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Gameday Dish: Chicago vs. Brooklyn

April 4 by Mike Fratello Leave a Comment

Milwaukee Bucks v Brooklyn Nets The City of Broad Shoulders comes to the Borough of Big Attitudes tonight in a battle of two playoff-bound teams.

The host Nets at 43-31 currently occupy the 4^th seed in the Eastern Conference, two games ahead of 5^th seed Atlanta and 2.5 ahead of 6^th seed Chicago.

Both of these squads head into tonight’s 48 with significant players banged up. Starting Brooklyn off-guard Joe Johnson has missed the last five games with a combo of left heel / right quad issues, and starting SF Gerald Wallace missed last night’s game with a sore foot. Both players will be game time decisions.

PG Derrick Rose, C Joakim Noah, SG Richard Hamilton and G Marco Belinelli are already sidelined with various injuries, and coach Tom Thibodeau may have lost Taj Gibson for a while as well in Tuesday’s loss at Washington. Carlos Boozer led the Bulls in the 90-86 D.C. defeat, putting up 19 points, 12 boards and 5 assists.

Tonight’s game marks the return of the Nets to Brooklyn after an eight-game road trip in which they went 5-3, including a 113-95 shellacking of Cleveland last night that set a franchise record for road wins.

Chicago Bulls v Minnesota Timberwolves Second-year SG Marshon Brooks led coach P.J. Carlesimo’s guys with a career-high 27 points on 12 of 16 shooting to go along with 7 dimes and 4 boards. Deron Williams chipped in with 24 points and 8 assists.

This will be the fourth and final time these two teams play in the regular season. So far, the home team has come away victorious in the previous three games including the Bulls’ win in Chi-town on March 2^nd.

In that game, Boozer and Noah combined for 41 points, 18 boards, 8 assists, 7 steals and 5 blocks to help lead the Bulls to a 96-85 final.

Chicago has just 9 games left in the regular season, and a W tonight would prove huge in their attempt to take over the 4^th seed and secure home court in the 1^st round of the playoffs.

Starting this evening Brooklyn has 5 home games and 3 away games left and with the 3^rd seed Pacers a healthy 4.5 games in front of them, it’s all about defending their current position.

Tune in to TNT at 7PM ET to watch the Bulls and Nets contend for postseason positioning.

Filed Under: Gameday Dish Tagged With: Brooklyn Nets, Carlos Boozer, Chicago Bulls, Marson Brooks

From the Booth

March 3 by Mike Fratello 1 Comment

NETS BOOTH ON SATURDAY’S LOSS
Fratello and Ruocco break down the Nets’ 96-85 loss to the Chicago Bulls.

Filed Under: From the Booth Tagged With: Brooklyn Nets, Chicago Bulls

Gameday Dish: Heat vs. Bulls

February 21 by Mike Fratello Leave a Comment

The Miami Heat come to Chicago tonight riding the NBA’s longest current win streak of 8 games. At 37-14 they have the best record in the Eastern Conference by 5 games and the second best overall record in the league.

LeBron James, now in his tenth pro season, has been performing at a level not seen since Michael Jordan. His season averages of 27.2 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 7 apg and 1.7 spg accompanied by a staggering 57% FG rate make him far and away the leader to win the MVP award for the fourth time.

In Miami’s first game after the All-Star break, 28-year-old James had 24 points, 11 dimes, 6 boards and 4 steals in a come-from-behind victory in Atlanta last night.

The Heat outscored the Hawks 40-17 in the 4^th quarter in the 103-90 victory. Veterans Shane Battier and Ray Allen combined for 32 points off the bench as Chris Bosh struggled, scoring only 6 points on 2-10 shooting.

The tenacious Bulls team last played on Tuesday night in The Big Easy where they bested the soon-to-be Pelicans 96-87 to improve their record to 31-22, currently good for the 5^th spot in the East.

Chicago Bulls v Los Angeles Lakers First-time All-Star Joakim Noah put up 15 points, 17 boards, 5 dimes and 3 blocks in the 48. Prior to the break coach Tom Thibodeau’s squad dropped 5 of 7 games with 6 of those contests on the road.

Chicago and Miami matched up for the first time on January 4^th in South Beach. The Bulls, behind Carlos Boozer’s 27 points and 12 rebounds, topped the Heat 96-89 in a rare Miami home L. In fact, Miami has lost 6 of their last 8 regular season games against the Bulls including 9 of their last 11 in Chi-Town.

However, they did win 2 games at the United Center in the 2011 Eastern Conference Finals. The Heat, for all their greatness, have a fairly pedestrian road record of 14-11, while Chicago’s home mark of 16-10 isn’t all that intimidating.

Chicago has pulled together this season without their leader Derrick Rose, the 2011 NBA MVP. After tearing his ACL in Game 1 of the first round of the 2012 playoffs, the Chicago-native has missed all 53 of the Bulls games thus far. Recently the 2008 1^st overall pick stated that he may not return to game action until next season. However he has been reported to be participating in live 5-5 drills in practice.

Tune in to TNT tonight at 8:00 PM ET to see if Miami can continue their hot streak against a tough Bulls team that gives up only 91.5 ppg and hits the boards hard.

Filed Under: Gameday Dish Tagged With: Chicago Bulls, Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, LeBron James, Miami Heat