Win Comes, But Boards Don't

The Bulls were lucky to get a reprieve when Wednesday's game in Indiana was snowed out.  In the previous two games, both big losses, they were outrebounded.  More on that in a bit, but first, let's discuss the positive elements of last night's 87-77 victory over the lowly Washington Wizards.

Richard Hamilton returned to action for the first time in nearly a month, sending Marco Belinelli to the bench.  No matter.  The hot shooting guard led all scorers with 17 points.  Carlos Boozer achieved a double-double of 15 points and 12 rebounds while Joakim Noah was one point shy of his own, grabbing 11 rebounds.  Luol Deng, having benefited from the last game's postponement with his ankle, showed he's fine by dropping 11 points, though a 4-for-13 shooting night could have been better.  Kirk Hinrich had 10 points and seven assists while Hamilton put up a respectable nine points.

While the Bulls will accept any win, Tom Thibodeau will not accept his team getting beat on the boards, which happened last night for the third game in a row, this time to the tune of 56-49.  Emeka Okafor himself finished with 18 rebounds, which no doubt kept the game close.  Thibodeau said afterward he'll be adding more rebounding drills to the practice routine.  Definitely a good idea.  For a team that prides itself on hustle and defense, those elements have been a bit lacking since about the fourth quarter of the win in New York last week.  Yes, it's probably just a bad stretch in a long season, but Thibodeau doesn't want to make this a long-lasting problem.  You're in a jammed Central thanks in no small part to the loss of its biggest superstar and you want to stay as far ahead of the pack as possible until said superstar returns.  Not easy as there's a three-way tie for first as of this writing.  To pull ahead, the Bulls have to remember a simple philosophy:  get the ball and take away second chances.  When that happens, another blowout will come.

The Bulls will close out 2012 with a New Year's Eve matinee against the reeling Charlotte Bobcats, who are making a run at the record 26-game losing streak the Cavaliers from just two years ago.  Maybe this is just what the team needs to shake out of the doldrums.  I'm not sure if I'll recap it, but I'll definitely take a look back at the Bulls during the first full calendar year of this blog.  Hey, everyone else in the media seems to be doing these things.  Why not me too?