'Scratching the surface' with Bulls rookie Noah
During his first two regular-season NBA games, Bulls rookie Joakim Noah has played 31 minutes and is still looking for his first basket. He has scored 4 points on free throws.
Noah has been productive, though. The 6-foot-11 center has shown an ability to help in a variety of ways. In Thursday's victory over Detroit, he had 4 assists and 5 rebounds.
In his Bulls debut Tuesday against the Los Angeles Clippers, Noah contributed 3 blocked shots, and the team had great defensive success while he was on the floor.
One negative is that all 5 of his rebounds Thursday came on the offensive end.
"What he's got to turn into is a defensive rebounder," coach Scott Skiles said. "He offensive boards it, but he's got to become a defensive rebounder. He made some nice passes. He can see the floor, he can handle the ball and he's only played in two games. We're just scratching the surface with him."
Stops down the stretch: Detroit's Rasheed Wallace scored 36 points in Thursday's game, repeatedly attacking the smaller Tyrus Thomas in the post. But in the final 1:30, Wallace missed twice against Thomas with a chance to tie or take the lead.
Bulls coach Scott Skiles had a theory on how Thomas may have changed his luck.
"(Thomas) was sort of laying on Rasheed, and Rasheed was using him for leverage instead of just jumping and challenging the shots," Skiles said. "The last two, he really got after him. I don't know if he made him miss or not. Rasheed has that unblockable shot. But when Tyrus explodes like that, he gets up as high as anyone and he made a great effort challenging him."
The Bulls scored their last basket with 4:11 remaining but managed to hold the Pistons to 2 points in the final 3:50.
'Sheed scouts Bulls: After his career high as a member of the Pistons (36 points), Rasheed Wallace offered this scouting report on the Bulls:
"They have no bigs, That's not taking anything away from their guys. Joe (Smith) just doesn't know their sets yet. Tyrus (Thomas), to me, is more of a '3' playing '4'. Body (Ben Wallace) is good, but he don't get no burn. That's they're loss. I just took advantage of it."
That was Rasheed's way of saying his buddy Ben Wallace should have been the one guarding him. The Bulls center has been struggling with a sprained left ankle and sat out the final 14 minutes Thursday.
Bull horns: Today, for the second time this week, the Bulls will hold a pregame shootaround at the United Center instead of a morning session at the Berto Center.