Game Time: Chicago vs Dallas

I’m excited, very excited, to see young Derrick Rose tonight. This is going to be fun.

The Bulls starting lineup is – Derrick Rose, Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng, Tyrus Thomas, Drew Gooden

I’m a bit surprised by the lineup. Until a few days ago I didn’t think the Bulls would start both Hinrich and Rose, this is a big upgrade over Larry Hughes and is a difference maker over last season’s backcourt. I like the combination of the two. I’m also surprised not to see Joakim Noah in the lineup after a good finish to last season. Drew and Tyrus’ summer workouts must have paid of … and Noah’s less impressive summer workouts perhaps hurt himself.

First Quarter

• Rose alley oop to Tyrus Thomas, Tyrus mishandles that. Dirk picks up the loose ball and pushes the other way
• Rose takes the three right wing, misses
• Kidd turnover, Kirk Hinrich bringing it up, looks for the alley oop to Rose, Rose fouled on the catch as he tries to guide it into the basket.
• Big test for Jason Kidd tonight facing two good point guards in Derrick Rose and Kirk Hinrich.
• Wright with a stutter step, now sticks his head down and bullies his way inside on the drive from the left wing to the right of the rim and the lay in over Hinrich. Was Chicago one of the team’s where Antoine Wright had a fantastic game against last season? He shut down Ben Gordon and put on a marvelous defensive display. I think it was Chicago. Let’s see if he likes this building.
• Jason Kidd turns it over again
• Gooden open from 18 feet left elbow extended, head fake, drives inside, behind the back pass to Rose along the baseline, Rose kicks it out to Tyrus on the right wing, 19 footer, good.
• Josh Howard has bagged a pair of long jumpers
• Luol Deng just fell apart on a high screen and roll. Dirk showed and Deng just fell apart, he didn’t know what to do, turned back the other way towards the sideline, boxed himself into a corner, then Howard trapped him. Turnover.
• Dampier with good position on the quick push, Gooden fronts him, there’s no help behind him, Kidd notices and quickly passes the ball over the top, Damp catches and dunks.
• Dallas are attacking early in their offense. Lot of quick shots. Timeout. Dallas lead 13-5
• Rose high screen and roll, turns on the jets too early, bad use of the screener, drives right down the middle of the lane, Kidd staying with him and forcing Rose wider than he’d like to be, challenges the shot, miss. Tough shot. Very good D by Kidd.
• Oooh oh my, that was nice, Kidd pushes it quickly looking to get into the halfcourt offense as soon as possible, Kidd running up the right wing, Howard in the right corner goes backdoor, Kidd 25 foot bounce pass on the money, dunk. Lovely.
• Dallas lob it ahead 70 feet after another made basket, Dirk down low, knocks Tyrus down (Tyrus dived) and finishes easily inside.
• Dallas leads 19-11 after the Hinrich three point play
• Great cut by Deng just before Tyrus took the shot, Thomas finds him, short three foot hook, goaltending on Howard who trailed the play. Timeout Dallas.
• Larry Hughes enters the action, so Wright decides now is the time to post up, nice aggressive move down low but Hughes does well enough defensively to force the miss.
• Pass ahead to Hughes on the right wing, Kidd almost steals it, Hughes sees an opening, fakes right, goes left, stops and pops from 16 feet, Howard reaches and fouls, tap foul, Hughes regains his balance in midair and hits the J plus the FT.
• Dirk with the 20 footer top of the key
• Another Jason Kidd feed to Dampier for a dunk on a slowish fastbreak
• Drew Gooden iso on the left baseline, 17 feet out, faces Dirk up, takes the shot, makes the shot
• Kirk Hinrich pressuring Kidd brilliantly, knocks it loose, Kidd regains it, still dribbling, about 13 seconds into the shot clock and the Mavs still aren’t into their offense. Kidd moves inside with a non-threatening drive, passes out, Dirk hits a jumper.
• Seflosha and Nocioni enter the action
• Kidd passes over the top from 30 feet out to the cutting Howard, who moved from the baseline down under the rim, popped up into the middle the lane, then made the catch and hit a FT.
• Final minute in the first, Dallas timeout (called the timeout because Dirk went down, but he’s fine), Dallas possession ….. hand off Kidd to Dirk leaving Dirk to work just off that elbow, he takes a turnaround J, misses. Chicago bring it up, Dampier gives away a stupid foul giving Gooden two FTs, Gooden makes one of two. Two possession game here. Dallas bring it up, Kidd tries to lob it over the top, throws it high and hard, hits off the glass and in, three pointer.

