Bulls 7-game win streak ends

The Bulls lost their final game of the 2014 calendar year to the Brooklyn Nets 96-82. In addition to the 7-game win streak being snapped, the Bulls had a 6-game home win streak snapped Tuesday night.

The Bulls 82 points was a season low as both teams were playing in the second of back-to-back games in consecutive evenings.

The Nets had balanced scoring all around led by Brooke Lopez with 29, Joe Johnson had a double-double 20 points and 11 rebounds.

The Bulls got off to a solid start, scoring 31 points in the opening quarter but sputtered the rest of the way scoring just 51 points in the final three quarters. After the first quarter, the Bulls had no sustained offense and were constantly playing catch up and as the game got closer to the end, the result seemed like an inevitable loss.

Derrick Rose scored a season low 4 points while shooting a meager 2-15 from the field. In the last two games, Rose has made just 7 out of 35 shots but downplayed the poor numbers after the game. “It’s just two games,” he said. “I’m not going to stop shooting.”

The struggles didn’t stop with Rose, Jimmy Butler scored just 8 points as the Bulls shot 39% from the field Tuesday night.

One of the turning points in the game was when Aaron Brooks was given two technical fouls, thus got ejected from the game when he complained to the officials about a no-call. After play was stopped, Brooks threw the ball away from an official, resulting in the first technical foul. He was shocked to be given the first technical foul then he walked towards another official had a few choice words and was ejected after the second technical foul. As a result, the Bulls were without not just one key bench player but a second, as Kirk Hinrich missed his fifth consecutive game with a hamstring strain.

Pau Gasol also had an off night, scoring just 10 points against the Nets inside duo of Mason Plumlee and the afore mentioned Lopez. The only bright spot for the Bulls was Mike Dunleavy Jr. He scored 23 points making 9-15 shots and 5-9 from downtown.

The Bulls will have one day to rest as they will host the Denver Nuggets on New Year’s Day at 7.

Bulls end Toronto’s 6-game win streak

The Bulls ended the Toronto Raptor’s 6-game win streak Monday evening edging the visiting Raptors 129-120 at the United Center.

Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler helped propel the Bulls to another impressive win vs. an eastern conference team. Rose had 29 points, 15 of them in the fourth quarter in which they scored a franchise record 49 points.

Meanwhile, Butler had 27 points and 11 rebounds as the Bulls have now won 3 straight games. “We’ve been hearing about it all week, the last couple of days. They wanted to play us, we beat them there and they wanted to come here and get revenge. Tonight I think was a big game for us,” Rose said after beating the eastern conference leading Raptors.

Taj Gibson and Rose had not played the last two games, Rose was ill and Gibson was out with an ankle injury.

For the visiting Toronto Raptors, Kyle Lowry led with 34 points and Jonas Valanciunas finished with 20, 12 of them coming in the third quarter, while Lowry scored 18 of his 34 points in the final quarter.

Lowry said that Rose played up to his full capability. “Derrick Rose looked like his old self, and he played extremely well” Lowry said.

The Bulls shot 54% from the field and went to the charity strike 47 times, making 43 of them while Toronto committed 30 fouls.

Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich suffered a left hamstring injury during the game, while in the fourth quarter, he was listed as questionable but did not return to game action.

James Johnson put Toronto up 80-68 with 6:35 left in the third quarter but the Bulls answered with 8 unanswered points to tie the game in the final minute of the third when Pau Gasol found Gibson for a dunk.

The Bulls shot 6-12 from downtown whereas Toronto made only 9-30 shots from behind the three-point line. One problem that continues to linger the Bulls are turnovers, and the Bulls turned the ball over 15 times vs. 7 for Toronto.

The Raptors fall to 22-7 overall with a record of 8-4 away from the Air Canada Centre whereas the Bulls improve to 18-9 overall and improve to above .500 at the United Center (6-5).

The Bulls have little time to celebrate as they head to the road to play the Washington Wizards Tuesday night.

While I am glad they won, I do not believe they can consistently win games in which they yield 100 points or more but lets hope Derrick Rose can continue playing like he did in the fourth quarter.

