After Losing to the Knicks, Things Aren't Looking Great for Derrick Rose's Playoff Comeback

What can I say, they showed up. Dunleavy managed 24 shots like a boss, rained in a whopping 7. Everybody else but Boozer was pretty disappointing as well. Dang, that stinks! I sure did want to see Derrick Rose come back in the playoffs so he can hobble out with braces on his glass knees to a team with literally zero chance of making a run. *wink (sarcasm) wink* In reality, that is literally the worst possible thing for the franchise. Squeaking into the playoffs and getting another mid range pick in the draft does absolutely nothing for us. And despite how bad we are, the scary thing is that the East as a whole is so unfathomably shitty that we could probably make the playoffs with 35 wins, that's how bad it is. So considering we're still good enough to win games there's only one thing to do - dump salary and try to get value from our assets (Deng, Hinrich, Boozer, and as much as I hate to say it maybe even Joakim too). We've still got too much invested in Derrick and it's still too early to tell just how bad his injury problem will be. Two freak knee injuries are a terrible fucking sign don't get me wrong, but considering how young he is and how much time he'll have to rehab (again) he still might have a chance to return to being the superstar we all know and love. In the meantime though, he needs to focus on that while management cuts the fat and Thibodeau fights the urge claw out his eyeballs in disbelief of the whole situation.










Good job. Good effort.

Final

Regular Season Series (Game 2 of 4)

Bulls 78

(8-12, 2-9 away)

Knicks 83

(6-15, 3-8 home)

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Coverage: ESPN/WatchESPN

8:00 PM ET, December 11, 2013

Madison Square Garden, New York, NY

	1	2	3	4	T
CHI	17	15	22	24	78
NY	15	31	22	15	83

Top Performers

Chicago: J. Noah 12 Pts, 11 Reb, 4 Ast, 3 Blk

New York: C. Anthony 30 Pts, 10 Reb, 4 Ast, 3 Stl, 1 Blk

Chicago Bulls
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	+/-	PTS
Carlos Boozer, PF	32	6-10	0-0	0-0	3	9	12	0	2	0	4	2	-3	12
Mike Dunleavy, SF	45	7-24	3-11	3-3	2	6	8	3	3	1	3	5	+3	20
Tony Snell, SF	34	1-7	1-4	1-2	1	1	2	1	0	1	2	1	-7	4
Joakim Noah, C	37	3-5	0-0	6-8	5	6	11	4	0	3	5	3	-5	12
Kirk Hinrich, SG	40	3-11	2-5	3-4	1	3	4	3	4	0	3	3	+1	11
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	+/-	PTS
Taj Gibson, PF	25	2-6	0-0	8-8	2	5	7	0	0	2	3	2	+6	12
Erik Murphy, PF	5	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-15	0
Nazr Mohammed, C	3	0-2	0-0	0-0	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	1	-8	0
Marquis Teague, PG	20	2-7	0-1	3-4	0	2	2	1	0	0	2	2	+3	7
Luol Deng, SF	DNP SORE LEFT ACHILLES TENDON
Mike James, PG	DNP COACH'S DECISION
Jimmy Butler, SG	DNP RIGHT TOE
TOTALS		FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF		PTS
		24-72	6-21	24-29	16	32	48	12	9	7	22	19		78
		33.3%	28.6%	82.8%
Fast break points:   6 Points in the paint:   30 Total Team Turnovers (Points off turnovers):   24 (24) +/- denotes team's net points while the player is on the court.
New York Knicks
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	+/-	PTS
Kenyon Martin, PF	35	0-3	0-0	3-4	2	5	7	2	2	4	2	5	+16	3
Andrea Bargnani, PF	27	4-10	0-1	0-1	0	3	3	1	1	1	1	1	-1	8
Carmelo Anthony, SF	41	9-21	1-3	11-12	3	7	10	4	3	1	2	4	-2	30
Pablo Prigioni, PG	31	2-9	2-7	0-0	1	1	2	2	4	0	0	1	+1	6
Iman Shumpert, SG	13	0-2	0-0	0-0	1	2	3	2	2	0	1	0	+6	0
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	+/-	PTS
Amar'e Stoudemire, PF	30	7-11	0-0	0-0	3	6	9	1	2	1	1	4	+2	14
Beno Udrih, PG	17	4-5	0-0	0-0	0	2	2	2	1	0	4	1	+4	8
Tim Hardaway Jr., SG	18	3-7	1-3	0-0	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	1	-1	7
J.R. Smith, SG	29	2-8	1-5	2-2	0	2	2	2	1	0	2	4	0	7
Metta World Peace, SF	DNP COACH'S DECISION
Cole Aldrich, C	DNP COACH'S DECISION
Raymond Felton, PG	DNP SORE LEFT HAMSTRING
Toure' Murry, SG	DNP COACH'S DECISION
TOTALS		FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF		PTS
		31-76	5-19	16-19	10	29	39	17	16	7	13	21		83
		40.8%	26.3%	84.2%

PS - Today we added DJ Augustin, but he's basically only here so we can start to seriously shop Teague and maybe even send out some feelers to see if there's interest in Kirk. History would suggest that he can be a decent backup and provide a little more consistent scoring off the bench, but don't expect him to come in and be Nate Robinson. That is, if you're one of the numbskulls still rooting for this team to win basketball games. I hate the idea of tanking as much as the next guy, but no matter what, this season most likely marks the end for this group of guys (Deng, Noah, Boozer, Rose). Deng and Boozer were going to be too much money for what they are actually worth, Noah we may still try to hang on to. Just don't think of it as tanking, it's just the logical thing to do to expedite the transition process. Sometimes change is for the best and this is one of those times.