Kurt Thomas Tears Apart the Bucks, Bulls Win 92-83!

By Sean Mackey

The Bulls added their 31st win to the season Monday night, defeating a shorthanded Milwaukee Bucks team 92-83. Kurt Thomas surprisingly lead way for Chicago scoring 22 points along with tallying 9 rebounds and 5 assists. Derrick Rose had a decent game going 10-10 from the free throw stripe, scoring 21 points on 5-16 shooting and also added 10 assists. Chris Douglas-Roberts lead the way for Milwaukee scoring 30 points.

This was another ho-hum affair that Bulls fans are getting accustomed to. Kurt Thomas held Andrew Bogut to just 8 points and with John Salmons, Brandon Jennings and Drew Gooden out, this was hardly a contest. The Bulls briefly held a 20 point lead in the 3rd quarter before slacking off and letting the Bucks cut it to 6 in the 4th. Luol Deng and Ronnie Brewer couldn't stop Douglas-Roberts but it didn't really matter. It was really nice to see Derrick Rose get to the line 5 times making up for all those missed shots. Great players always find a way to score and Rose is starting to get the calls he deserves. It should be noted that after the game, Rose admitted that he's been nursing a sore back. I'm not sure how bad it is but Rose hasn't been shooting terribly great lately. The Bulls have the next three nights off before taking on Orlando Friday night. The Bulls lost to the Magic by 29 in their last meeting back in December, hopefully the 3 days rest will help Rose and the rest of the team re cooperate.

While it's great to see Chicago rack up wins against teams, the last two months have been kind of hard to watch. After playing a series of really tough games against title contenders the first month and a half, it seems like Chicago has been taking on some rather boring, below .500 opponents. February and March will be a lot harder and the Bulls need Joakim Noah back at full strength to compete with some of the better teams in the league. Kurt Thomas just isn't going to cut it against guys like Kendrick Perkins, Dwight Howard and Tim Duncan.

The Bulls take on the Orlando Magic at 8:00 p.m. Friday night on CSN Chicago and NBA League Pass.

Bulls Win Another Ugly One, Defeat the Pistons 95-82

By Sean Mackey

The Bulls continued their winning ways Monday night by following up their big win against the Celtics last Saturday with another win over the Detroit Pistons, 95-82. Derrick Rose lead the way for Chicago with 29 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds. Carlos Boozer absolutely abused Detroit's front court tallying 27 points and 11 rebounds. Luol Deng added a solid 17 points and 7 rebounds. Ronnie Brewer also had a great game scoring 11 points off the bench along with 6 assists including a highlight reel alley-oop pass to Derrick Rose (sick). Tayshaun Prince lead the way for Detroit scoring 15 points.

This was a really ugly game. How ugly you ask? Former Bull, Ben Wallace injured his ankle on the freakin' jump ball and didn't return. During the first half, the Bulls really let the Pistons do whatever they wanted. Detroit out rebounded Chicago and the Bulls played most of the second quarter with 2nd string unit. Only 6 Bulls even scored during this game, not that they needed much production from anyone else to beat the Pistons. Derrick Rose took over in the 2nd half and that was pretty much the end of any Detroit lead the rest of the game. Richard Hamilton surprisingly played in what will probably be one of his last games as a Piston. He had 2 points in 21 minutes off the bench.

It's kind of sad to see how far the Pistons have fallen in the last 3 years. It was a really fun rivalry back in 2006 but loyalty to older players has ruined their chances. Also, Joe Dumars blowing a ton of money on Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva in the summer of 2009 has turned out to be a huge bust as well. Those two players combined for 8 points last night...8 POINTS! I still believe Ben Gordon is a great player but it's obvious he's unhappy losing and doesn't care enough to try on such a pathetic team. The same thing happened to Hedu Turkaglu in Toronto. Hedu went for the money and once he got it, he didn't care enough to try, especially on a crappy team he knew wasn't going to make the playoffs. Miraculously, ever since Hedu was traded back to Orlando in December, he's been playing great again.

I would have loved to have seen BG and I truly believe they would have retired his jersey had his whole contract standoff not happened. I'm glad we kept Luol Deng instead. He's been absolutely fantastic this season. I really do believe, he's the 4th best SF in the NBA behind LeBron, Melo & Durant. The thing that's so great about Deng is he's averaging 17 and 6 very quietly. Deng's defense has improved as well. Thibs has done a great job using Luol in the right situations.

The Bulls will continue to add to their win streak on Wednesday night when they take on the Charlotte Bobcats before playing the Indiana Pacers Friday and their first game this season against the new look Miami Heat on Saturday.