague Passes Test In Rondo ‘Reboot’

November 13, 2012  ·  12:54AM





CHICAGO – Six years ago, a slender point guard hit the NBA as a late first-round draft pick out of Kentucky, toting a bag of confidence along that seemed bigger than he was. Rajon Rondo took his lumps on a bad Boston Celtics team for a year, then began his climb through a championship season in 2007-08, all the way to premier status among the league’s playmakers.

Against the Celtics Monday night at Chicago’s United Center, a slender point guard who’d arrived late in the first round from Kentucky, with a similar oversized bag of confidence, stepped onto the floor against the great Rondo. Marquis Teague and his team didn’t win – Boston shot 60 percent in the first half, then protected its lead late for a 101-95 victory – but the kid went breakthrough.

Rondo was lethal, with 20 points on 10-of-16 shooting, nine rebounds, 10 assists and five steals. But Teague played the entire fourth quarter in place of Nate Robinson – both of them were subbing for Derrick Rose and Kirk Hinrich – and repeatedly had the ball and the game in his hands over the final nine minutes.

“That is the first step,” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said. “[Leandro] Barbosa and Rondo are super-quick. I like that match up for Marquis. He got us playing with energy.”

Through Chicago’s first six games, Teague had logged a total of 10 minutes. In this one, the rookie – he’s listed at a preposterous 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds – played 18, made one of his four shots, got to the line a couple of times, pilfered three rebounds, had two assists and a turnover and scored five points.

He seems more mild-mannered than Rondo, yet was just as oblivious to the pedigree matched up against him. Whether that meant chasing Rondo on the perimeter or taking the ball into the paint strong, right up into Kevin Garnett‘s grill.

“I don’t think it’s any fun to play against Rondo whether you’re a 10-year guy or a 1-year guy,” Boston coach Doc Rivers said. “Y’know, Teague is a tough kid. I’ve watched him  play for a long time because him and Austin [Rivers, New Orleans rookie and the coach's son] played AAU against each other. I thought he handled it pretty well.”

No biggie for Teague, whose brother Jeff is the Atlanta Hawks’ starting point guard. Growing up in Indianapolis, Teague faced top competition in and outside his family (Boston’s Courtney Lee, for instance), and of course he was part of Kentucky’s NCAA title team last spring.

“My whole life,” the Chicago guard said when asked if he’d had nights like Monday. “I’m not really fazed by the situation I’m in. It doesn’t matter to me. I’ve played in a lot of big games in my life. So it’s just another game.”

Rondo, now a three-time All-Star and a possible MVP candidate this season, wasn’t surprised by a thing Teague did. Taking it at Garnett? “Nobody’s, like, scared of anyone,” Rondo said. “He went in and attacked the basket. He made the right play.”

Teague even had the temerity to think he was getting an “and-1″ when the whistle blew. But no, he was cited for fending off Garnett with his left arm.

Just following Thibodeau’s orders, Teague said later. Use his speed. Play aggressive.

“My confidence is the same,” he said. “Never [down]. It’s always going to be there. I’m a basketball player. That’s how I feel.”

Competitive as he is, Rondo initially was stingy in assessing Teague’s play. Then he opened up: “He’s been a winner all his life – he won at Kentucky. So I don’t think he’s short on confidence. He was ready when his number was called. He got to the cup a couple of times, drew some fouls in crunch-time minutes. For a player that young, your confidence just grows and grows. I’m sure he’s going to continue to work ‘cuz you never know. Just like Kirk got hurt and D. Rose is out to start…”

Teague’s upside this season is modest enough – he might be angling for a bigger role as one of the Bulls’ placeholders till Rose returns from knee rehab. But Rondo wasn’t taking any chances. The Boston guard said he didn’t offer any tips or wisdom to the fellow former Wildcat.

There is no higher praise.

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Offended By Needless ‘Big Mac’ Points? Find A Way To Stop ‘Em Earlier

November 8, 2012  ·  10:00AM

CHICAGO – The problem with the end-of-game, scoreboard-related promotion at United Center isn’t that fans can turn their ticket stubs into Big Macs after any game in which the Bulls score 100 points.

The problem is that a giveaway more in line with the team’s character would be better suited. Say, fans qualify for said burger whenever coach Tom Thibodeau‘s hounds hold the opponent to 85 points or less.

But we live in a big-round-numbers world, so scoring 100 points it is. Which, in the aftermath of the Bulls’ 99-93 home victory over Orlando Tuesday, shouldn’t be any problem at all – or source of controversy — for Chicago or center Joakim Noah. Or, for that matter, any Magic personnel who have their shorts in a bunch.

So Noah launched a needless 3-pointer in the waning seconds of the victory (he explains what went wrong with it above), rather than letting the clock run out. So he was embarrassed, maybe, over missing a free throw 20 seconds earlier that could have clinched the fast-food menu item for the 21,216 sellout crowd – and the fact that teammate Kirk Hinrich missed two foul shots with 10 seconds left to further disappoint the fans.

So the Orlando Sentinel sought out Magic players like J.J. Redick, who felt Noah’s heave was “unnecessary.” And Ish Smith, who said the Orlando players “noticed.”

So what.

