100%duncan
12-25-2016, 08:14 PM
Story of the Game
Like the first game in Chicago, the Bulls come into this game on a slump with their under .500 record while the Spurs come into it only losing once in a number of games. The first half of the first quarter was probably the best string of minutes this game. LMA started the game 8-0 and kawhi followed it up with his own 9 straight points. Things looked like this game could be the best outing from the team this season outside of the GSW game but from 30-10, things started turning to shit when kawhi sat and LMA was left with the bench. We gave up open look after open look to Mirotic and I don’t have enough fingers to count the number of offensive rebounds Chicago had. The trend was the same for the 2nd quarter, the lead was dwindling down and the team was starting to go cold in general, however, kawhi and lma managed to put us back up around double digits again. But like the first quarter, the Bulls finished the 2nd strong with us only having a 5 pt lead at the half even if we shot 60% from the field. Third quarter looked scary, the Bulls even held a 3 pt lead, Kawhi didn’t have a shot until around 8 minute mark, and LMA much later than that, this team has a sickness of trying to go to Pau and Parker when the solution, which was just dumping it down to LMA or letting kawhi shoot, was pretty clear. We managed to hold on though, it was pretty much a tale of two halves by the bench, Dedmon and Lee gave us very solid minutes, and that stretch of 8 or something straight points with 2 dunks from Dedmon pretty much won us the game.
Lamarcus Aldridge: A
The best shooting game for LMA and arguably his best game of the season, he scored 33 points and was one rebound short of a double double. He could’ve gotten more, he had like 22 in the first but as I said, the team went away from him and kawhi too much this game given the hot shooting that they had. In addition, for the first time in the season, LMA has put up 2 straight good games, let’s see if the trend continues. This would be a good time to start a thread and track this. Like we have said, him playing up to his potential could mask a lot of this team’s problems.
Kawhi Leonard: A
25 pts 10 rebounds 4 assists and 3 steals. Overall, a very “Kawhi” outing by the Klaw. I thought he picked his shots very well, he wasn’t forcing up anything, he was making plays for others, got to the line and shot 8/8 and he played very good defense. Held Butler at 6 pts 3/9 shooting at the half and ultimately, 19 pts on 19 shots to end the game. Pretty good if you ask me. This game also highlights how retarded mainstream media is and their schtick on him hurting the Spurs’ defense due to that 1 bulls game this season, same situation here, locked down Butler,the difference was the rest of the Spurs came to play and actually knocked down some shots.
Danny Green: C
Danny was pretty meh this game. He had a good sequence in the 4th that put the nail in the coffin on the Bulls’ hopes but as for the whole game, being Wade’s primary defender, he let the dude score 24 on 9/16 shooting and contrary to popular opinion, Wade only had 5 fta’s this game. All in all, I think this was a below average game from our beloved LDN.
Tony Parker: C
Tony actually started the game pretty well. He was finding Kawhi and LMA (had 5 assists in the first) and was part of the reason of the Spurs’ hot start. But as the game went on, Parker was looking for his own touches, he ended the game with only 3 more assists. At the half, he had only 3 less FGA than Kawhi while playing 6 less minutes. Hell, he shot 6/15 and had 1 more FGA than kawhi to end the game. Sure he has his 13 points but game was over at that point already :lol
Pau Gasol: C
Don’t let this guy’s stat-line fool you :lol I’m pretty much done with Gasol being a starter, time and time and again he has shown that his defense is non-existent and his offense, which only takes away touches from LMA and Kawhi at needed moments, does not warrant him being a starter. It hurts seeing our guys funnel their men into the paint only to have Gasol as our last line of defense. He had some shots during the third but at the same time, the offence was stagnating and our 2 best players are relegated to being bystanders, this pretty much describes his FA signing, subtraction by addition.
Manu Ginobili: C-
Coming back from almost a full week of rest, Manu sure didn’t look good. His 2 to’s was part of the run the bulls’ bench had in the first, he gave up open looks to his man, was slow on switches, etc etc. As good as he looked against the Rockets, he sure played like a 50 year old today.
Patty Mills: C
It’s simple, Patty gets some looks and playing time, he makes shots. You put a short leash on him and he doesn’t have any impact. Absolutely no reason for him to be playing 9 less minutes than Parker who put up bricks left and right. Yeah yeah he’s not a real PG yada yada yada but if you have a 1 who just wants to shoot, you’d rather have the guy who’s having a career season play right? Sure, the bench was a shitshow in the first half, but Patty was hardly the reason for that, he was not a net negative on defense and it was not like he was shooting the bench’s way out of the game, the guy had 3 FGA and 0 3FGA, totally unacceptable coming from Pop and the teammates around him.
