Boozer Gives Thunder the Business, Bulls Win 99-90!

By Sean Mackey

The Bulls were finally able to dish out some payback for their opening night loss on Monday night when they defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 99-90. Carlos Boozer was in full swing showing Bulls fans how awesome it is to finally have a post presence in the Windy City. Boozer put up 29 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Derrick Rose had an off night shooting 3-13, scoring only 11 points and dishing out 9 assists. Joakim Noah got into foul trouble early and only played 20 minutes but still managed to pull down 12 rebounds. Luol Deng also had another solid outing (aren't they all solid at this point?) with 19 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists. Kevin Durant lead the OKC Thunder in scoring with 29 points in an otherwise uninspiring performance.

This was a game the Bulls really needed to win. After barely coming away with a win against Houston the other night, it was great to see them actually play as a functioning unit. Derrick Rose is the best player on the Bulls but tonight showed he doesn't even have to put out a great performance for the team to pull off a win. While I expect Rose to probably fall out of the top 10 in scoring this season with the arrival of Booz, Rose is still the best scorer on the team.

The OKC Thunder are a great team, everyone including myself projects them to go deep into the playoffs this season. The problem with the Thunder is Jeff Green. He's a 3 playing a 4 and it's evident that they're missing a post up guy. It'll be really interesting to see if Green's contract is extended after this season. I could see a team like the Cavs making a push for him if they can't pry Iggy from the 76ers. I've read a lot of rumors of Marcin Gortat possibly getting shipped out to OKC as well. He'd be a pretty good fit.

Also, sorry for the long gap in updates. I was on vacation for about 2 weeks in November and while the circus trip was a success, I wasn't excited enough to write about a team without Boozer. Some Bulls fan I am...anyways, hopefully blog entries will be more frequent again.

The Bulls take on the Cleveland Cavaliers tomorrow night at the United Center. With a relatively weak schedule coming up (with the exception of the Lakers on Friday night), the Bulls should be able to build up a decent win streak somewhere in there.