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  November 2008

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Following a surprising season in which a young team showed some promise in pushing the Detroit Pistons in the first round of the NBA playoffs, the Philadelphia 76ers continued to build off this momentum by shrewdly signing star big man Elton Brand away from the Los Angeles Clippers, displaying some aggressiveness and creativity that the Chicago Bulls could certainly heed considering its current assemblage of far too many complementary parts.

The top two picks of the 2008 NBA Draft — Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls and Michael Beasley of the Miami Heat — squared off Monday in the Orlando Summer League. While Beasley dominated and Rose struggled with inconsistency, don’t get a case of revisionist history and say that the Bulls made the wrong choice following these early results. Rose will prove to be the right pick for the Bulls. With that said, if one thing stood out in this meaningless game, it’s why the Bulls are entertaining the thoughts of entering next season with the front line as currently assembled and still no low-post scorer.

After losing to the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night, the Chicago Bulls had a good 72 hours to stew about its bad start to the regular season. Here’s hoping the team is upset with the start and comes out looking to play tonight. The Bulls better be ready as the Clippers have been scoring in triple digits thus far this year without Elton Brand and Shaun Livingston.

Chicago is not playing a team like New Jersey, Philadelphia or Milwaukee that will go through prolonged offensive slumps and allow the Bulls to hang around. If the Bulls are slow and ineffective on defense, the Clippers could have a field day and run them out of the building.

Here’s hoping that rookie forward Joakim Noah, making his professional debut, can energize the Bulls. With that said, it’s time for the Bulls to Wake Up on the defensive end, as the lyrics from a song by one of the best bands around, The Walkmen, reveal.

by: Chris Maynard, chris@hoops4thesoul.com

Los Angeles Clippers 97, Chicago Bulls 91

The defensive urgency and overall effort were much better tonight for the Chicago Bulls; unfortunately, the end result was the same. Chicago dropped to 0-4 on the young season as the surprising Clippers rode the hot hand of Cuttino Mobley (33 points on 13-17 shooting from the field) to its third victory in three games this year without injured superstar Elton Brand and promising point guard Shaun Livingston.

In simple terms, Chicago’s offense stagnated when it mattered most in the fourth quarter, and the Clippers were able to put together a late run in the final minutes after struggling for most of the second half following a red-hot first 24 minutes that featured the team shooting at a staggering 60 percent clip.

Tonight’s game showed that the Bulls have sensed the immediacy of turning this thing around; however, it also fueled the fire of other’s questions about the validity of this team as a contender as currently assembled. With that said, the season is still too young to make any bold moves or predictions with this team.

by Chris Maynard, chris@hoops4thesoul.com

Milwaukee Bucks 78, Chicago Bulls 72

While getting off to a surprising and disappointing 0-3 start to the 2007-2008 NBA season, the Chicago Bulls have been a step slow on defense and had nowhere to go on offense. Simply put, the Bulls have looked awful on both ends, playing with little energy, urgency or desire as an entire team.

Last night’s loss to the Milwaukee Bucks was indicative of a team struggling to find itself and develop any consistency, and more importantly, get back to the style of ball that has made this team a joy to watch the last couple of seasons.

by Chris Maynard, chris@hoops4thesoul.com

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