My Friday Night NBA 1.5 Header

With the Fiancee out of town for the weekend, and a Friday slate of NBA games including the Pacers-Bobcats at 7, and the Bulls-Lakers at 8, I sat in front of the TV with a 6 pack of Breckenridge Christmas Ale, and the knowledge that my Saturday morning 5k was not going to be fun (23:51 and lots of morning after drinking regret). Thoughts on the games:

Pacers-Bobcats

I like this Pacers team, and not just because I live in Indianapolis. Given the fact that the game started an hour before the Bulls-Lakers game, I was able to watch the first half, and bits and pieces of the 2nd half.

Roy Hibbert is a good player, better than I thought he was going to be by a factor of 10,000,000,000. Hibbert showed again last night that he is a strong rebounder, with a deceptively wide array of post moves, and he has shown the ability to get up and down the floor. The Pacers issue is that, after Hibbert, they do not have a lot of size and rebounding.

With that being said, the Pacers have a lot of wing type players with the ability to knock down threes. Everyone knows about Danny Granger, but Brandon Rush played really well last night. He plays great defense off the bench, and is a pretty good scorer who knocks down open threes. He is exactly the type of player that the Bulls are missing at the two (he is like Keith Bogans, only good).

The Bobcats are not a great team, so it really was no surprise that the Pacers had a nice win.

Onto The Main Event

The Bulls came out looking awful last night, and I think that Keith Bogans had quite a bit to do with that. Bogans is a fine defender. He is the only player other than Deng with the ability to guard Kobe for extended stretches (and Deng put in a lot of work last night defending Kobe). Bogans missed a few open threes and Kobe was really just not guarding him at all during the first quarter.

The offense was better when Ronnie Brewer came on the floor. Every basketball coach I have ever played for would have had an aneurysm watching Brewer's elbow on his jump shot, but Brewer was a huge reason the Bulls survived the bad first quarter and actually had a lead heading into the half. Last night, however, was further evidence that the Bulls have not yet figured out how best to utilize their options at the two. Korver is obviously the best offensive option, but he contributes as much on the defensive end as a DH(as an aside, I think I patterned my basketball game in high school after Korver - good shooter, no ability or willingness to play defense). Brewer does not have the size or strength that Bogans has when it comes to guarding a player like Kobe.

The second half, however, was Derrick Rose's half. Rose just broke the Lakers in the last few minutes of the fourth quarter. He made Derek Fisher look absolutely foolish, running circles around him to make jump shots and get to the rim. Rose willed the Bulls to a tough win.

Much has been written about Rose's ability to get to the basket and the fact that Rose is the fastest person on the planet with a basketball. Rose's most impressive feat, however, is how has developed his jump shot to the point that no one cringes anymore when he elevates for a three. That is such a testament to his work ethic, and is the main reason the Bulls are in good hands for the foreseeable future.

Rose's jump shot gives the Bulls the ability to run a nice little two man game with Rose and Boozer beyond the pick and roll. Last night, Rose was getting the ball to Boozer on the block and, either (1) Rose's man helped and Boozer kicked it out to Rose for the jumper or (2) Boozer was isolated one on one with his man on the block. Now, I think it is fairly clear that the Bulls have not yet figured out how best to use Boozer, but this was a step in the right direction. When the Bulls finally figure out how to integrate Boozer, they are going to be very tough.

At the end of the day, the Bulls picked up a great win. Rose absolutely broke the Lakers in the last few minutes, and the Bulls defended extremely well throughout. Hopefully there will not be a letdown tonight against the T-Wolves.