Re: GAME THREAD: BLAZERS @ BULLS - DECEMBER 12, 2014 - FRIDAY, 4:00 PM (PST), ESPN &
Blazers @ CHI Game Preview (12/12/14):
Them: 13-8, 1st in Central Division
Our Last game: I don't know. Will Smith flashed a red blinky thing at me. OK, fine....
L @ MIN, 90-82 12/10/14
ESPN said:
The Northwest Division leaders are in Chicago after having a five-game win streak and a run of seven consecutive road victories snapped with a 90-82 loss to Minnesota on Wednesday.
Portland was held to its fewest points and had its worst shooting performance of the season at 38.8 percent. The Blazers got production from their backcourt of Damian Lillard (23 points) and Wesley Matthews (18), but the frontcourt combined for 23 points and LaMarcus Aldridge had 10 on 3-of-14 shooting.
"We've got to bounce back from it. We didn't shoot the ball well. Hopefully, the next game it will come back to us," Aldridge said.
Their Last game: W v. BKN 105-80
ESPN said:
Derrick Rose scored 23 points, and the Bulls pulled away from the Nets for a 105-80 victory on Wednesday night. Chicago held Brooklyn to 29 points on 26.2 percent shooting (11 for 42) in the final two periods.
"They came out with a lot of energy. They got us back on our heels," Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said. "I liked the way we responded in the second half."
Chicago had six players, including all five starters, score in double figures in its first game since Saturday night's 112-102 loss to Golden State. Jimmy Butler had 18 points, Pau Gasol added 16 points and 16 rebounds, and Mike Dunleavy scored 14 points. Taj Gibson finished with 11 points and 10 boards.
Rose made a 3-pointer, and Gibson had a big dunk before Gasol capped the surge with four straight points, including two foul shots that made it 70-58 with 3:32 to go.
"The third quarter, we really got into it," said Gibson, who also matched a career high with six blocked shots. "We tried to be a dominant team on rebounding, tried to just finish strong."
Changes to their roster:
BlogABull said:
The Bulls were positioned with significant salary cap space for the first time since 2010, and like that year they missed out on their top target but look to have made some nice fallback moves. Carmelo Anthony is still a Knick, but Pau Gasol signed a 3-year deal to leave the Lakers for Chicago. Gasol will be playing his age-34 season, but even at that advanced age and recent injury history he should be a significant upgrade over the Amnestied Carlos Boozer.
The Bulls also cashed in a lot of their asset cache in bringing in rookies Doug McDermott and Nikola Mirotic. McDermott was acquired in a draft-day trade with a multitude of picks, and so looks to be clearly a target for the front office as a way to improve the team's outside shooting. Mirotic had been drafted back in 2011 but a full Mid-Level Exception was used (or at least equivalent, it was technically using cap space) this year to finally bring him stateside. Though still only 23, Mirotic has been continually proving himself amongst the best competition in Europe and should be able to be counted on for frontcourt minutes immediately.
And for the second consecutive year, the return of Derrick Rose serves as the most important move. His play ultimately determines how far this team can go.
Injury Updates:
CJ McCollum, Out (finger).
Dorell Wright (day-to-day), Will Barton (day-to-day)
Chicago:
Pau Gasol (sore shoulder) is probable for Friday's game against Portland
Doug McDermott (sore right knee) will miss Friday's game against Portland
Joakim Noah (sprained right ankle) will miss Friday's game against Portland
Matchups:
PG: Damian Lillard v. Derrick Rose (16.2ppg, 5.1apg, 3.2rpg)
SG: Wesley Matthews v. Jimmy Butler (21.5ppg, 5.5rpg, 3.4apg)
SF: Nic Batum v. Mike Dunleavy (10.3ppg, 3.7rpg)
PF: LaMarcus Aldridge v. Taj Gibson (12.3ppg, 6.2rpg)
C: Robin Lopez v. Pau Gasol (19.8ppg, 12.2rpg, 2.1apg)
Give-a-Rip (City) Factor—a.k.a. why you should watch: To get the taste of Wednesday night out of your mouth. To see Rose v. Lillard. To see if the 3-point shot ever comes back. To see how hard LMA bounces back against the likes of Pau Gasol and Taj Gibson.
Current Power Rankings:
RipCityTwo (PtldPlatypus): (3) Rose appears to be fully recovered, and was playing well at the end of the preseason. Fully healthy, they should be a force.
ESPN: (10) If you like to subtract home defeats from road wins, like we do, Chicago is tops in the East as we speak at plus-5. Something tells me, though, that it'd be tough to get Tom Thibodeau to see it that way, with the Bulls just 2-5 at home and D-Rose shooting 40.3 percent from the field when he does play.
Covers.com (12) It's tough to have the Bulls all the way down here, but I'm guessing a 2-5 (straight up!) home record has to turn around. That's still a pretty small sample size.
NBA.com Pace: 96.4 (10), OffRtg: 105.0 (12), DefRtg: 102.6 (11), NetRtg: +2.4 (13)
The Bulls have lost three straight at the United Center, where they'll spend most of the next five weeks. Derrick Rose's new affinity for 3-pointers (which account for 45 percent of his shots) hasn't paid off. He has shot just 30 percent on 3s and has career-low marks (if you don't count last season) in effective field goal percentage and true shooting percentage.
Link to Grandpa Blaze's Prediction Game
Link to MediocreMan's Over/Under game
Links to other team’s site(s):
http://www.nba.com/bulls/ Chicago’s NBA page
Blog-A-Bull
Final Thoughts: CHI isn't really CHI this year. Yes, Rose is back, and there's the potential for him to go off Rose-style, but he's not shooting well following his knee problems and their vaunted D is 10th in the league in PPG and DRtg. CHI hasn't gelled yet on either offense or defense due to injuries, and with McDermott and Noah out I don't expect that they'll do much better tonight. I don't think POR will have 2 stinkers in a row in them, and with this being ESPN-I-vised I expect that POR's cohesion and bench (really?!?) will bring a needed road W.
Blazers 105
CHI 99
- VS –
BLAZERS' GAME NOTES 