Noah apparently got an earful from Thibodeau, though the coach wouldn’t tell reporters after practice Wednesday what was said. After the game, Noah — who plays passionately and connects with fans in ways many of his peers do not — already was sounding more sheepish, as per an ESPNChicago.com report:

“I got caught up in the moment,” Noah admitted after the game.

Despite the fact the Bulls had won, many fans booed the team as the final buzzer sounded.

“I regret it a little bit,” Noah said. “It wasn’t a good shot.

“You have to respect the game because you never know what can happen in a game. I just got caught up in the moment and I was trying to get the people a Big Mac. They really wanted a Big Mac [judging by how loud the crowd was getting] and I felt like, not only did I take the shot and miss the shot, we didn’t even get the Big Mac. Next time, I won’t take that 3-pointer.”

That’s fine. That’s a personal call or might even qualify as a team rule — though some fans surely will boo and go home grumpy after that decision, too.

What isn’t needed is scolding or chiding of Noah or any other player who similarly “goes for it” at such a silly scoreboard threshold. Management cut that 100-points sponsorship deal for a reason. The revenues it brings in from McDonald’s all go in the big pile of money of that NBA owners, staff, coaches and players divvy up. This isn’t anything new, by the way; this correspondent attended a Suns-Jazz game in New Orleans in 1977 where the Superdome crowd began chanting “FRENCH fries! FRENCH fries!” when Pete Maravich & Co. got close to what back then surely was 120 points or so as the goal.

It gives fans who pay royally for tickets something extra for which to cheer — especially in games where injuries keep Derrick Rose or Jameer Nelson and other names out.

In this case, it all backfired, as noted in The Point Forward blog on SI.com:

The funniest part here: Noah goes home with everyone mad at him. The Magic think he’s a poor sport. His coach thinks he should know better and show more professionalism. And, perhaps most importantly, Bulls fans go home upset that he didn’t even hit the shot to deliver the goods. Brutal.

Enough, though, with these so-called “unwritten rules” designed only to save face for the losing team. They stop trying, so the winners are required to stop trying as well? Yeah, that’s great competitiveness.

If a team puts such a promotion in — and cashes the checks — it ought to honor and go for it. Keep the fans’ feeling a part of things, and throw ‘em a burger for their troubles. As for the Magic or any other losing side getting all sideways, they’d do well to heed the view of a longtime respected NBA coach.

Asked how he felt about the alleged insult of a late 3-pointer in a lopsided game – or any perceived attempt to run up a score that no longer matters – his response was: “Stop ‘em then. You ought to feel worse about the points that got them there.”

Orlando lost again 24 hours later in Minnesota. It got beat by 15. But at least the Timberwolves only got to 90.

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Posted in 2012, HT News / Comments (47) /

What’s Blowing Through Chicago?

July 25, 2012  ·  9:40AM





HANG TIME, Texas – Close your eyes and think of those days when the Bulls were a mean, snorting threat to win it all. Try to remember way back when they took the floor with their heads down, horns sharp, pawing at the dirt, ready to challenge LeBron James and the Heat for Eastern Conference supremacy and make a run at their first championship since the Jordan Era.

Was it just three months ago?

From the moment Derrick Rose crumpled in a heap at the end of the playoff opener against Philadelphia, a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, it was obvious that 2012-13 was going to be a different kind of season in Chicago.

But this summer has been more like Extreme Makeover: Lake Michigan Edition.

Kyle Korver has been shipped off to Atlanta. C.J. Watson is now in Brooklyn. Omer Asik is the latest to hit the door, landing in Houston when the Bulls chose not to match a three-year, $25.1 million offer sheet.

As noted by our well-respected friend Rick Telander in the Chicago Sun-Times:

A Bulls team that last offseason seemed so improved, so solid, so primed to take on the Miami Heat and go for the NBA crown, with fine starters and a feisty Bench Mob, isn’t exactly a memory, but it’s a fading vapor. (more…)

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Posted in Free Agency 2012 / Comments (116) /

Marquis Teague Feeling Backup Pressure

July 18, 2012  ·  2:22PM

 

LAS VEGAS – He is the just in case, at least the backup to the interim backup and possibly soon to be a notch lower than that, but it’s the Bulls and no one needs to remind them about  worst-case scenarios.

Derrick Rose is out after knee surgery – hello, worst-case scenario – Kirk Hinrich is in as the starter, and Marquis Teague is somewhere down the line from there. Maybe he’s No. 2 behind Hinrich, the ex-Bull who returned this month as a free agent, and facing immediate expectations as a first-round draft choice trying to help replace an injured former MVP. Or maybe Chicago makes a move to add another point guard, a possibility, and Teague goes to No. 3.

There will be a spotlight either way, because it’s the Bulls, a title contender at full strength now hoping to come close to filling the void, and because Teague is coming off an important role on Kentucky’s national-championship squad.

“That’s a lot of pressure, playing behind Derrick Rose, playing behind one of the best point guards in the game,” Teague said. “He leads his team deep in the playoffs every year. That’s tough to play behind.”

And that’s in addition to the built-in transition of going from one season in college to the NBA. Plus, there were doubts around the league heading into the draft whether Teague could be a dependable playmaker as opposed to a scoring small guard who has to play the point at 6 feet 2 and 180 pounds.

“I know I’ve got an opportunity if I come in and perform,” the brother of Hawks guard Jeff Teague said. “I’ve got to show them I can play.”

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Posted in 2012 Summer League / Comments (8) /

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