Well that was ugly. Bullies almost shit the bed last night against the vacation-bound Suns. After being up by as much as 22 in the 3rd quarter, the Suns whittled that lead down to 2 points in the 4th quarter. The corpse known as Vince Carter decided to give his best “Weekend at Bernie’s” impression and go off for 23 points and at one point converted a huge 4-point play. This guy is a fucking joke. He bitched and moaned his way out of Toronto and admitted to not trying so that he could get traded (he is still vehemently booed every time he touches the ball at the Air Canada Center). Despite his languid playing style and “off-and-on” desire to win, the guy has a pretty good ability to fill the bucket. DRose put up less than stellar numbers (19 points on 6 of 15 shooting, goo), but still came up with the goods coming down the stretch. He hit a tough shot going to the rim for a 3-point play and stuck a 17ft jumper in G.Hill’s face. Joakim put up a 12 and 4 in his first game back from a sprained ankle and the Booz added 12 points himself. The frontcourt tandem looked like they were becoming a little more comfortable with each other as Boozer had some good passes to Noah for easy buckets. The lapses in defense are hard to overlook especially after losing a 22-point lead. Maybe there is truth to the talk about the Bulls having a hard time playing smaller and quicker line-ups that can stretch the floor. With that said, the Bulls were still able to buckle down and win the game at all costs and they still remain in 1st with a shot for the #1 record (although somewhat a long shot). Overall I think this was a good win against a good team that would be in the playoffs if they played in the East. Bulls play Thursday against the C’s.
To perpetuate the ugliness, the Hawks lost their 2nd in a row to the Habs in OT last night. Both goalies came up huge throughout the game. Crawford came up with a bunch of ridiculous saves. I thought that Pat Foley’s head was going to explode mid-broadcast. Carey Price somehow kept the game tied at 1 a piece with some huge saves in the 3rd frame. He had some fantastic stops during a Hawks power play and stoned Ryan Johnson on a shorty try. Toews was put into the sin bin on a questionable call 30 seconds into the OT period. The 1-man advantage was enough for the Habs as PK Subban rifled one right were Mom keeps the peanut butter. Hawks are still in 8th, 2 points ahead of the Stars and Flames (who have one less game to play) and they host the Blues at the UC tonight. Just like every game in the previous 2.5 months, tonight’s is as paramount for the Hawks playoff future if not more. Oilers at Flames and Sharks at Ducks tonight, both games are also important. Hopefully the Hawks are focused on the team at hand and not scoreboard watching. Brows may not go tonight as he suffered an injury last night, thus debilitating our forward corps even more so with Bolland and Sharpie still watching games from the box seats. Madhouse on Madison indeed….
Master's preview tomorrow....
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