Chicago

Kirk Hinrich’s a tough dude. After leaving the season opener with an ankle injury and being questionable the next night, he came out and went for 26 points on 8-of-13 shooting with 3 3s. After being knocked out with a concussion against Dallas, he did miss a game, but then came back with averages of 24/4.5/10 in his next two games. You’ve got to like that. I normally leave players on the bench for a game to let them get back into the swing of things after an injury, but after Hinrich’s last performance I made sure to get him back in. Of course, it should be noted that Captain Kirk saw an average of 43 minutes in those two games due to the absence of Ben Gordon.

I should have known better than to give Chris Duhon any credit. He promptly had four absolute nightmare games before exploding for 24 points, 7 assists and 6 3s against, of course, the goddamn Wizards. Duhon’s still worth keeping around because he’s one of the few players you can tell Scott Skiles actually likes. His steals and 3s are still solid, but he’s starting to lose some of his assists to Hinrich. His minutes have remained fairly consistent, but it was a good thing he had that great game before Ben Gordon came back, because then things would have gotten interesting. ESPN’s Player Rater isn’t the gospel, but it’s an effective tool; as of Saturday night, Duhon was right in between Richard Hamilton and T.J. Ford. Numbers don’t lie, right?

Miami

Was I a little too early in proclaiming the death of Gary Payton’s fantasy relevancy? Looks that way. With Jason Williams nursing a bum knee, Payton has played 42 mpg in two starts, averaging 17/3.5/3 with 2.5 3s and 1.5 steals in his last two. His shot looked especially strong last night in a game against the Wizards THAT WAS HANDED TO THE HEAT BY THE OFFICIALS. Sorry, lost my composure there a bit, the last two Wizards games have been especially brutal. But that was a fucking fraud. Anyway, the 3-pointers are the big news here. Payton hadn’t been a serious long distance threat since the 00-01 season when he averaged 1.3 per game. But The Man Formerly Known as The Glove is putting them up at a high rate this season. Against the Wiz he was spotting up in the corner on multiple occasions – these were designed plays. In his four starts Payton – who topped 8 apg in six straight seasons in the prime of his career – has had more than 3 assists just once, so these 3s are huge for his value, especially since he’s nowhere near the pickpocket he used to be. If he’s going be seeing roughly 40 minutes per games there’s no problem with using him. In weekly leagues he makes a possibly excellent play – the Heat play four games, but who knows when Williams will return?

Atlanta

In case you didn’t notice, there’s a new starting PG in the league. You’d be forgiven for not noticing, of course. Royal Ivey has started the last three games for the Hawks and after a somewhat promising debut in which he scored 14 on 7-of-10 shooting, he still hasn’t seen more than 20 minutes in any of those starts. Tyronn Lue is still seeing just about the same amount of time even though he’s now coming off the bench. Actually, I should probably just stop now. The title of this section is Five Situations to Pay Attention To, and unless you play in the deepest league in the entire country, this is certainly not a situation worth your attention.

Los Angeles Lakers

Call me crazy, but I think Sasha Vujajic might actually have some fantasy value at some point this season. The triangle offense doesn’t need a traditional point guard to run it, but Parker barely even resembles a point guard. He’s certainly more of a swingman, and his 1.65:1 assist/turnover ratio backs this up. He’s been putting up decent numbers, but the majority of his production has come early in games. On Saturday he had no production at all; no points, no rebounds, 3 assists, missed all 7 of his shots in 24 minutes. Vujacic wasn’t much better, making only 1-of-3 and he didn’t register a single assist in his 24 minutes. The Lakers have been playing better lately, but they still have very little margin for error. Vujacic’s 3.9:1 assist/turnover ranks fourth in the league, behind only Eric Snow, Brevin Knight and Chauncey Billups. It’s not hard to envision Jackson getting fed up with Parker and making a switch. But what kind of value would Vujajic have if he could find regular PT? Marginal, to be sure. He’s not going to be in there for his scoring, and his 31% shooting so far in his career is almost historically bad. I see him similar to Duhon in that he could hit enough 3s and steals to be a marginal play in weeks when he has enough games, or as a guy to keep on your bench and plug in when the inevitable injuries hit.

