More photos » by Charles Rex Arbogast - AP

Look at Noah with his hands clasped. He's the best. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

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(more on the 4 factors box score)

Man, do I not like instant replay. I don't like it in any sport, to be honest. Because I feel like every time it's implemented, it winds up ruining the entertainment value of the game, with the increased stoppages where you watch old men peering into a monitor. I think it devalues the entertainment of watching the sport (which is all it is). I can't see many people that concerned about a point here or there unless they're gambling on the game, and I'd rather just assume one catches some breaks and misses some over the course of a sports-watching life.

Enough of that mini-rant, and back to this game. It's certainly possible that the referees would have ruled Brad Miller's shot no good when it occured if they knew they wouldn't have the crutch of replay, because I believe it's one of Newton's laws of physics that Brad Miller cannot catch and shoot a basketball in 0.3 seconds. But they called it good, and there are shots of the replay (ht: Sham) that indicate that it wasn't. When they started taking forever when looking at the replay, it seemed less and less likely that the on-court ruling would stand, and you could feel the crowd getting more nervous.

But honestly, we got to jump around and high-five like idiots (as did the Bulls) when Miller hit the shot, so we got that winning feeling, if only for a short time. That was fun.

This was a great game, and I was immensely impressed with the Bulls defense. I kept being surprised that they were staying in the game, and then to see them really lock down in the fourth quarter and take a lead was outstanding. With the season Carmelo Anthony is having, he's incredibly scary to see opposing your team in a close game, but the combination of Luol Deng and Joakim Noah made his life as difficult as possible, and both were fantastic on that end of the floor all night. Everyone was, pretty much, with the only defensive holes popping up sporadically was a free pass for Nene to dive down the middle of the lane without impediment. Though I wouldn't want to get in his way either.

The offense continues to stink, and I'm getting more used to it by the game. They can't shoot 3s, they don't get to the line (Rose was avoiding the lane it was a pit of lava and his only FTAs were on the late possession where Billups was trying to give a foul on the floor), traits taken to the extreme when they finished the first quarter with 20 points on 10 field-goals. It almost seems like they'd be better off just chucking the ball at the rim as early in the possession as possible to allow their offensive rebounding to take over, and that was actually how they scored their last basket, an offensive board and then Noah getting the ball stripped right into Rose's hands for a layup.

We know how the next possession went, a foul by Hinrich on Billups with .6 seconds left. He missed the second free throw leaving just enough time for a catch-and-shoot, though apparently not enough for Brad Miller to do so.

Can't say enough about how great Noah was tonight, and seeing 21 rebounds may not be to crazy for the next few weeks, with nearly nobody else on the Bulls able to cannibalize his boarding totals (and him being awesome and everything). As I mentioned, Rose was a bit too jump-shooty but made enough of them. Taj Gibson really impressed with some of his finishing around the rim. As far as the bad, Brad Miller had his worst game of the season, making one basket in 14 minutes and forcing a couple of awful passes from the high post resulting in turnovers. Salmons and Hinrich didn't shoot well and again don't hit enough threes. And Pargo sucks. Defensive rebounding remains a problem. Have I mentioned the offense is still bad?

The defense looks good though, and given their opponent tonight it was looking great. Having Luol Deng back makes all the difference, and Joakim Noah is becoming an absolute force.

Up until the recap...

Next thread at 10.

New thread at 8:30.

More photos » by Ray Amati - NBAE/Getty Images

Not the best picture to use when describing the now-serious-professional Joakim Noah. (Photo by Ray Amati/NBAE via Getty Images)

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An weird nugget was dropped into the latest blog entry of Mike McGraw (official BaB beat writer, going forward):

Tribune columnist Rick Morrissey showed up at practice carrying an old copy of his sports section and a jar of salsa. Apparently on draft night 2007, he wrote that if Joakim Noah becomes a useful player within three years, he’ll eat his column with salsa.

Well, Noah had 21 points, 16 rebounds and 4 blocks in Saturday’s win over Charlotte, so Morrissey actually showed up to eat the column. I didn’t see it happen, but the stunt was videotaped and I’m sure the two-year old newsprint was delicious.