David Lee: B
If that 1st half didn’t happen, him and Dedmon probably get an A. David Lee 9 points 2 rebs 1 assist in 16 minutes. He has been very solid at the boris diaw role this season. Every time he’s on the court, you can feel his impact. You know he’s there, either with hustle, making shots or just overall making high IQ plays for the unit he’s in with.
Dewayne Dedmon: B+
Like the rest of the bench, he wasn’t good in the first half. In fact, he was criticized by some in the game thread. However, he more than made up for it in the 3rd quarter when he was mixed in with some starters rather than playing with the full 2nd unit. As I’ve said, the stretch where he had 6-8 straight points sealed this game for us, IMO.
Jonathon Simmons: C
He’s really hard to gauge on games when he doesn’t have enough chances with the ball. He only had 4 shots on only 11 minutes and 2 of those were 3FGA’s, not the usual Simmons style of play. This season has also been a rollercoaster from him, sometimes we get to see that hunger that we saw from his last year and there are just games where you don’t notice him. He played decent defense I guess, an aspect of his game that has been noticeably better this season.
Kyle Anderson, Bertans, Murray: INC
I certainly hope Bertans stops being in the doghouse, fucking Pop. His offense can be pretty convenient on times that this team goes cold. Murray showed 2 nice makes in garbage time, nothing much to say.
Pop: C+
It’s not his fault that the bench played like shit and let the lead go down to 5 in the first half but he sure could’ve done something, like I don’t know, calling for more shots for Aldridge and Kawhi, on a night where they looked like they would make more than they would miss. I liked the aggressive time-out calls though, it seemed like he actually gave a fuck and got pissed at the bench. Pretty rare occurrence if you ask me.
Just to add the team’s reliance on Gasol and Parker is very disgusting. This has got to stop, and there’s absolutely no other reason to look at than the coach. It’s frustrating and at the same time scary for this team’s small hope this season, Pop has been know to be very stubborn and no matter how many times Gasol gets burned on defense and no matter how many open bricks Parker puts up, I am just not sure that Pop would have the guts to change the starting line-up.
Overall
There’s really nothing much to take-away from this game honestly. A good “revenge” win against a team that we shouldn’t have lost to earlier this season. The biggest thing is that this is LMA’s second straight good game, a nice time for us to look at this and see if this is indeed the start of his resurgence to LMA all-star level like last season.
Like the first game in Chicago, the Bulls come into this game on a slump with their under .500 record while the Spurs come into it only losing once in a number of games. The first half of the first quarter was probably the best string of minutes this game. LMA started the game 8-0 and kawhi followed it up with his own 9 straight points. Things looked like this game could be the best outing from the team this season outside of the GSW game but from 30-10, things started turning to shit when kawhi sat and LMA was left with the bench. We gave up open look after open look to Mirotic and I don’t have enough fingers to count the number of offensive rebounds Chicago had. The trend was the same for the 2nd quarter, the lead was dwindling down and the team was starting to go cold in general, however, kawhi and lma managed to put us back up around double digits again. But like the first quarter, the Bulls finished the 2nd strong with us only having a 5 pt lead at the half even if we shot 60% from the field. Third quarter looked scary, the Bulls even held a 3 pt lead, Kawhi didn’t have a shot until around 8 minute mark, and LMA much later than that, this team has a sickness of trying to go to Pau and Parker when the solution, which was just dumping it down to LMA or letting kawhi shoot, was pretty clear. We managed to hold on though, it was pretty much a tale of two halves by the bench, Dedmon and Lee gave us very solid minutes, and that stretch of 8 or something straight points with 2 dunks from Dedmon pretty much won us the game.
Lamarcus Aldridge: A
The best shooting game for LMA and arguably his best game of the season, he scored 33 points and was one rebound short of a double double. He could’ve gotten more, he had like 22 in the first but as I said, the team went away from him and kawhi too much this game given the hot shooting that they had. In addition, for the first time in the season, LMA has put up 2 straight good games, let’s see if the trend continues. This would be a good time to start a thread and track this. Like we have said, him playing up to his potential could mask a lot of this team’s problems.
Kawhi Leonard: A
25 pts 10 rebounds 4 assists and 3 steals. Overall, a very “Kawhi” outing by the Klaw. I thought he picked his shots very well, he wasn’t forcing up anything, he was making plays for others, got to the line and shot 8/8 and he played very good defense. Held Butler at 6 pts 3/9 shooting at the half and ultimately, 19 pts on 19 shots to end the game. Pretty good if you ask me. This game also highlights how retarded mainstream media is and their schtick on him hurting the Spurs’ defense due to that 1 bulls game this season, same situation here, locked down Butler,the difference was the rest of the Spurs came to play and actually knocked down some shots.
