I was really looking forward to the Bulls' home opener last night against the Detroit Pistons. I thought the team played pretty well for the most part in their season opener against a very good Oklahoma City Thunder team, who by the way has everybody's pre-season pick for MVP in Kevin Durant. I figured the Bulls would play much better against a piss-poor Detroit team. Unfortunately for me, the game was blacked out in my area (thank you very much Consolidated Communications). However, I did find a website that allowed me to watch the game with a live streaming feed. So instead of watching the game in HD on my 37 inch screen, I watched in a very low resolution on a laptop.
I actually had to turn the game off on my laptop, not because the Bulls were sucking (they were), but because the feed to the game kept going in and out, so at the end of the first half, when the Bulls were trailing 63-44, I turned the game off, and followed the game with the "In Game Tracker" on the Chicago Bulls website.
I wish I could have seen that fourth quarter. Derrick Rose absolutely took that game over. He finished the game with 39 points (tied a career high), 7 assists, and 5 rebounds. After two games, Rose is leading the league in scoring at 33.5 points per game. With Boozer out for the next month or so, the Bulls need Rose to score at this elite level in order to win games. Through two games, they have gotten virtually nothing from Luol Deng, and only a decent contribution from Taj Gibson (13.5 points per game from Taj is pretty good). Joakim Noah is averaging 16.5 points per game, but his value is in his rebounding and defense. If he can find a way to average 15 points per game for the whole season, that would be amazing.
Luol Deng, Kyle Korver, CJ Watson and Keith Bogans need to pick it up. I would expect Korver to be out on the floor alot more in the next few games. They need his shooting out there to spread the floor, especially without Boozer in the lineup. Rose is the best drive and kick guy in the league, but he has nobody to kick to. Korver needs to be that guy, and so does Deng. Deng looked so good in that role in the preseason. He was even nailing wide open three pointers in the half-court offense. So far this season he has looked rusty. The Bulls need him to score efficiently if they are going to be as successful as they can be.
The story here though is Derrick Rose. Bulls fans haven't really had anybody to be this excited about since Michael and Scottie left. Sure we had a couple of good years from Ben Gordon, but he isn't a superstar. Derrick Rose is a superstar right now, and he is only going to get better. Watching him play the first two games of the season makes me happy that LeBron chose Miami. The Bulls don't need anybody taking the ball away from Rose. If he keeps playing like this, and all signs are pointing to the fact that Rose can, he will be in the MVP conversation, provided the Bulls are winning games.
Joakim Noah seems to have picked up where he left off as well. Averaging a monster double-double through two games is impressive, and he will most likely continue to average these types of numbers the remainder of the season. The Bulls will be a very good team when Boozer comes back. A low-post scorer who can hit the 16 footer with consistency and averages 18-20 points per game would look so good alongside Rose and Noah right now. Oh, and Boozer averages double digit rebounds for his career as well, which will be a tremendous boost, seeing as how Taj Gibson didn't grab a single rebound last night against Detroit.
The Bulls have an important stretch of games coming up. Portland tomorrow night will be an extremely tough game, and the Knicks are an improved team as well (Bulls/Knicks on Thursday night). Then the Bulls play in Boston on Friday night in the second game of a back-to-back. The Celtics always play the Bulls tough, and with their unbelievable front court depth, I'd have to give them a big edge in that game. Anyways, the Bulls need to pile up some wins at home. They go on the seven game "Circus" trip midway through November, and they haven't done well on that trip since the Jordan/Pippen days. If they can stay around .500 until Boozer gets back, they would be in good position to take the division this year. Go Bulls!
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