Well, no doubt Rick gets another column out of this (his job, I suppose) and perhaps a modest viral video hit. And though I can't find the old column, if he indeed used the word 'useful' when giving an unattainable goal for Noah, that's even more ridiculous than this 'I back up my words!' ploy.

Noah always projected to be useful, what's really changed for him is his apparent dedication to the job, with more focused offseasons leading to his improvements, most improbably the addition of an ugly-yet-effective jump shot (hey, as long as he's completely open...). 

And with added bulk and increased conditioning he's looking like a big-minute starting center, supplementing his existing passing and ballhandling skills (a tier above most of the league's bigs) with improved defensive post positioning and rebounding.

Even before then, he had those skills and was a very good offensive rebounder. But his, um, look (who cares), and lifestyle (ditto), and reported issues with getting in shape after his rookie year (ok, that's valid...) led to him being a fixitation of disdain for Bulls fans. The Ron Adams spat (and subsequent extra suspension by the team's resident fossils) didn't help. And I don't mean here, exactly, but if you ever went to the United Center when a Bulls game went awry, it was 'goofy' Joakim Noah that would get booed first and foremost.

And I guess he makes sense as an easy target if you're but a casual fan. But while I won't say us smarty-pants bloggers and readers of said bloggers knew he'd be this good, we knew he'd be useful. And reports are that the Bulls themselves are now convinced he's a cornerstone. And with slow learners like Rick Morrissey getting on board, Bulls fans all over are likely not far behind.

(abbreviated recap, other stuff got in the way)

Bulls took care of business on Saturday, a home game against a fairly cruddy Bobcats team that played the night before.

My initial reaction to the Tyrus injury in terms of how it would effect this team this season (the Org.-fail aspects of it have been repeated enough) is that Vinny would get more creative with the lineups and that could spell disaster. But the entire genesis of Tyrus' bad week was Vinny sitting him in 4th quarters anyway, and for the most part VDN's very comfortable putting Deng at PF with one true big man in the lineup at one time. Not saying that's a correct way to go, just that it may be sustainable to lose Tyrus since Vinny was marginalizing him anyway. (silver lining!)

It certainly didn't hurt them against the Bobcats, who despite actually having a deep group of legit centers (that's a trademarked term, I believe) didn't bother playing them much and it allowed the Bulls to even get James Johnson some time at the 4, considering the opposing 4 was Vlad Radmanovic. The 'Cats even had Radman with Boris Diaw as a frontcourt, and that may be the only worse big-man tandem than the Noc-Gooden of the Bozo Boylan clown show. 

As seen by the four factors box, neither teams secured defensive rebounds well, partly due to the lack of 'truer' big men in the game, and also with both teams featuring the best in the league in Noah and ex-Bull (and former favorite Bull of mine, actually) Tyson Chandler.

And maybe it was the lack of Tyrus or opposing bigs that had VDN finally unleash Joakim Noah for 40 minutes, and he certainly delivered with 21 and 16. Noah rules. The Bulls made their big 2nd half push with Noah and Miller on the floor together, something VDN doesn't seem to like doing often

The first half was likely John Salmons best half of the season, and he even had a catch/shoot 3, which I didn't think he ever did. Salmons and Hinrich were each 2-4 from three, though it was the Bobcats doing far more launching, and their 12 three-pointers kept them in the game likely longer than they should've been.

Personal highlight of seeing this one was the WGN feed screwing up to where you could barely hear the commentary.

No recap tonight, I'll be catching this one Sunday.

New thread at 9.

Bulls.com:

Chicago Bulls forward Tyrus Thomas suffered a fractured radius of his left forearm during a weight training session this morning at practice. X-rays confirmed the injury and he will undergo surgery tomorrow. Thomas is expected to be out four to six weeks.

Ugh, this is pretty crappy news. Tyrus was around 50% of all my Bulls enjoyment right about now (which was at about 34% overall enjoyment as it was).

I may get more into this over the weekend, but no matter your feelings on Tyrus vs. Taj (either you prefer Tyrus, or are wrong), losing Thomas exposes the lack of depth on this team, and VDN gets to do all sorts of 'coaching' to try and compensate. This isn't good.