When the Bulls (7-11) were getting beat up on during the two week circus trip, it was easy to just chalk it up to how difficult the trip has always been and the four straight blowouts did come against the Western Conference best.
When then they lost to Milwaukee on a last second miss by Brad Miller, the talk was about how Derrick Rose needs to be the man taking it upon himself to win games.
The Bulls returned home to get a win against a Detroit Pistons squad that was missing 3 starters, the talk was about Ben Gordon's return to the United Center.
Than, they went to Cleveland, where they were being outplayed so bad LeBron James decided to turn the game into So You Think You Can Dance.
I have no idea what can be said about tonight's 110-78 loss to the Toronto Raptors (9-13).
We could talk about the defense, which allowed the Raptors to shoot 48% from the field. We could talk about how they were out rebounded by 21,(53-32) by a team that is as physically imposing as the Luva-bulls. We could talk about how out-of-sync the offense and defense has become, we could even talk about how the games most exciting moments had nothing to do with the action on the court, with the game being blown open in the first quarter 37-16, but what distraction the Jumbo-tron would provide to keep fans entertained long enough to stay past halftime.
Joakim Noah, after being ejected in the third for picking up his second technical, couldn't even stick around and watch anymore.
Getting blownout on the road is one thing, getting beat in nearly every facet of the game on your home floor is a slap to the faces of the paying customers.
The Bulls just weren't prepared tonight and the Raptors, who were playing their fourth game in five nights, actually didn't have to play defense.
The Bulls offense has become predictable, stagnant and at times uninterested, but the good thing about the NBA is, there's always next game and for the Bulls sake, that comes against the New Jersey Nets (1-18), who won their first game in 19 tries on Friday against the Charlotte Bobcats (8-11). That game is on Tuesday, so the Bulls should have some very long practices.
If you want the stats for tonight, I'll just tell you that Chris Bosh had 25 points, 12 rebounds in 22 minutes of play and the highlights of the night had to be when rookie DeMar DeRozan caught a lob over John Salmons and came right back and threw one down on Brad Miller, both, in the first quarter.
Expect many highlights from him come February.
Comments