Bulls rally in third, but Blazers roll to easy win
To the rest of the NBA, former No. 1 draft pick Greg Oden might be a bust. Against the Bulls late Monday night, he was a beast.
Oden matched his career-high with 24 points, added 12 rebounds and thoroughly outplayed his college nemesis Joakim Noah, the league's leading rebounder.
The Blazers dominated inside and handed the Bulls their third straight brutal loss, 122-98 at the Rose Garden.
As good as Oden was, teammate LaMarcus Aldridge was slightly better, with 24 points and 13 boards. Oden and Aldridge outscored Noah and Taj Gibson 48-13. When he played at Florida, Noah's team beat Oden's Ohio State squad twice, including the NCAA title game.
The Blazers (11-5) have been a tough matchup for the Bulls in recent years because they have so much size inside and out.
Last year the Bulls had to visit Portland the day after a tough loss to the Lakers and were blitzed from the opening tip, losing 116-74.
For one of the few times all season, both Luol Deng and John Salmons had things working offensively. Deng finished with 25 points, Salmons had 22, and the two players combined to hit 17 of 29 shots from the field. Derrick Rose added 14 points.
The Blazers piled up 66 points by halftime and led by as many as 16 late in the second quarter. Bad as they were in the first half, the Bulls (6-7) were much more aggressive in the third quarter, when Deng and Salmons led a comeback.
They scored most of the points in a 22-11 run to open the second half as the Bulls pulled within 77-73 with 3:54 left in the third when Deng drilled a long jumper.
Portland pulled back out to a 90-80 lead at the end of three, then Rudy Fernandez knocked down a couple of 3-pointers in the fourth to stretch the advantage back to 16 before the fourth quarter was halfway over.
Brandon Roy added 18 points for Portland, while veteran point guard Andre Miller contributed 16 off the bench. The Blazers shot a blistering 57.5 percent from the field.
The Bulls plan to take Tuesday off, then practice at the Nike headquarters Wednesday before flying to Utah for a Thanksgiving night contest against the Jazz.
<p class="factboxheadblack">Mike McGraw's game tracker</p> <p class="News"><b>Too many trees:</b> Greg Oden a draft bust? Not against the Bulls. Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson had a terrible time trying to keep Oden off the boards. He and LaMarcus Aldridge outscored Noah and Gibson 48-13, while Oden's 24 points tied a career-high.</p> <p class="News"><b>First and third:</b> The Bulls were competitive in the first and third quarters, awful in the second and fourth. The visitors actually trimmed a 16-point deficit to 4 points with 3:54 left in the third but couldn't keep it up and suffered a third straight ugly loss out West.</p> <p class="News"><b>Outside success: </b>Luol Deng and John Salmons had it going offensively. Deng scored 25 points, Salmons had 22, and they combined to hit 17 of 29 shots. It wasn't nearly enough.</p>