This West coast trip is a bit different than the circus trip that the Bulls took earlier in the season. First, because we are missing our top Center in Joakim Noah and Second, because we are deeper into the season and been able to figure out who’s going to consistently play well. This has to be the first time where I have seen the Bulls look lax on defense and play uninspired. Giving up 101 and 109 points to the Golden State Warriors and the Portland Trail Blazers is not my idea of playing well on the road - especially having blown these two teams out earlier in the season

Game 1: vs. Golden State

Somehow the Warriors were able to smother Rose on defense, only allowing him 14 points, 10 assists, and 9 turnovers. Boozer picked up the lack of scoring with 21 points, and 10 rebounds but it wasn’t enough against the Warriors, who had Monta Ellis score 33 points and Stephan Curry who scored 23. Curry and Ellis sparked a run early in the 4th quarter that pretty much sealed the deal against the Bulls who were not able to consistently mount an attack against the Warriors…

Game 2: vs. Portland

This game further proves why we desperately need Noah back in the lineup as we had no answer for LaMarcus Aldridge, who had a monster game with 42 points - pounding the Bulls in the paint and was able to hit 15-17ft jumper. The Bulls were also not able to contain Andre Miller who scored 27 points with 11 assists. Yea, Derrick got money with 36 points of his own but the Bulls were not able to get much going on offense. And he also had a crazy slam in the fourth quarter. Another game where the Bulls looked sleep on defense. And with Luol getting in early foul trouble, the Bulls didn’t many other options for Blazers - who are a pretty decent team so I’m not suprised by the way they played.

After the game Nicolas Batum quoted saying that Rose can’t play defense because of how Miller was able to score against the Bulls. Who is this guy?

This short losing streak only proves that we need our big guy, Noah, back on the court…He’s been practicing with no pain and is probably scheduled to come back after the All-Star game.

Today, the NBA All-Star Game starters were announced today and Derrick Rose will be the first Chicago Bull to start in the NBA All-Star Game since Michael Jordan…Rose has been playing out of this world and is the top player in the league right now and deserves the NBA MVP. Even with Boozer and Noah having stints on the injured list, Derrick has managed to keep the Bulls between the 2nd and 3rd seeds in the East…

Just in case you missed this…Dunk of the Night goes to…

Coach T at some point in the game telling Derrick Rose “You’re the man”

Last night the Bulls faced off against Dallas for the second time in the preseason, (why? I dont know)  and fell to the Mavericks once again.  Dirk put up 24 and is still rockin the Chris Kaman x Hulk Hogan look (plus headband) while Jason Kidd scored 0, but put up 8 dimes. The game was pretty close throughout with the Bulls mounting a late surge to tie the game on a Rose 3 pointer. Rose dropped 23 while Noah put up a steady 13 and 15 but it wasn’t enough as the Bulls somewhat collapsed in the OT period after holding a lead.  The killer was that the Bulls allowed Dominique Jones to slay them with 19 points in the contest.

The cool thing about the preseason is that the new Bulls get to gain experience playing games together without them counting in the standings, thus a learning experience… Lets go over some things we learned tonight watching this game.

Firstly we learned…

Derrick Rose is going to be better than last season… and Tyson Chandler is still weak as fuck on offense.

Due to his majestic new Samurai ponytail Joakim Noah is now dropping knowledge on youngins like Omer Asik who in turn…

May actually be a pretty solid option in the post eventually (sooner rather than later hopefully)

Oh and Rick Carlisle looks like Jim Carrey in the Mask… when he’s wearing the Mask that is