Dreaded Circus Trip Starts Tonight With Sacramento

By Sean Mackey

The Chicago Bulls start their annual west coast road trip tonight as the circus takes over the United Center. The Bulls have a combined record of 9-24 record over the past five seasons on this particular road trip. Chicago will face off against Sacramento, followed by a nationally televised game against the defending champions, the LA Lakers, then Denver, Portland, Utah & Milwaukee.

This year, it appears that 3 of these games are fairly winable. A 3-3 record would be more than acceptable. The win against the Sixers the other night was another unconvincing ugly win. The offense is terrible but the defense is winning the games....barely. John Salmons isn't scoring well and Rose is slowly starting to drive to the basket. If both of those guys were more efficicent the team would be winning by more than 5 points every night.

We need a scorer and a post up guy soon.

Miller's Miracle Shot Doesn't Count, Bulls Lose 90-89

By Sean Mackey

The Nuggets won, then the Bulls won, then the Nugget won again Tuesday night 90-89. Confusing? Yes. The Bulls initially lost the game 90-89 then the refs put 0.3 back on the clock. With 0.3 seconds remaining on the clock, Brad Miller threw up a prayer that went in near the 3 point line. The score then changed to 91-90, the crowd went crazy, the Bulls went crazy, VDN was smiling, it was great. Then after about 5 whole minutes of the refs reviewing the shot, they decided that the ball didn't leave Miller's fingertips before the buzzer went off. Nuggets win 90-89. The refs said it was just too close to call giving the Nuggets the benefit of the doubt.

The general reaction was that the shot was good. When you change the score, have a home crowd going crazy and it's too close to call, you should leave the call be. Had I been there, I would have been throwing my coke cup onto hardwood. Hell, I was on the floor pounding my fist into the rug watching the game on my laptop via a very poor, pixelated p2p site (once again, thanks Bulls and Nuggets fans for making the Bulls/Nuggets your fan night game so it would be blacked out to us paying LP Broadband customers).

Regardless, it was a great game, the Bulls offense sucks but their defense is ridiculously good this season. Deng held Carmelo to just 20 points and scored 21 points himself. Derrick Rose heated up in the 4th quarter and finished with 22 points and 5 assists. Noah had another monster game with 12 points, 21 rebounds and 2 blocks. Why his name was left off the all-star ballot has left many Bulls fans puzzled and outraged. Feel free to write his name in as I did, it couldn't hurt.

The Bulls play the Raptors tonight, a team they were 1-3 against last season. Maybe the Bulls will be mad enough to win.

Bulls Squeak by Cavs 86-85

By Sean Mackey

Savor this moment and say hello to your Central Division leading Chicago Bulls! The guys in the red jerseys were able to win another ridiculously close game Thursday night when they beat the Cleveland LeBrons 86-85. Luol Deng posted a solid 15 points and 7 rebounds and Derrick Rose had a solid double-double with 14 points and 11 assists.

It was another low scoring affair, but I was happy to see the win. LeBron James was denied a call in the last second claiming he was fouled going up for a layup. The refs amazingly didn't give him his usual star call and the Bulls won by just 1 point.

The Bulls defense has been fantastic and while a lot of columnists and bloggers will be quick to discredit Vinny Del Negro, I believe he actually is coaching the team now and the players are buying into his system. While their brand of basketball is a little on the boring side, they're winning and keeping opposing teams scoring WAY down. The Bulls still are lacking a scorer and a player to score in the post but until then, maybe their scrappy ways will get them the 49 wins it got a very similar 2006 squad. Derrick Rose is obviously going to have to take over much like he did late in last nights game if they want any chance of making it to the playoffs and passed the 1st round. It would also be nice to show that this group can get 50 wins without having a star player, making it an attractive option for a high profile free agent next season. Wade or Bosh would make this team a high profile contender.

Although, it's a little off topic, I've came to the conclusion that LeBron James is playing on a terrible team right now. The addition of Shaq has done nothing but help sell a few more Adidas jerseys. There is no rhyme or reason to their offense, just give the ball to LeBron and let him create. If this continues, Mike Brown's job is going to be in serious jeopardy come the holidays. LeBron and Shaq looked completely uninterested the entire game and so did the rest of their sad cast of jackass's. LeBron has taken this team as far as he can, they need to get him a Scottie Pippen or I could seriously see him leaving for New Jersey or Miami.

Bulls play the Bobcats tommorrow night on WGN America, hopefully they can continue their winning ways. Go Bulls!

Bulls vs. Bucks....TONIGHT!

By Sean Mackey

Sorry for the lack of updates, the last two losses took a lot of the wind out of my sails. Fridays masacre in Boston was almost unwatchable and Sunday's game against the Heat was a complete bust. I would really like to see Derrick Rose become the superstar the whole NBA is making him out to be very soon but he's obviously still hurting. Deng, Noah and Miller have played solid throughout the first 3 games. The Bulls are setting up perfect wide open shots for John Salmons, the only problem is that he's not Ben Gordon and can't knock down the open looks on a consistant basis.

Oh well, we're 1-2 and tonight the Bulls play a depleted Bucks team at home without their leading scorer, Michael Redd. Brandon Jennings has looked fantastic so I'm not looking this as a no brainer win......although it should be.