The Chicago Bulls visit the New Jersey Nets in their second match of the season. The Nets are wearing a “New York” jersey, as apart of a hardwood classic game designation, in homage to their ABA days. Luol Deng started, along with Ronnie Brewer in the absence of Richard Hamilton(groin).
The Bulls started off strong, dominating on defense early, then boosting their offense to match their defense to open up with a 21 point lead to finish the first quarter.
Former Bull, Keith Bogans, started the game for the Nets. He played a bigger role of making clumsey fouls and giving Bulls fans a reason to gasp after a few ugly bangs throughout the game. Despite his play, there was little or no animosity towards the players, as ex-teammates were happy to see Bogans again. He finished with 7 points, and unlike when he was with the Bulls, scoring 6+ points didn’t make any difference here.
Rose picked up two fouls early on, missing 6 minutes of the first quarter. He came back in the second, only to limp off into the locker room. The Bulls just kept him out of the game, due to the blowout in the making. Derrick’s back was giving him problems, and the official diagnosis were continuations of his back spasms. The team will report on Tuesday about the extent of the injury. Coach Thibodeau kept the window open in post-game coverage, and was unsure of the extent, although he remained optimistic for Rose’s return to the line-up and the Bulls depth to cover down.
Ex-Net, Brian Scalabrine picked up MVP chants from the crowd in garbage time. It was the loudest the crowd had gotten all game long, even factoring in that most of the venue had left early to beat the traffic.
CJ Watson scored a double-double with 14 and 11 assists. Noah was a point shy, scoring 9 and grabbing 12 rebounds, with 5 assists. He had 3 easy bucket opportunities to seal the double-double, but he made extra passes to get his teammates a few easy scores instead. Noah also had 2 blocks and 1 steal to round off an excellent performance.
The Bulls defeat the New Jersey Nets, 108-87 and move to 21-6 for the season.
Next Game: Wednesday at the New Orleans Hornets. Tip off at 7:00PM CST
Leave a comment letting us know what you think about the article!
Also swing by our Message Boards to discuss Chicago Sports with many other fans. CHI CITY SPORTS l #1 Chicago Sports Fan Message Board – Powered by vBulletin
For More Great Chicago Sports Content
Follow us on Twitter at @chicitysports23 for more great content. We appreciate you taking time to read our articles. To interact more with our community and keep up to date on the latest in Chicago sports news, JOIN OUR FREE FACEBOOK GROUP by CLICKING HERE
