Road Warriors...not

How do we evaluate this latest Bulls implosion? Kicking off their seven-game road trip in disappointing fashion, the Bulls were out-dueled by the Golden State Warriors 114-97 yesterday.

This was considered one of the Bulls more winnable games on this long road trip, because the Warriors were dealing with a three-game losing streak, and a depleted roster with some key bench players out injured. Contrasted to the Bulls, who were on a four-game winning streak and had just come off a 2OT win at home against the no-quit Wizards. This game was particularly irritating because the Warriors seemed at times to be so physically exhausted. However, they rode Corey Maggette's 32 pts and Andres Biedrins' 8 blocks to victory outscoring the Bulls 31-18 in the 4th quarter. They also got nice play from the exciting rookie Stephan Curry, who couldn't keep himself out of foul trouble long enough to score too many points. Speaking of foul trouble, Tyrus Thomas fouled out in the 4th quarter. It seemed like the Bulls could have taken a stranglehold on this game with a few defensive stops and some clutch baskets anytime until there were 5 mins left in the 4th.

The Bulls progress now to play another "winnable" game against the LA Clippers, before things get more challenging as they play the Suns and then the Rockets, who keep blasting off despite their superstar-less squad.

So are we worried about the Warriors loss? It robbed the Bulls of their momentum starting out a tough road trip....but the Bulls were never going to win a shootout. This team was built to play defense and stay in the game not beat teams with their offense. I'll see how they do against the Cursed Clips before I start calling for Vinny Del Negro's head again.

One Positive from this game: Derrick Rose is continuing his offensive EXPLOSION, his assists are way down but his points are way up...I'm not going to complain about this. One Negative about this game: apparently there's a Bull Flu, H1N2.0, taking out one player a night every night. Hinrich was out against the Warriors, now he's back and Salmons will be out against the Clips with it. We still have yet to see any sighting of the following "bench" players: Aaron Gray, Jerome James, and Lindsey Hunter. Either they're injured, overweight or hanging out at Karma everynight. I hope it's the latter.