Denver

Say this about Earl Boykins: his 26 mpg usually means 26 minutes. In 18 of his 21 games the little man has received between 22 and 29 minutes, which makes him a little easier to deal with than guys that fluctuate between 17-33-24, etc. But the last four games show why Boykins just isn’t a reliable player. Through the season’s first 16 games Boykins was averaging 0.8 3s and 1.1 steals – not great numbers, but enough to merit a utility spot in deep leagues. But that’s about as good as it gets for Boykins in those categories, and you know that he’ll never grab any boards or shoot above 42%. Lots of people have been hoping for Earl to sneak into the starting lineup, but this is a guy who has started 10 games in his 379 game career. His role seems pretty defined. With Andre Miller on one of his hot streaks and piling up the assists, there’s no point in shifting him over to SG in favor of Boykins. You can do better.

Comet Gain

Gilbert Arenas – That was a brutal shooting game last night, but he’s starting to rack up the steals and fills up the box score every night. Think of him as the new AI.

Brevin Knight – Owners don’t have him for scoring, but certainly won’t complain about 17.5 ppg to go along with 9 apg and 2.7 spg in his last six.

Sarunas Jasikevicius – A little bit of everything in his five starts: 11.0/4.2/5.4 with 1.6 3s, 1.0 steals on 52% and 94% shooting. Liking my Brent Barry comparison more and more.

Mo Williams – He’s back on the bench now, but those numbers in his four starts – 19.3/1.5/7.0 with 2.5 3s and 1.3 steals – and his consistent 3-point gunning off the bench make him worthy of at least a bench spot.

Baron Davis – Yeah yeah yeah, he can’t shoot. But optimists will look at his 41% career number and think that means he’ll shoot around 43% from here on out. Hey, it’s possible.

The Hold Steady

Chauncey Billups – How nice is it to have a guy like this on your team? Holding strong with that career high assist number.

Derek Fisher – Last two games were especially encouraging – no 3s, but still managed to average 16.5 with 1.5 steals. You know my non-starter policy, but if you’re desperate…

Tony Parker – After no steals in first four games, averaging 1.6 since then. In a bit of a shooting slump, but that was to be expected.

Marko Jaric – Life without Hudson is nice; 15.5/5.5/6.0 with 2 3s and 1 steal in 37.5 minutes in last two. Sell high? If you can…

Delonte West – I’m becoming a believer; eight straight games of 30+ minutes and just enough steals, blocks and 3s to merit that final roster spot in your lineup.

The Fall

Deron Williams – Jerry Sloan can’t take all the blame; 31% shooting and 17/12 assist/turnover in last four just won’t cut it.

Sebastian Telfair – You don’t look for rebounds from PG, but four in his last six games is flat-out pathetic;

Jameer Nelson – Back to the bench with Francis back; he’s crippling in leagues that count TO.

Damon Jones – A forgotten man in most recent game; hard to see him making an impact any time soon.

Luther Head – As expected, he’s slid off to irrelevance with the return of McGrady.

Dallas is likely the 3rd best team in the NBA, albeit a tier below San Antonio and Detroit (who pummeled the Bulls on Saturday). One of their better players in Josh Howard is out, and Jerry Stackhouse is dealing with his annual leg ailment. This has Dallas pretty thin on the wings, so thin that former Bull Adrian Griffin may start and get major minutes for the Mavs.

The Bulls proved that they can play superior teams well, with 2 strong showings (and one win) against San Antonio. They still have nobody who can guard Dirk Nowitzki, although I'd like to see if Luol Deng can get an extended trial to do so, as I feel he'd have at least a better chance than Nocioni would. Skiles may be forced to given how everyone has been picking up early fouls lately.

Blogging with the Enemy: Rebel Ballin'

I'll be in attendance tonight trying to extend my own streak, of both Bulls wins and hot dogs eaten.

And by the way, it's Hardwood Classics night, with the Bulls sporting the '46-47 road unis of the Chicago Stags. The Bulls have barely changed their uniforms in their own 40 year existence, so a reach like this is acceptable, I guess.

UPDATE: Well, it was all about Dirk. Tyson Chandler, Andres Nocioni and Darius Songaila alternated unsuccessful attempts at guarding Nowitzki, who finished with 35 points despite shooting poorly in the first half. I still think Luol Deng should have gotten more of a shot to guard him. If you remember seeing Tracy McGrady in the playoffs, Nowitzki seems to have more trouble with lengthy players who can stay in front of him.

