Well you can throw Tuesday night’s affair with the Milwaukee Bucks
into the likely bag of gems that you’ll see this season from our very
own Chicago Bulls. In what might have been the worst first half of
basketball I’ve seen since the last Big Ten game I witnessed; the
Bulls had 10 turnovers and shot a stellar 27 percent from the field.

Whether it was Brandon Jennings getting anywhere he wanted on the
court. Or the offense coming to a complete halt anytime John Salmons
touched the ball; it was one of the those nights you wished you stayed
home with Tyrus like symptoms.

The Bulls managed to turn it around in the second half with the novel
concept of taking care of the ball and Luol Deng playing like and
absolute man, finishing with 24 points and 20 rebounds on the night. A
strong finish in the fourth quarter by Derrick Rose and the floor
spacers (Miller and Pargo) sealed the victory against a team who’s
coach wasn’t too happy about the execution of the last play.

I tweeted right before the last play of the game about it being coach
vs coach on the final posession. The Bucks were down by two with a
sideline out of bounds with possibly the best designer of sideline out
of bounds plays on their bench. Needless to say Ersan Ilyasova found
it in his heart to jack up an ill advised three when the Bucks only
needed two to tie.

This was followed by one expletive being repeated vigourously and
continually by the head coach on the way to the visitor’s locker and
while the media were gathered outside. Skiles explained how the Bucks
were neither forced into that shot, nor was it a good decision for the
shot to be taken.

All in all the Bulls should have lost by 15 points, but there was
never any doubt in my mind; because these are your NBA Milwaukee Bucks.

The real story is the mysterious case of Tyrus Thomas. Apparently
after 4th quarter minutes have been non existent after the first 3
games, and his contract hadn’t been extended before the deadline;
Tyrus came up with the flu. Now I’m not saying he wasn’t sick, but it
seems awfully convenient.

Lindsay Hunter chatted with me after the game and said that after
Tuesday’s practice he tried to drill it in the heads of the “young
players” (Tyrus Thomas) “No one person is bigger than the team.  If
the team wins then we are all succesful.” There were also reports from
the practice that the whole time Hunter addressed the team he was
pointing to Tyrus.

Tyrus is at a crossroads in his professional life and hasn’t learned
that fighting against the perceived machine isn’t the way to go. As a
free spirit myself I can understand when you feel you’re better than
people think you are and have worked on things and want them to be
seen. Thomas will learn as I have, you can’t get into the game and
surprise people until you play the game the way they want you to play
it.

This blog would have been up last night; but I’ve been fighting a
sickness. Something is going around I think.