Take that, Joakim Noah. The loudmouth waste of a Bulls’ draft pick found out just what it means to be a rookie in the NBA this weekend. After an outburst at assistant coach Ron Adams during Friday’s shoot-around, Noah was benched by his coach Friday night. His teammates voted to extend the vacation through Sunday’s game.
Unfortunately for the Bulls, that meant Noah would not be available to take the blame for the pair of pathetic showings against the 76ers Friday night and Hawks on Sunday.
Despite the fact that they beat the Sixers 100-97 in Philadelphia, the game still felt like a loss to many fans.
“I went up to the bar to grab a beer and they were up by 10 points,” Chicago resident Charlie Bruell said. “When I turned around, they were in danger of losing the game. It’s pathetic.”
This season’s lone bright spot for the Bulls, Andres Nocioni, continued his streak of stellar games, notching a team-high 26 points while going 11-18 from the field and 3-8 from behind the arch.
But Sunday’s epically pathetic 105-84 loss to the Hawks in Atlanta erased what smidge of confidence the Bulls had after Friday’s win.
There were no Bulls highlights whatsoever from that game, but there was one particularly telling lowlight: this was the Bulls’ first loss to the Hawks since 2004.
Number of the Weekend: 3
Games back the Bulls are right now from the eighth playoff spot in the Eastern Conference–a stat that seems ridiculously impossible.
By Justin Allen