Dallas had 15 offensive rebounds which perhaps seemed to hurt more watching it in person but still had an effect. Also, I highlighted in the preview the fact that the Mavs were weak at the wing positions, and starting Adrian Griffin was a sign of that weakness. Ole' man Griff showed up his former team with 14 points and 12 rebounds.

Tough to fault the effort, although a lot of loose balls and possible defensive boards went to the Mavs. They are simply a hard team for the Bulls to match up with. Kirk Hinrich left very early in the game with a concussion, which made things even worse with Chris Duhon also seeming to have trouble with his ankles during the game. So, for the first time all season, Ben Gordon had to spend extended minutes as the primary ballhandler. He made up for it with his hot first-half shooting (I believe he had 18 in the first half), but overall the offense seemed to stagnate without Kirk or Duhon out there. In the frontcourt, Mike Sweetney played only 22 minutes as the taller Mavericks like Dirk, Eric Dampier, and Keith Van Horn really made it hard for Skiles to find a place for him.

Luol Deng had another strong game, shooting 12-15 for 25 points. Maybe it is time to get him in the starting lineup. I still would have liked to see him have the chance on defense to guard the big German though...

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After the hot start the Bulls managed just 35 points in the second half. Luol Deng led the Bulls again with 18 points. But the Bulls starting backcourt of Hinrich and Duhon managed just 10 points combined. Tyson Chandler followed up his 10 point, 16 rebound, 3 block performance against the Celtics with 3 points, 6 boards and NO blocks.

As a team, the Bulls shot just 39 percent from the field and 58 percent from the line. The Bulls went to the line 26 times compared to just 15 for the Pistons, but the Bulls managed just one more point from the line than Detroit.

Ironically Ben Gordon and Luol Deng, both playing off the bench, are now the Bulls two leading scorers at 14.8 and 14.1 PPG, respectively. The Bulls are the only team in the league without a 15 PPG scorer.

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The Lakers have a front line that even the Bulls can take advantage of, although Kwame Brown always seems to have good games against the Bulls.(EDIT: Kwame is out with a hamstring pull.) NBA journeyman Smush Parker has been a revelation at point guard, but is still prone to turnovers.

But they still have that Kobe guy. and Lamar Odom. Who guards either? Perhaps Eddie Basden gets his defensive reputation tested and can make sure Kirk Hinrich doesn't get worn out (or fouled out) while guarding Kobe. And for Odom (who's usually the ballhandler in the triangle offense), I'm not sure Nocioni can stay with him, unless the refs allow him to clutch and grab his way all game.

Blogging with the Enemy: Forum Blue and Gold

No predictions, its tough to figure which Bulls team I'm going to see on a given night. I expect Mike Sweetney to continue to put up big numbers, and maybe this will be the game Tyson Chandler gets his season going. The Lakers (and most importantly Kobe) are banged up so an actual good effort by the Bulls could work wonders. Haven't seen much of that this road trip though.

UPDATE: I really thought this would be another 2nd half collapse like the game in Seattle, and was pretty disgusted after two turnovers early in the 4th.

But Duhon and Hinrich went on a 3 point barrage that was only partially matched by the Lakers in the closing minutes.

The Bulls front line overpowered the Lakers all game, with Sweetney performing well yet again getting 20pts, 12 rebs, and shooting 50%. Sweetney slowed later in the game, but like the win versus the Warriors a couple weeks ago he had a play drawn for him late and again he drew a foul. Tyson Chandler had a huge block in the final minutes as well, capping his best game of the season with 15 rebounds and 6 points.

The Lakers stayed close on the back of Kobe Bryant, who was making some ridiculous shots on his way to 43 points. They also went to the foul line 32 times as opposed to 18 for the Bulls.

But it was Duhon down the stretch, who literally assumed the Ben Gordon role(who sat during the Bulls final run) and landed 5-7 from 3 to give the Bulls a much needed victory.

A few days off before going to San Antonio on Friday. Too early to say games are must-wins, but it sure feels nice to stop the losing streak before heading to Texas. ::wipes forehead::

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