Portland comes to the UC

The Bulls will face one of their toughest tests in the young season Friday night as the Trail Blazers visit the United Center.

While Portland lost their last game Wednesday 90-82 at Minnesota, the Blazers enter play 17-5 while the Bulls are 13-8. Bulls enter play Friday night just 3-5 at the so called “friendly confines of the United Center,” while Portland has won 7 of their first 10 road games. For the Bulls, KC Johnson of the Chicago Tribune reports that Joakim Noah and Doug McDermott will not play Friday night.

Noah will miss his second straight game with soreness in his right ankle, while McDermott will miss his fifth straight game with a knee injury. He has not played since November 30, when the Bulls played the Nets.

Taj Gibson will start in place of Noah for a second straight game. Gibson finished Wednesday’s game with 10 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 6 blocks in 31 minutes.

Portland is averaging 102 points per game, which is 12th best in the NBA, while they are stingy on the defensive side of the ball, allowing only 95 points per game, which is fifth best in the NBA.

Portland has 5 players averaging double digits in points led by LaMarcus Aldridge with 21.7 PPG, and Damian Lillard with just under 20.

The Bulls enter play having scored 100 or more points in 7 straight games but have lost 7 straight games vs. the Trail Blazers and 3 straight home games vs. Portland.

Bulls will go for a second straight victory at home after losing 3 straight. After being in and out of the lineup for the first month plus of the season, Derrick Rose may be getting his Mojo back and is starting to feel like the Derrick Rose that won the MVP in the 2010-11 season. “You all are going to be surprised by the way that I am playing. Just give me a little minute,” Rose said. “I know where I am going to be. I know how good I am, and I’m very confident with my craft and how good I am. Period.”

Rose finished Wednesday’s game with 23 points, while making 8 of 15 shots and played 24 minutes, which is key because the Bulls are 4-1 this year when he scores 20 or more points.

College Football’s new playoff system

We now know that the Ohio State Buckeyes, Florida State Seminoles, Alabama Crimson Tide and the Oregon Ducks will play in the inaugural College Football Playoff.

This is a step in the right direction compared to the old BCS (Bowl Championship Series.) The No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide will play No. 4 Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl, and Oregon, who is ranked second will play the third ranked Florida State Seminoles in the Rose Bowl, both will be on New Year’s Day.

Under the previous system that many folks were not too wild of, the first and second ranked teams played in the national championship game.

Some people are not too wild about this announcement. Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press argues that the 12-person College Football Playoff Selection Committee backed into pressure of promoting TV ratings and advertising dollars over quality football. Sharp also contends that the credibility of the committee stoops to the level as Ohio State’s and believes the quality of the victories by the Buckeyes were not as good as Baylor and Texas Christian.

All 3 schools had one loss in their respective regular season’s but some will argue that if the Buckeyes had to contend with teams that are as quality as the Big 12, the Buckeyes would not be in the position they are right now.

Its important to note that Big 10 teams have won less than 30% of bowl games and if Ohio State gets creamed by Alabama, people may wonder if this new system any better than the BCS. Some people argue that doubling the number to 8 will eliminate most if not all of the controversy surrounding the College Football Playoff System.

The reason why people believe that the controversy would go away because it would be less arbitrary and every team in the mix would have the chance to make it.

While I believe this is a step in the right direction, having the winners of the SEC, Big 10, Big 12, PAC 12 and ACC division’s, the runner up from each conference’s championship would make the system more authentic and hopefully wont give people the impression that the system is not setup in order to just achieve revenue and ratings for ESPN. While flaws remain, the old system was not good for college football.

EmBEARassment

The Bears struggles on all three phases of the game continued Thursday night as they lose to the Dallas Cowboys 41-28.

The Bears are now 5-8 and postseason chances are very slim at this point and if they don’t make the playoffs, the Bears will have missed the playoffs in 7 of the last 8 seasons.

Dallas has finally won that elusive game breaking a 3-year streak of finishing 8-8. The Bears suffered another injury, this time to their top receiver Brandon Marshall who left the game in the second quarter with an injury to the ribs and was taken off the field on an ambulance. He did thank fans on Twitter for the support from the fans. Before his injury, Marshall had 3 receptions for 61 yards.

