Last night's comeback victory by the Raptors told me more about the Bulls than the Raptors' ability to actually play effective defence once in a while. Toronto plays a style of defence that dares their opponents to beat them from the outside, and Chicago simply doesn't have the shooters to do that most of the time — as evidenced by their 2-for-8 performance from three-point range last night.
You know who the Bulls could have used last night? Ben Gordon. I'm guessing he probably would have been a significant improvement over John Salmons, who went 1-for-11 from the field and 1-for-5 from beyond the arc. Salmons has been dismal so far this season and it looks like his career year in 2008-09 was probably a fluke. The Bulls' offence went stone cold in the second half last night as the Raptors outscored them 46-29 in the final two quarters. Gordon probably could have at least kept them in the game, if not actually stopping the momentum shift that occurred late in the third quarter.
Bulls fans may have tried to convince themselves that losing Gordon wouldn't hurt their offence significantly, but the fact that their Offensive Rating (points scored per 100 possessions) has dropped from 15th in the NBA last season to 27th this season indicates otherwise. It doesn't help that both Derrick Rose and Kirk Hinrich are off to slow starts this season, but the Bulls jettisoned one of the best three-point shooters in the league and they currently sit deadlast in three-point shooting with a horrific .253 percentage.
Enough about what the Bulls didn't do well, let's give some credit to what the Raptors did do well. Chris Bosh's consistent excellence continued with a 28-point, 11-rebound performance and Amir Johnson was a great defensive sparkplug off the bench with 13 of his 17 minutes of playing time occurring in the second half. The Raptor who really stood out for me, however, was DeMar DeRozan — who not only had the highlight dunk of the night in the third quarter, but finished with nine points, nine rebounds and two blocks in just 19 minutes. This was his "mini-breakout" performance and I hope this silences doubters who believe he shouldn't be in the starting lineup.
