Dishing Out Dimes

By the time Jimmer Fredette made his Bulls debut today against the New York Knicks, the contest was already well out of reach.  Still, Fredette knocked down his first shot, sending the United Center crowd into a frenzy previously reserved for Brian Scalabrine.  It was all he scored, but that was the cherry on the top of an easy 109-90 victory witnessed by a national TV audience.

The Bulls went on a 16-1 run to start the game and never looked back.  A first quarter of 37 points was the team's highest scoring output of any quarter this season.  From there, the lead never got smaller than seven the rest of the way.  Whenever the Knicks appeared to have some sort of a groove going, the Bulls turned up the heat.  Eventually, both teams called off their dogs, making the Fredette sighting possible.

Seven Bulls reached double figures, including the entire starting five.  Joakim Noah continued a season for the ages with his fifth career triple-double:  13 points, 12 rebounds and 14 assists.  That last number can especially be highlighted when you take his recent similar dimes into account.  He's definitely the best passing center in the league right now, so upcoming opponents will have to plan for that.

D.J. Augustin led all scorers with 23 points off the bench, making four three-pointers.  Jimmy Butler had 19, nine of which came from free throws.  Taj Gibson was on the receiving end of many of the assists (30) as he cut close to the basket several times to score 13.  Kirk Hinrich looked like the player of old, knocking down three shots from beyond the arc with ease.  The bank even seemed to be in his favor, which can be helpful to a veteran point guard with diminished skills.

I'll admit to not being able to watch as much Bulls basketball as I'd like recently, but what I noticed above everything else today was their ability to find the right passing lanes and create easy buckets.  Any NBA team should have this in its arsenal, but considering the Knicks' poor play this season and how the Bulls gel together as one, this shouldn't have been surprising.  Do you know how well the Bulls played?  They only committed three turnovers, which is a new franchise low for a game.

The Bulls have won 21 of their last 29 games and the Knicks are built of talented players stuck on a team nowhere near its potential.  This will obviously mean more to the Bulls going forward as they try to build all the momentum they can as the regular season inches closer to its final push.

Tomorrow, the Bulls face the other New York team, the Brooklyn Nets, on the road.  There, they'll find another team that entered the season with high expectations, but has struggled to find its footing.  The difference is the Nets are likely to enter the playoffs in the awful East.  As for the Knicks?  Well, Spike Lee better hope God has a trick or two up His sleeve.