Thursday, December 07, 2006
Banding together
I'm guessing that Eddy Curry playing defense against Ben Wallace is like ... well, I don't really know. I'm not feeling particularly great with analogies today. Feel free to post your own in the comments section.
However, what I am feeling great about is the Chicago Bulls. After another thrasing last night, this time over Philly, they've won six straight and are back to .500 on the season after a dreadful start.
I know, I know, the 76ers are terrible. Allen Iverson is all they have, now that Chris Webber is a shell of his former shell's shell, and Andre Iguodala hasn't improved since he was 18 years old.
But a thrashing is a thrashing.
It should also be noted that Bulls haven't lost since Ben Wallace wore his headband onto the court and simultaneously pissed off Scott Skiles AND Scoop Jackson.
Wallace gave some hints last night that he might have been trying to motivate the team by wearing the headband, which is his way of trying to take credit for the win streak. Lord knows he hasn't had anything to do with it on the court. He looks old, tired and a step slow out there. He's late on his rotations and (surprise!) contributes nothing offensively.
And this is in the first year of a 4-year, $60 million deal, mind you. I can't wait for Year Four. He'll need moon shoes just to block Earl Boykins.
No, the win streak has come courtesy of all the young players -- just like many were predicting. Luol Deng looks like an All-Star this year, and Andres Nocioni is continuing his career-long trend of getting better seemingly every game. Kirk Hinrich is his steady self, and even Tyrus Thomas is finally starting to look more comfortable out there.
Additionally, I love Thabo Sefolosha. He's going to be a lower-middle class man's Scottie Pippen.
With the East being as poor as it is, I'm probably a bit more excited than I'd normally be for this team. The Bulls could still realistically win 50 games, and that might be enough for a top-2 seed in the playoffs. I'm going to be most interested to see if Paxson brings in some sort of help near the trading deadline, since names like Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Pau Gasol and, as always, Kevin Garnett, are being batted around.
If I had to bet (and I don't have to), I'd say that we won't see any major names coming to the Bulls during the season. Paxson is going to want to hang onto that first-round pick, because the Knicks (7-14) are certainly doing their best to make sure the Bulls have a shot at the No. 1 pick this spring. And we all know what that means:
Now, that would be truly exciting. Because if Greg Oden can dominate Urule Igbabova, there's no stopping him.
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Eddy Curry playing defense against Ben Wallace is like pitting Shawn Salisbury's oratory skills vs. Michael Irvin's listening skills.
Nice.
It's also Roseanne Barr's face against Fran Drescher's voice.
The other day I saw in a recap that said "Ben had 17 (I think, I remember it was in the teens) in the first quarter" and for some reason I thought "wow Wallace bringin' the heat down low" and totally forgot the Bulls have streakiest scorer in the world and he, too is named Ben.
In totally unrelated news, Jordan Farmar looks like a 12-year-old and, what's more, a 12-year-old who would play second base on a sandlot team.