"What's the deal with the IR..." "you're not injured..who are the ad-wizards who came up with that one?" - My Jerry Seinfeld impression The Bulls made some roster moves yesterday, putting my guy Marcus Fizer on the IR and replacing him with Linton Johnson. Johnson will supposedly provide energy off the bench...or something intangible like that. Despite what I said in my 'witty' title, Fizer really IS injured, his surgically repaired knee is flaring up. Kirk Hinrich will also be activated in place of Roger Mason Jr. Who probably has the usual garden-variety contusion or something. A nice road win at Orlando, although its possible that the Magic are just really really bad (and injured). Much has been made over the fact that Curry barely played in the 2nd half, with Cartwright riding the 57-year old back of Corie Blount to victory. Its nice to get a win, but Curry is gonna have to get out of his early funk if anything's gonna happen this year. Tonight's a home game against the Sixers. They've added Glenn Robinson in the off-season to give Iverson his best second-option to date. But so far, they've proven to be a weak defensive team. Gee...I wonder why? Anyway, hopefully the Bulls can take advantage of their size here and get another win. Especially since tommorow's game at New Orleans will be a tough one. I won't be able to see tonight's game, its only showing locally on WCIU. U'z got it! ugh. Am I a big enough nerd to watch the gamecast on espn.com? I think you all know the answer to that...

The Race to 80 points....or Bulls vs Magic Its hard to say that there are any 'big games' in early November, but tonight's Bulls/Magic tilt just may be one. The Bulls have to show some life tonight, against a team that is struggling in its own right. In fact, the top 2 coaches on the hot seat so far are Cartwright and Doc Rivers. oh, and probably Isiah Thomas too, even though he's not coaching anyone..I think that's just out of habit. The Bulls may start E-Rob today to guard McGrady. Obviously Pippen would've gotten the job, but you'll be seeing him on the sidelines waist-down in a tub of ben-gay. E-Rob has the potential to be a good defender, with his athleticism and wingspan, but as with other aspects of his game, has yet to show the enthusiasm to improve. I still think this is a better option than last year's, which was Trent Hassell. Guys like McGrady and Pierce would torch him up and down the court, at least E-Rob will give them something for McGrady (I refuse to call him T-Mac) to think about when he's on the defensive end. new links Theres a few I put up yesterday on the left, including Orlando Magic Fan if you want to read up on tonight's opponent. The Basketball Blogosphere is getting bigger by the week.

Hey Now, It's only been __ Games "Oh no, they suck again!" - Major League 2 What else is there to say. Blowout losses to the Wiz, the Buck, and the Rocket. And needing a good 4th quarter to avoid a loss to the Hawk. So what's goin wrong? Well theres that old interior defense problem, but we all knew that would show. What is suprising is averaging 77 points a game, which is just not Bulls-like. Scoring shouldn't be a problem. Going into the season the bulk of the scoring load was supposed to be directed through Curry and Crawford. Needless to say the poor play of these 2 is the main culprit to the slow start to the year. Crawford still looks lost at times running the point, and while he's shooting from beyond the arc very well (52.9%), is only averaging 4.3 apg and is leading the team in FG attempts, which isn't what the team's really looking for out of him. Curry has just been awful so far. He STILL can't get position to rebound on defense. Offensively, whether it is from aggressive double teams by the Wizards or goin up against shotblockers like Yao Ming and Kelvin Cato he seems to lose confidence early. Last night against the Rockets Curry was 0-8 with 1 point. But even with the young players struggling (i'll get to Tyson in a minute), here's a look at some notable (or notea-bull...hahaha) shooting percentages:

Rose: 36.4% Gill: 23.1% Pippen: 29.2% Marshall: 29.6%

So the Veterans are not helpin much at all. One bright spot so far has obviously been Tyson Chandler. I don't like to say certain guys don't play with fire, because honestly I know that the whole team is trying to win. But Tyson seems to just have more energy. He's averaging 17 rebounds per game, and most of those are simply done by jumping over people to get them. Last night it seemed that he was getting to the foul line any time he touched the ball, which I almost think can be attributed to his awkward offensive game as much as anything. But its nice to see that he's at least continuing on track from last year, unlike Curry and Crawford. But to be honest I'm not all that worried yet. As much as it's nice to say that fast starts mean everything, i'm not certain that they do. The veterans on this team aren't gonna be shooting this poorly forever, and Curry can't be this bad all year. While games like the first 3 should have been easy wins, its still very very early. And no I'm not gonna start with Cartwright yet, because coaching isn't gonna make up for 27% shooting (last night), and I don't believe (like some) that they're not motivated enough. They just need more time together and more importantly Curry and Crawford need to play like they can. old man river Pippen's knee swelled up yesterday, and will cause him to miss at least a week. So if you had 11/3 in the office pool, you win 2 big bags of ice. upcoming schedule @Orlando, Philly, @New Orleans, Denver, @Boston, Minn, Seattle..before the "Annual Circus Trip of Death". I'd like to say those are all winnables, but I'm just gonna bite my tongue for now.