14 Points!

That's how many the Bulls scored in the third quarter tonight. Let me tell you something, when you only score 14 points in a quarter, you aren't going to win too many games. So why did the Bulls score so poorly? A couple of reasons. 1. The refs didn't do them any favors by letting them play. There were four or five obvious fouls in that quarter that should have led to free throws, but unfortunately weren't called. If they, it would have been a whole different ball game. 2. The Bulls missed WIDE OPEN SHOTS! And I mean wide open! And when the Bulls are missing open jumpers they are pretty terrible. 3. A bad string of turnovers and stupid decisions in the middle of the quarter that the team never recovered from. This is all the players, there is no excuse for stupid play, I'd like to blame VDN for this, but watching the game, I can't. This falls on the players...At least tonight.

So the Bulls lost, nothing new. If they bounce back tomorrow and beat the Bobcats then I'll continue to have faith in them being a playoff team. If they lose tomorrow then I'll go back into panic mode.

One note about the game, Tyrus Thomas (again I love him and wish they would keep him and develop him) looked terrible in his 20 minutes tonight. Yes, he should always get at least 30 minutes no matter what he is doing, but he looked particularly bad tonight. I don't mind him taking open jumpers, as long as they're inside 15 feet. Anything outside of that is too far and should be considered out of his range. Tonight, especially in the third quarter, he was settling for 18-20 footers and it definitely got him benched in the first half. To me, this is a coaching issue. Tell Tyrus to move closer and you will play 30 minutes. The problem of course is then VDN has to back it up, which we know he won't do. This whole Thomas thing has made me sad, unfortunately for my own sanity I wish they would trade him. I just can't stand seeing him sit on the bench.