We Already Saw This Game

Forgive me for griping, but I could have sworn we watched tonight's game exactly three weeks ago.  The only difference was no ejections were handed out.  Otherwise, we saw all the same elements of the aforementioned game.  The opponent was the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, the Bulls got off to a hot start that seemingly put things away early and the Knicks stormed back late only to just come up short.  What we got was the 108-101 victory that finished closer than it was.

Let's pretend the 41-point fourth quarter for the Knicks didn't happen and concentrate on why the Bulls continue to play well against one of the top teams in the East.  The biggest reason was Luol Deng.  One of the best scoring games of his career saw a 33-point output on 13-of-18 shooting.  He just overwhelmed Carmelo Anthony, who scored 39, but made just one of his first 10 shot attempts.  Anthony early struggles won't show up in the box score, but anyone who watched would know he had as much to do with the Knicks climbing into that hole as he did with the late comeback.

Enough with the Melo bashing.  Let's see who else stepped up for the Bulls.  Carlos Boozer performed well down low and had some highlight plays, including a foul-inducing dunk and a nice pass to Taj Gibson that resulted in an easy two.  Gibson had 12, as did Marco Belinelli, who did his damage from the free throw line and behind the 3-point line.  Rip Hamilton also turned in a nice shooting night, making two-thirds of his field-goal attempts to finish with 14.   Joakim Noah turned in a line of nine points and eight rebounds before fouling out late.  Always good to see that many players step up for a win.  If they hadn't, we might be talking about a late colossal collapse.

Tonight was a textbook game for a Tom Thibodeau team, at least for most of it.  The Bulls hustled for the ball whenever it was loose and succeeded in getting it more often than not.  There were times when the Knicks took it away, but the Bulls took it right back.  This is the kind of hustle us fans pay to see.  It'll stay there as long Thibodeau is at the helm.  Of course, we'd be even happier if the Bulls stopped making fourth quarters against teams like New York interesting.  Don't make me bring out Norm Van Lier's "48 minutes of intensity" line again.  It's been lacking a bit lately.  In the NBA, you can't step on the gas for most of the game and then take your foot off for the rest of it.    If you're going to go full steam, do it the entire way.  As the last two games in New York have shown as well as several other games this season, not even the seemingly biggest leads are safe if you relax on defense.  Thibodeau will have to reemphasize that point.  Don't think he won't either.  He's a coach that's rarely satisfied with what he sees and you can bet this will be at the forefront of his mind during the next team meeting.

It'll be a good idea to address these concerns during tomorrow's shootaround for the game against the struggling Phoenix Suns.  It's a good stepping stone to beginning a new winning streak.  It's also a nice opportunity to show a reeling team how to go about an entire game.  The Suns better be ready to deal with it.