Bulls lead 46-32 with 8:04 in the 2nd. Can Rockets catch the Lakers? They got a lot of road games left (15 out of 23) and they have a losing record on the road (11-16).
Only if Shaq is hurt for the year. Lakers will come back. The Bulls are shooting like they've never shot in the last 5 years. Normalacy will probably return.
The Bulls are very respectable on their home floor at 19-12. The problem is that they are 3-<b><i>30</i></b> on the road. Ouch!
This actually is a pretty good game, I enjoy watching Shaq vs. baby Shaq. As much as I dislike Kobe, anytime one of his games is televised, I'd be a fool not to watch it. Curry and Chandler have seemed to improve together, and they also have a great point guard duo, in Crawford and Williams. I predict that the Lakers will win the game tonight, after all they are only down by 7 points now.
EG's stats are right up there with Chandlers. And has much better rebounding number and blocking numbers then Curry. All this while EG plays the fourth or fifth fiddle on a playoff contending team.
Jamal Crawford has career highs of 23 pts, and 10 rebs. Too bad the Bulls can't play for sh*t on the road, or they'd be a playoff team in the East. I haven't been too impressed with what I've seen from Eddy Curry until tonight. He's finally shown that he can get the ball and score in the post. This guy really needed to go to college. Ditto Tyson Chandler and Kwame Brown. They could have developed their game much better.
curry is really looking like a young shaq he is a dunking machine. he will be good when he gets older, say 23, he is so young and very talented maby him and yao can have some good championship battles in a couple of years.
Nah if they could develop their game in the real competition of NBA, why developed it in the college?
Yeah, the Lakers sure looked like a well-oiled machine getting pounded by the Bulls by 17 points. Despite what the Lakers fans think the Lakers ARE NOT back. They're a good team, they're a playoff team, but they're just missing that something that makes them dominant. Maybe they'll get it back in the playoffs, but anybody who is expecting the Lakers to runaway in the regular season is fooling themselves. The Lakers are very catchable, with or without Shaq. As for Curry and Chandler, I'm more impressed with Eddie' potential then those guys. As for winning on the road, I think the Bulls haven't won on the road since January. They're not blowing anybody up away from the United Center.
I watched this game tonight and was impressed by the bulls youngsters. Curry and Chandler together really bothered Shaq. They are both long and athletic and Shaq hasn't seen something like that for years. The bulls could become a scary team down the road if they could keep all their young talents (which BTW I don't think they can). On a sidenote, I'll say this again: we should try to get Jamal Crawford during the summer. Crawford would be the perfect PG for the Rockets if we were to move SF to the 2. He is just starting to show what he can do and there seems to be no place for him in Chicago in the long run.
The Bulls built the big lead in Q3 by having Curry D Shaq and Chandler shade with little to no regard for Madsen. Shaq was usually doubled immediatley. Shaq is normally a good passer out of a double team, but they did it so quickly they caught the Lakers and Shaq by total surprise. Plus Chandler was/is mobile enough to rotate back to the weakside when Shaq kicked the ball out to a guard or even to Madsen. As I recall, the mismatches continued on offense where Shaq had Chandler and he made some good passes to Curry cutting to the basket. For some reason, Curry and Chandler where not both on the court together for a big part of Q4 and the Bulls offense looked awful as the Lakers crept back into the game. Interesting stats in the Lakers loss: * Kobe had 36 points on 13 of 26 with 5 assists. * Fox was 8-17. * Shaq managed only 3-11 (good Bulls D but that's not many shots!). http://www.nba.com/games/20030311/LALCHI/boxscore.html
This reminded me how Minny doubled Yao with the 7 footers Nesterovic and Garnett in one of our losses to them. But Bulls' frontline is even bigger with Curry, Chandler, Blount and Marshall. Bulls are going to be in pretty good shape for years to come with those 2 young 7-footers especially in the big-men-less Eastern Conference.
Curry impressed the heck out of me in that game. Man, what a physical presence. Way to keep Shaq out of his comfort spots! I enjoyed that game thoroughly. (Of course, moreso because the Lakers lost than the Bulls won, but the Bulls are developing quite a good team of youngsters.)
