Chicago Bulls-Return to Glory: NBA 2k13 Association

It was a shootout at the United Center as Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers came to town. Kobe Bryant got hot early and scored 25 points with 6 assists in the first half alone. His counterpart James Harden, on the other hand, struggled mightily early on, shooting just 33% from the field and scoring 9 points. However, the Bulls' other star, Rudy Gay, came through with 17 first half points. The Lakers took a 66-63 lead going into the half behind the play of Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard.

Following the half, the shootout began. The Lakers started the quarter shooting 10/11 from the field and jumped out to a double digit lead. Harden and Gay responded by hitting several threes along with timely baskets by Michael Redd and new acquisition Troy Murphy. Murphy finished with 13 points, including a perfect 3-3 from downtown in his first game as a Bull.

In the end, the Bulls' hot three point shooting kept them afloat long enough to scrape a win over the star studded Lakers squad. Rudy Gay led the Bulls with 37 points, including 7 threes (five in the second half). James Harden bounced back offensively in the second half and finished with 28 points and 16 assists, playing the role of playmaker throughout the game for the Bulls. Kirk Hinrich added 18 points and 7 assists.

"We're happy to get a win," said Harden. "The Lakers are a really tough matchup and when you're up against guys like Kobe and Pau and Dwight and Steve all at once, and you got guys like Metta and Antawn spotting up if you try to double team, it makes it really hard to stop them defensively. They played a great game like always and we're just glad we were able to pull it out."

"I think if we had Derrick it wouldn't have been quite as much of a struggle," said Taj Gibson. "Derrick would've given us that added dimension to the offense that would really put us over the top. That said, we're a team and with or without Derrick we're gonna fight to the very end of every game and try to scrap out wins and that's what we were able to do."

"It was our defense and turnovers that almost let the game get away from us," said Tom Thibodeau. "We can't be letting teams shoot 10 for 11 in a quarter...that's unacceptable. I know guys are still getting used to each other, but defensively, it's easier to adjust than offensively. We're fine offensively...it's the defense that's killing us. We can't stop guys. We're going to have to work hard on it as the season goes on. We can't be giving up 120 points to teams every night...it puts us in a bad position to win games."

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Megatron81 said:

nice
most the time i run this lineup...Teague - BG - Tyrus - Love - Noah

its pretty affective

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clonetrooper264 said:

That's a lot of athleticism.

2 shooters, one rebounder on the perimeter and Noah rebounding...interesting strategy, but whatever works.

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Megatron81 said:

yeah CDR and butler aren't that good in this game....tyrus atleast rebounds really well the 2 games i played that lineup he got 6-10 and 12-12 in 28 minutes his mid range is money aswell

bulter cant score unless its a alley oop and his hands suck he always fumbles passes and CDR is ok but i really like that line up

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nwfisch said:

:smh:

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It was a tough shooting night for the Bulls as they traveled to the nation's capital to take on the lowly Washington Wizards in front of prominent Bulls fan President Barack Obama. The Bulls shot just 39% from the field and couldn't sustain a fourth quarter run and fell to the Wizards in a 6 point loss. Taj Gibson led the Bulls with 17 points and 10 rebounds and was one of the few bright spots for the Bulls in the loss. Rudy Gay had 15 and 11 but shot just 6-21 from the field.

"It's tough to lose a game like that where you hold the opposing team to 41% shooting and do everything right defensively," said Tom Thibodeau. "I'm proud of the guys for their effort tonight, they fought hard, just couldn't come up with baskets down the stretch."

"In the NBA anyone can lose to anyone," said Rudy Gay. "You can't take anything for granted...every team has its strengths and the Wizards have got some great guys on the perimeter in Wall and Trevor and some up and coming young guys in Crawford and Beal. They just brought it harder than we did tonight. We'll have to bounce back the next game and hopefully come up with the win."

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The Bulls lost their second game in a row, falling to Tony Parker and the Spurs. Parker lit up the Bulls for 42 points and also added 14 rebounds and 8 assists. Rudy Gay led the Bulls with 32.

"It's tough to lose like that when you're so close," said Harden, who had 29 points and 10 assists in the loss. "We were right there, but couldn't come up with the stops or the buckets at the end..."

The Bulls rallied from a 18 point halftime deficit to tie the game, but Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili were unstoppable down the stretch and the Spurs pulled out the one point victory after Michael Redd hit 3 after 3 to try to give the Bulls the lead.

"He drank from the fountain of youth tonight," said Gregg Popovich. "He looked like the Michael Redd that was an All Star 8 years ago. We were lucky that we came out with the win with him playing like that."

The Bulls fall to 2-3 with that loss and will hope to redeem themselves against Cleveland on Saturday.

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nwfisch said:

Fire coach Clonetrooper :smh:

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nwfisch said:

Get Ben Gordon. Redeem yourself. :derbulls:

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clonetrooper264 said:

Ain't nobody got money for that

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Megatron81 said:

i only repped your post because i needed to spread rep

of course we got money for that

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