Rough start to Bulls road trip
PHOENIX -- A new starting lineup didn't pay immediate dividends when the Bulls opened a six-game road trip in Phoenix on Thursday night.
The Bulls made a nice recovery after falling behind by 15 points in the first half, but couldn't match the Suns' ball movement and execution down the stretch. The Bulls' record dropped to 1-6 with a 112-102 loss to Phoenix at the U.S. Airways Center.
As expected, Andres Nocioni got the call to start at power forward in place of Tyrus Thomas. The move was designed to provide more scoring at the start of the game and help the Bulls snap out of their miserable shooting slump.
During the first six games of their slow start, the Bulls shot an unimpressive 38.1 percent from the field.
"I think any coach that has his three top scorers struggling, that's got to be the priority is have them get going," Bulls coach Scott Skiles said before the game. "We just feel like maybe some extra spacing out there may help them operate early in the game. Tyrus, with Joe (Smith), could give us a spark off the bench."
Nocioni struggled at the outset, missing his first 4 shots, to go with a turnover. But he's usually not shy about helping on offense and ended up providing a decent spark with 16 points in 41 minutes of action.
Overall, the Bulls were the same old cold shooters in the first half, hitting just 38.5 percent of their attempts. When Suns guard Leandro Barbosa lost Ben Gordon on defense and knocked down 3-straight 3-pointers, Phoenix led 56-41 with 1:08 remaining before halftime.
But then the clouds broke, birds sang and the lid finally came off the basket for the Bulls in the third quarter. They hit 13 of 25 shots, outscored the Suns 29-19 and finished the quarter in a 75-75 tie.
The Bulls were ahead 85-83 with eight minutes remaining, but had no answer when Phoenix unleashed four minutes of perfect execution and took control of the game with an 18-4 run.
The Suns cut, picked and passed like they were starring in an instructional video and buried the Bulls with a flurry of easy baskets.
The Bulls had a chance to make it a game when they had the ball trailing by 6. But Hinrich jumped for a shot, found Boris Diaw's hand in his face and tossed up an air ball with about 1:20 left.
After missing all 5 of his shots in the first half, Hinrich finally came alive to score 17 points and hit 6 of 8 attempts after halftime.
Gordon (9 of 20, 24 points) and Luol Deng (10 of 18, 23 points) both had slump-busting performances, but couldn't do enough in the fourth quarter to keep it close.
Barbosa led the Suns (7-2) with 25 points, followed by Grant Hill with 24 and Shawn Marion with 21. Point guard Steve Nash (10 points) shot poorly against Hinrich's defense, but had 7 of his 15 assists in the fourth quarter.
Rookie Thomas Gardner made his NBA debut on Thursday and scored his first basket on a layup with 5:51 remaining in the second quarter. Joakim Noah was a victim of the new power forward rotation and didn't play at all.