Wow, that was possibly the ugliest game TNT has ever broadcast.
The Bulls scored 77 points on about 97 possessions. I'd love to give Ron Artest and Brad Miller and even Poodle/Nasty/Reef some credit for that, I really would. But...
Ben Gordon 3-16 FG, 1-7 3P, 2 TO
Luol Deng 9-22 FG, 2-4 FT, 4 TO
Kirk Hinrich 8-19 FG, 1-5 3P
Chris Duhon 3-11 FG, 2-5 3P
Thabo Sefolosha 0-5 FG, 1 TO in 9 min
P.J Brown 1-6 FG, 4 TO
At some point, you have to chalk most of Chicago's craptasticness to Chicago playing like crap. This was one of those games. Yes, give credit to the Kings. But don't oversell it. The Bulls missed 68 shots.
Some assorted notes:
- Wow. You give Kevin Martin 40 minutes, and he gets you 29 points. Shocking! Truly. Speedracer took 16 shots. Three Bulls took 16+ shots. Speed had 9 makes. The most any of those Bulls had? Deng had 9... on 22 shots. Hinrich had 8... on 19 shots. This Kevin Martin, he's good, yes?
- I appreciate Ron Artest's committment to rebounding the ball. Eight in this game - though that might be skewed because there were a lot of opportunities to rebound the ball, as the teams combined to miss 109 shots.
- Brad Miller: 12 rebs, 6 asts, 2 blocks. I don't particularly care if he scores - it's not the same as a Ben Wallace or Tyson Chandler, guys who are anathema to offense. Miller helps just by being in the game on that end. You'd hope he'd shoot a better percentage, but it's not like he's taking too many shots.
- Nice win for Musselman. Admit it: You were frightened when the game tightened up. Scotty Brooks, we trust. But Muss? Ehh. I was getting ready to eat some coaching crow. Needless to say, I'm relieved.
- Tyrus Thomas, meet karma. (UPDATE: For the true schadenfreudists, Awful Announcing has video.)
- Three big cheers to Louismg for rescuing the game thread. Laugh out loud KT jokes.