Watched only the second half. FT shooting and rebounding in second half were key but I have never seen Deron this bad, he just struggles to run, has no speed, momentum or quickness. Wrist injury will continue bothering him all year long, unfortunately. DRose took advantage of it and he was phenomenal. He shoots too much for a PG and I'm still not sold on his PG skills, he is yet to figure out that this game is played 5-on-5, but he is a legit MVP candidate. His role is carrying the Bulls team and he somehow have managed to do it, greatly. FYI, I, personally, would rather have Deron or Westbrook.
We saw what Carlosina is all about. The Jazz showed the entire league how to make him a high-arching, fadeaway J shooter. I'm proud of the way Millsap and Jefferson played, they tried to PLAY DEFENSE (not fake effort or trying steals instead of manning up and defending the paint and the man first) AND they had a field day offensively, which is never surprising against a non-existent (defender) Carlos. I watched last 5-6 games of Bulls and saw Alridge and Blazer bigs abusing Boozer down low and Howard going off (unbelievably easily) when he matched with Boozer.
I like the fan reaction about my man Omer. He is a defensive specialist and despite starting playing the game of basketball at relatively an old age, he has imporved quickly and vastly. He protects the painted area as well as anybody and playing Euro basketball helped him LEARN some basic fundamentals and some key skills that we rarely see in players in the NBA, like help&recover , very important quality for a big man. Coach Thibs knows that anybody is an upgrade over Carlos on defensive end and ASik is an huge upgrade over any Bulls big you can name. However, his offensive game is very limited. In order for him to stay and get consistent PT in NBA, he has to add a couple of offensive moves to his game. I hope he is working hard and aiming at staying there instead of backing off of challenge.
The Jazz, despite their leader playing hurt and awful, played a solid game and a little better FT shooting could have brought the W. Bulls are a mediocre offensive team and the Jazz played stellar defense. However, the execution at the end of ballgame was terrible and leaves me wondering how in the hell they cannot improve offensively after playing these many games. THe floor spacing still continues to hurt the Jazz, still no adjustment have made. Raja has been consistent hitting outside shots recently but can he be counted on all season? Does he get the respect and attention of the defenses as much as CJ, Kyle, or comparing to last year, Memo would get? I really admire the job Thibs has done on defensive end; you have a matador, lazy, stupid defender in Carlos at 4 and you lose your emotional leader, the man in the middle, Noah to an injury, yet you have managed to be one of the defensive teams in the NBA.
I wish there was a chance of Jazz vs Bulls matchup early in the playoffs.