Danny Green: C
Danny was pretty meh this game. He had a good sequence in the 4th that put the nail in the coffin on the Bulls’ hopes but as for the whole game, being Wade’s primary defender, he let the dude score 24 on 9/16 shooting and contrary to popular opinion, Wade only had 5 fta’s this game. All in all, I think this was a below average game from our beloved LDN.
Tony Parker: C
Tony actually started the game pretty well. He was finding Kawhi and LMA (had 5 assists in the first) and was part of the reason of the Spurs’ hot start. But as the game went on, Parker was looking for his own touches, he ended the game with only 3 more assists. At the half, he had only 3 less FGA than Kawhi while playing 6 less minutes. Hell, he shot 6/15 and had 1 more FGA than kawhi to end the game. Sure he has his 13 points but game was over at that point already :lol
Pau Gasol: C
Don’t let this guy’s stat-line fool you :lol I’m pretty much done with Gasol being a starter, time and time and again he has shown that his defense is non-existent and his offense, which only takes away touches from LMA and Kawhi at needed moments, does not warrant him being a starter. It hurts seeing our guys funnel their men into the paint only to have Gasol as our last line of defense. He had some shots during the third but at the same time, the offence was stagnating and our 2 best players are relegated to being bystanders, this pretty much describes his FA signing, subtraction by addition.
Manu Ginobili: C-
Coming back from almost a full week of rest, Manu sure didn’t look good. His 2 to’s was part of the run the bulls’ bench had in the first, he gave up open looks to his man, was slow on switches, etc etc. As good as he looked against the Rockets, he sure played like a 50 year old today.
Patty Mills: C
It’s simple, Patty gets some looks and playing time, he makes shots. You put a short leash on him and he doesn’t have any impact. Absolutely no reason for him to be playing 9 less minutes than Parker who put up bricks left and right. Yeah yeah he’s not a real PG yada yada yada but if you have a 1 who just wants to shoot, you’d rather have the guy who’s having a career season play right? Sure, the bench was a shitshow in the first half, but Patty was hardly the reason for that, he was not a net negative on defense and it was not like he was shooting the bench’s way out of the game, the guy had 3 FGA and 0 3FGA, totally unacceptable coming from Pop and the teammates around him.
David Lee: B
If that 1st half didn’t happen, him and Dedmon probably get an A. David Lee 9 points 2 rebs 1 assist in 16 minutes. He has been very solid at the boris diaw role this season. Every time he’s on the court, you can feel his impact. You know he’s there, either with hustle, making shots or just overall making high IQ plays for the unit he’s in with.
Dewayne Dedmon: B+
Like the rest of the bench, he wasn’t good in the first half. In fact, he was criticized by some in the game thread. However, he more than made up for it in the 3rd quarter when he was mixed in with some starters rather than playing with the full 2nd unit. As I’ve said, the stretch where he had 6-8 straight points sealed this game for us, IMO.
Jonathon Simmons: C
He’s really hard to gauge on games when he doesn’t have enough chances with the ball. He only had 4 shots on only 11 minutes and 2 of those were 3FGA’s, not the usual Simmons style of play. This season has also been a rollercoaster from him, sometimes we get to see that hunger that we saw from his last year and there are just games where you don’t notice him. He played decent defense I guess, an aspect of his game that has been noticeably better this season.
Kyle Anderson, Bertans, Murray: INC
I certainly hope Bertans stops being in the doghouse, fucking Pop. His offense can be pretty convenient on times that this team goes cold. Murray showed 2 nice makes in garbage time, nothing much to say.
Pop: C+
It’s not his fault that the bench played like shit and let the lead go down to 5 in the first half but he sure could’ve done something, like I don’t know, calling for more shots for Aldridge and Kawhi, on a night where they looked like they would make more than they would miss. I liked the aggressive time-out calls though, it seemed like he actually gave a fuck and got pissed at the bench. Pretty rare occurrence if you ask me.
Just to add the team’s reliance on Gasol and Parker is very disgusting. This has got to stop, and there’s absolutely no other reason to look at than the coach. It’s frustrating and at the same time scary for this team’s small hope this season, Pop has been know to be very stubborn and no matter how many times Gasol gets burned on defense and no matter how many open bricks Parker puts up, I am just not sure that Pop would have the guts to change the starting line-up.
Overall
There’s really nothing much to take-away from this game honestly. A good “revenge” win against a team that we shouldn’t have lost to earlier this season. The biggest thing is that this is LMA’s second straight good game, a nice time for us to look at this and see if this is indeed the start of his resurgence to LMA all-star level like last season.