Second Quarter

• Dallas leads 36-22. Fourteen point lead for the Mavericks. Antoine Wright leads all scorers with 11 points. Chicago shot 50% in the first quarter, but Dallas shot a blistering 63%. Chicago’s 7 turnovers have cost them 12 points. Meanwhile the Mavs 2 turnovers cost them one point.
• George, Bass, Diop, Terry and Barea are out there for the Mavericks now. Proper second unit.
• Barea drives from the right, through to the paint, floater over the shot blocker, nope Tyrus gets a piece of it, Diop cleans up the loose ball and slams it home
• This unit looks like they might struggle for offense, Dallas that is. They’ve got to make sure that Bass and the two guards spend the most time around the ball offensively. So far George and Diop have been overly involved.
• Diop at the FT line, drives right and takes a running hook, blocked by Aaron Gray. For those that don’t know, Gray lost 30lbs this summer and is a much slimmer version of his former self. Diop returns the favour on the end blocking Gray’s short hook, but Gray gets it back and hits the short shot.
• Dallas beat Chicago up the floor again and get another bucket, plus a foul. Timeout. Dallas lead 42-29. Chicago have to do a better job getting back on defense, both in fastbreak situations and after made baskets. They’re particularly lackadaisical after the made baskets.
• Brandon Bass with a lound dunk, drive off the right elbow, going left down the paint, dunks over three Bulls.
• Deng is at the four now, he faces up Bass from 18 feet, shoots over the top of him and hits it
• Terry screen and roll top of the key, hits the J. Poor defense by Chicago on screen, they gave Terry a wide open jumper in rhythm.
• Terry runs off a baseline screen, pops out to the corner for an open three, gets the pass and hits the J
• Barea off the high screen and roll, driving inside,showing a hesitation dribble, spining through the defense, floating through the air avoiding the shotblockers, using the rim well to protect the ball, layup

Halftime

• Mavs lead 62-44
• Chicago lead 25-21 on the backboards. Surprisingly the Bulls have only 7 assists despite their two point guard lineup. Rose has four of them. The Mavs have almost double the amount with 13, led by Kidd with 6.
• Chicago now have 14 turnovers and it’s cost them 20 points, that’s the difference in the game. Dallas didn’t make a turnover in the second quarter.
• Dallas has taken 19 more shots, 52 shots to 33, and are making 53% of their shots to 46% for Chicago.
• No Chicago Bull has more than 7 points. Five Mavericks players have more than 7 points, and one other has 7.

In other games …. Houston are winning 50-32 against the Spurs. No Tim Duncan for San Antonio, well that explains that. Utah and Phoenix have just started the second quarter and it’s a tight game so far.

Second Half

• Dallas leading 62-44
• Different lineup for the Mavs coming out at halftime. They’ve switched their backcourt of Kidd/Wright for Bass/Terry. That has Josh Howard at the two guard and Bass at small forward. I’m guessing they’re trying to get at the Bulls small backcourt. I’m also thinking Jason Kidd has seen his last action for the night.
• Rose playing the passing lanes, deflecting Howard’s pass back outside, touched it off Terry and out of bounds. Turnover Mavs. Howard returns the favour, stripping Gooden in the low post, and running the other way, out to Dampier, Howard posts up Hinrich, Damp forces the pass, turnover.
• Rose skips to the 17 foot mark and nails the jumper
• Dallas doing a great job of getting back in transition. Chicago have had maybe 3-4 fastbreak opportunities all game. Dallas have had two-to-three times that solely by running off of made baskets, nevermind rebounds and turnovers.
• Rose with a dribble weave handing it off to Deng, Deng cutting through the middle and laying it in
• Rose nails another 18 footer top of the key. Chicago making a run, they’ve pulled this to 7.
• Gerald Green knocked down a jumper. Next possession, runs the floor, fills the lane, bad pass from Terry puts him out of position, Bulls collapse, Green jumps with nowhere to go but makes a good pass to Dirk on the baseline, Dirk makes the Bulls pay by not rushing out to him.
• Timeout Chicago … lead back up to 11
• Green looking for his, takes a tough fallaway contested J, little off balance from 16 feet right wing, predictably misses the shot
• Rose has done a very good job tonight. He’s been under control for the majority of the game and ran the offense fairly well. You can tell he’s going to get much better during the course of the regular season. Defensively he’s been good. Bad turnover as I say this, also a nice runner prior to the turnover. Rose has come off screens off the ball very well tonight, explosive on the catch as he turns the corner.
• Dallas lead 72-62 with four minutes to play in the third
• Green forces another shot, but makes this one, gives himself a little fist pump and pat on the back as he runs back up. Looks like Green’s mental state is still based on his offensive production. Then Green gets lost on defense leaving Deng the entire baseline to cut to the rim but Nocioni had other ideas, not exploited.
• Tyrus has a large heat pack on his stomach area. He’s likely not coming back.
• Gray with a hook shot over Diop, misses. Good work to get excellent position in the middle of the lane, also great defense by Diop on the catch to move Gray just a tad further out on the catch and helping force the miss. Diop seems surprised by how active Gray can be offensively. Dampier and Diop are doing a twin towers thing right now, that’s interesting.
• Nice pass by Barea to hit Singleton who used a back screen effectively to shake free for an open layup off the cut

Okay I’m going to leave this game and switch to the Lakers-Clippers matchup. The Mavericks are up 18 and it looks like they’ll be playing their reserves for most of the remainder.