Thought they'd lose going in, was pleasantly surprised to see us playing well offensively for most of the game, until the predictable implosion at the end. When it was 100-95 I knew we were going to lose, smh. Defense wasn't good tonight, but saw some encouraging things offensively. Smith played pretty well today, probably shouldn't have been in the game towards the end though. Howard had a poor game. Didn't take it up strong, didn't seem focused, always fumbled the ball. Missed some EASY shots tonight too. Very bad game from him. Harden had a great first half, then took himself out of rhythm in the 2nd half by playing passive. Worked for a bit, but I'd rather see him look for his offense every so often to stay in rhythm if nothing else, he was so out of sync at the end. I'd also rather him shoot a crazy step back jumper with Jimmy Butler in his face than passing it to DMo or Smith for an ill-advised three. He's been so great all season but this wasn't one of his finer games. Ariza still can't make a bucket to save his life, although he's good defensively. Beverley with a good game but was shut down at the end. All in all, I hate to see us lose and plummet in the standings, but I'm okay with how we played, the Bulls are a very good team and we kept up well for a bit. We would have probably won a properly officiated game.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Guess how many times a team has shot only 5 FT in a game this season in <a class="hashtag" action="hash" title="#NBA">#NBA</a>? Give up? One time. <a class="hashtag" action="hash" title="#Rockets">#Rockets</a>. Tonight. HOU 3-5, CHI 27-30.</p>— Adam Wexler (@awexler) <a href="https://twitter.com/awexler/status/552305652279021568" data-datetime="2015-01-06T03:28:23+00:00">January 6, 2015</a></blockquote> <script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Maybe. But you're up 5 with under 5 minutes to go, you can still win the game. If you execute. This was another instance of the starters just not getting the job done. Maybe McHale needs to stop putting all 5 starters back in automatically in the 4th. Mix it up a little. Maybe Brewer instead of Ariza since the latter can't hit a jump shot to save his life. Where was Papa tonight? He only played 7 minutes. I just wish he'd start tinker with the lineup cuz that starting 5 whether it's D-Mo or Smith is not looking good lately.
I had forgotten how much I enjoyed watching Pau Gasol..... yell, moan, and flail around much more than a self-respecting 7 foot 250 lb man should.
Dear McHale, GO TO DMO IN THE POST!!!! When you're offense is stagnant, GO TO DMO!!! He was great down there when given the opportunity, but he just doesn't get the ball!
Bulls are a great team. We were playing defense handicapped. They played well enough to win this game. The difference in FTs though changes how players approach the game. Just like if Peyton knows his guy can get a PI call just by throwing deep....that means he may chuck one up there and on the flip side it means the DB may play softer to avoid getting the PI. At the end the Rockets were just shooting jumpers probably because they realized the Refs weren't going to call anything.
No it's not annoying when it's an instance of a single call or something late in the game. But when it happens throughout the game? What claim do you have then
Those posters are annoying but after this game, all of those posters are right. I'd cuss these refs out right now if I could
Rockets did not play bad defense considering all the bad call against them. The rockets had momentum on multiple occasions but they were always set back by the refs and the bulls capitalized on this. Rockets played hard tonight. It's hard to win a game when you're playing a good team and the refs.
Are we seriously gonna ignore another piss poor performance from Ariza on the offensive end? I know posters are gonna bring up him defense but any good work he does is wiped clean by his bricks and dumb passes.
It's annoying when the officiating is blatantly biased and you're still acting "unbiased" just for the sake of it.
Harden didn't D up, Howard didn't challenge at the rim, the refs swallowed their whistles (though I didn't see many obvious non calls) and the Rockets went ISO instead of setting any picks late, and the smarter team forced the ball to two weak 3 pt shooters in DMo and Smith and we missed. We have to play smarter, up 100-95 we collapsed on both ends. DD
No those shots were product of very poor ball movement and Mchale not coaching and just asking one player to go score the ball. Bulls defense is way too good to let that happen, Dmo and Josh got those shots because Tom wanted them to get those shots.
Listen, after EVERY game people blame the refs. We had ALOT more shot attempts and were leading most of the game and had plenty of chances to win the game at the end. In the end we failed to execute, end of story, not the refs fault. Would be an easy copout to blame the refs, instead of looking at the real problems.
