Bulls 99, Thunder 90
Nuggets from my notebook from Monday’s loss at Chicago.
- The story of this one was how Thunder coach Scott Brooks benched Kevin Durant and Jeff Green less than three minutes into the third period. Brooks sat both players for the remainder of the period and re-inserted them at the start of the fourth quarter. Brooks took responsibility for the decision, saying “we weren’t playing well, and I tried to make a change to see if we could manufacture some more energy.” Brooks said he didn’t know if it worked or not. The Bulls finished the quarter plus-1o while Durant and Green sat.
- Durant took the benching in stride. “He’s coaching you up,” said Durant. “You can’t get sensitive. You go out there and try to play as hard as you can the next time you get back into the game. Lesson learned.”
- I liked how Durant responded to the benching. He was up off the bench throughout the rest of the third period, waiving a towel and cheering on his teammates. “I want to be the best teammate I can be,” Durant said. “I think I can learn a lot from what he did. I could be a better teammate. And that’s what I tried to do, spark my guys from the bench.”
- Durant told me after the game that Brooks also benched him at Houston and at Portland last season. I don’t remember either.
- You could easily excuse this one. The Thunder came in on a second night of a back-to-back. OKC was on the road. The Bulls were eager to start finding their rhythm with Carlos Boozer back in the lineup. It was cold outside. But the problem for the Thunder looked to be mental tonight. Players weren’t communicating or rotating. The Thunder got beat on back cuts a countless amount of times. And the Bulls just pounded the Thunder on the boards.
- Boozer is officially a member of the Bulls. His 29 points and 12 rebounds killed the Thunder. OKC had no answer for him.
- Chicago’s passing tonight was something else. The Bulls had 25 assists and saw three players have four assists or more tonight. Nine of the 10 Bulls players who saw action had at least one assist. Taj Gibson was the only player who didn’t have one. Derrick Rose led the way with nine, but Joakim Noah had six and Luol Deng had four. Only one Thunder player had more than two as OKC finished with just 13 assists, three more than its season-low. Brooks said those figures were a product of the Thunder simply not making shots. “We got looks,” Brooks said. “We just did not hit them when the shots needed to be made…I just don’t think we had an offensive rhythm.”
- I’m looking forward to seeing how Green bounces back from this one. After allowing Boozer to have a breakout game while going 1-for-9 at the other end, it won’t get any easier for Green. Kevin Love is up next, and David West is after that.
- The United Center always feels like one of the biggest buildings in the league, and it is. But there was a strange silence in the building throughout much of the first half…right up until something happened. That’s when Bulls fans, almost all at once, erupt. Bulls fans pay extremely close attention to the action.
- Where was Serge Ibaka tonight?
- Nenad Krstic had himself a nice little ball game. He scored a season-high 18 points on eight of 12 shooting to go with six rebounds, one assist and one block. What I liked most was how Krstic started the game with a few of his mid-range specials but then went up strong for two dunks early in the opening period. too many times he settles for layups. Believe it or not, when I saw Krstic finish strong like that I thought it was a good sign of how the Thunder was going to come out in this one.
- One night after having to sit because of matchup issues against Golden State, Nick Collison returned to the rotation, checking in with 3:17 left in the first quarter. He immediately grabbed a rebound off a missed free throw by Omer Asik. Collison had six boards in 25 minutes.
- Thabo Sefolosha’s intensity was incredible tonight. I thought Sefolosha and Russell Westbrook were the two most passionate about trying to do something to stop the bleeding. Obviously nothing worked, though.
- It would be easy to look at James Harden’s 3-for-12 shooting performance and say he had a bad game. I’m going the other way. I thought he was pretty good tonight. A few of his shots were rushed, and I remember one coming at the end of the shot clock. But I counted four hard drives to the rim that he had tonight. He got to the foul line nine times and made six of them (the only three misses the Thunder had on an otherwise great foul shooting night). Again I’ll say, I think he’s starting to turn the corner. I’ll have more on him in Wednesday’s paper, where teammates see the same.
- Midway through the third quarter, a fan seated in the front row behind me on the baseline shouted to Krstic, “You’re the Serbian black hole. Pass the ball.” Turns out, it was Rick Reilly. And who knew, Reilly actually was full of one-liners tonight. When Durant finally checked back in at the start of the fourth quarter, he yelled, “Hey, Kevin, I thought you left.” Reilly also was pulled out of his seat to shoot the T-shirt cannon into the stands late in the game. I’ve never met Rick Reilly, but I can say with complete certainty after tonight that he is a man who is loving life.
- I tweeted about this during the game. A kid seated near the Thunder’s tunnel had a cardboard cutout of Michael Jordan with Brian Scalabrine’s face glued over the head. The jersey read, “M.J. 2.0.” Don’t think Mike ever gave the exaggerated, ‘Yesssss’ and simultaneous fist-pump I saw a half-naked Scalabrine give when a Bulls official informed him he was on the active list tonight.
- Former Thunder assistant coach Ron Adams made a trip into the Thunder’s locker room after the game and gave players well-wishes. It’s nothing we didn’t expect, but all the players were really happy to see him.
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Comments
[...] Darnell Mayberry: “I’m looking forward to seeing how Green bounces back from this one. After allowing Boozer to have a breakout game while going 1-for-9 at the other end, it won’t get any easier for Green. Kevin Love is up next, and David West is after that.” [...]
I thought the same thing as you after Nenad’s start to the game. He dunked twice and I thought to myself, was that really Nenad? Don’t remember seeing that before. Also was shocked when he got a block.
Who’s Rick Reilly?
[...] post-game nuggets. He makes the excellent point on the ability of the Bulls big men to pass the [...]
Love and West should not be Jeff’s primary responsibility. Jeff should be playing 6th man at the 3 primarily. Has everyone already forgotten the 37 point performance from Jeff against NJ.
But the real lesson to that game is that Lopez, a very good center who holds a career shooting % of over 50% was held to 30%. Thunder needs two big men on the court at all times and I am sorry, but Jeff is not a big man and it is a complete disservice to not only him but the team to keep forcing him to fight against bigger men night after night.
This is not a knock on Jeff. It can only help Kevin to be a little more motivated, if he knows Jeff is ready to come in and light it up if he continues in his lackadaisal isolation type play resulting in To’s and missed heavily contested fall away jumpers.
Should a guy like Harden, who everyone touts as having a smooth “old-mans” game, be “starting to turn the corner” this far into his 2nd season? He was the #3 pick a year and a half ago for pete’s sake!!! Look, I hope he figures it out, avg’s 18 pts this next month, push Thabo to the bench, and give them the steady outside hand needed to bring out the best of Westbrook/KD, spreading the floor and giving them more lanes to the basket. However, I’ve seen NOTHING from him that makes me think he can even see that elusive “corner” with a telescope, let alone being on the verge of “turning” it… I mean, honestly, how often do you see him drive to the basket and think “awesome, there he goes, he’s gonna get this lay-up for sure, maybe even an and-1. Go James!!”??? All I ever think is “oh great, please don’t let him get called for a charge for the 87th time this year…”