Dallas scored first when they scored on fourth-and-goal with 10 minutes left in the half when DeMarco Murray ran into the end zone for a 1-yard Touchdown run, which was the beginning of a big night for Murray.

He had 179 yards in total, 116 of them were on the ground. Meanwhile, running back Matt Forte was a non-factor.

He carried the ball 13 times for a meager 26 yards and 1 TD. Before the game started, the Bears had a couple starters who were declared out. Kicker Robbie Gould missed the game due to quadriceps and Jeremiah Ratliff, who had a knee injury. On Wednesday, the Bears signed veteran kicker Jay Feely, who handled the kicking duties Thursday night. The Bears trailed 14-7 going into the second half but one of the key turning points was when Matt Forte caught a pass going for 21 yards but but fumbled the ball.

Dallas took over and capitalized 3 plays later and everything went downhill from that point. Cowboys QB Tony Romo had 2 of his 3 TD passes in the 3rd quarter and Dallas outscored the Bears 21-0 in the quarter.

Thursdays game marked the 6th game out of 13 that the Bears have given up at least 30 points in a game in 2014.

Bears QB Jay Cutler threw 46 passes, 32 of them were complete for a total of 341 yards and 2 TD’s and 1 interception. One of the problems on the defensive side of the ball was 3rd down conversions.

Dallas converted 7-14 3rd down conversions while the Bears went 2-10 in that category. While the Bears lost by 13, the score wasn’t really that close considering the score was 35-7 going into the 4th quarter and that part of the game was garbage time.

Thursday night’s disappointing loss puts coach Marc Trestman’s job even more in jeopardy and many feel that even with the changes that have happened since Trestman took over as head coach in 2013, the team is no closer to competing for a playoff spot than they were in 2012.

The players say the right things that their play is not good enough but they are not backing up their words with actions and at the end of the day, it doesn’t come down to if you can talk a good game but if you can play a good game.

Major changes will need to be made from the top in order to reverse the downward trend the Bears are on. The harsh reality is that the Bears have such a talented roster but the results have not been there and expect big changes when the season ends after their final 3 games.

Bulls rebound

After a difficult loss in double overtime Tuesday night at home vs. the Dallas Mavericks 132-129, the Bulls rebounded to beat the Charlotte Hornets 102-95 in North Carolina Wednesday evening.

The Hornets had not played in three days while the Bulls had played 2 games in 3 days before Wednesday evenings match up.

The Bulls were trailing 72-71 going into the final quarter but outscored Charlotte 30-24 in the final stanza and while the Hornets were trying to cut the Bulls lead to under 5 Kirk Hinrich killed that rally by drilling two 3-pointers to help seal the win.

Pau Gasol had 19 points, 15 rebounds in which he played over 85 minutes on the court in the back-to-back set of games.

One of the highlights for the Hornets came in the first half, Cody Zeller took a bounce pass from Lance Stephenson and had a nasty 2-handed jam over Gasol.

Jimmy Butler was held in check in the first half when he scored only 2 points after being named the player of the month in November, but added 13 in the second half.

One of the differences in the games was shooting from behind the Arc. The Bulls went 12-28 from downtown, while the Hornets only made 2 of 15 from behind the line.

Kemba Walker led Charlotte with 23 points who have now lost 10 straight games. One moment of the game that got attention on Twitter came in the 3rd, Nikola Mirotic was guarding Walker on a pick and roll, then Walker crossed over Mirotic stepped back while Mirotic fell down and drained a 3-pointer. Mirotic got his revenge in the fourth quarter by scoring 9 of his 11 points in the final 12 minutes. Pau Gasol had 19 points, 15 rebounds in which he played over 85 minutes on the court in the back-to-back set of games.

Joakim Noah had 14 points,10 rebounds and 7 assists but scared Bulls fans when he hurt his right ankle while driving to the basket in the first quarter.

Even with that scare, Noah came back after a timeout shot the two foul shots.

The Bulls have won 10 of their 12 games away from the United Center and have only lost 3 games on the road but have only won 2 of 6 at the UC.

The Bulls next game is Saturday night at home vs. the Golden State Warriors.