Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson and Brad Miller are all ailing. Noah and Gibson are suffering through plantar fasciitis and Miller has a balky knee. First off, a little background on the disease of the week. Courtesy of Wikipedia.
Plantar fasciitis is a painful inflammatory process of the plantar fascia. Longstanding cases of plantar fasciitis often demonstrate more degenerative changes than inflammatory changes, in which case they are termed plantar fasciosis.[1] The plantar fascia is a thick fibrous band of tissue originating on the bottom surface of the calcaneus (heel bone) and extending along the sole of the foot towards the five toes. It has been reported that plantar fasciitis occurs in two million Americans a year and 10% of the population over a lifetime.[2] It is commonly associated with long periods of work-related weight bearing. Among non-athletic populations, it is associated with a high body mass index.[3] The pain is usually felt on the underside of the heel and is often most intense with the first steps of the day. Another symptom is that the sufferer has difficulty bending the foot so that the toes are brought toward the shin (decreased dorsiflexion of the ankle). A symptom commonly recognized among sufferers of plantar fasciitis is increased probability of knee pains, especially among runners.
When I suffered through it, the cure was easy. Two months of rest and keep it well taped. Anything involving rest is doable by me. You would be amazed at how relaxed you can stay at a local watering hole. However, professional athletes do not have that luxury mid season.
Anyway, as I noted above, the Bulls have two players tormented by their feet and one with a knee that sends occasional shooting pains up the back of his leg to remind himself that he still has that particular knee. Kind of like a rude hello.
Nevertheless, the Bulls took the court against the woeful Los Angeles Clippers last night and proceeded to hobble around like crippled old men. JOHN JACKSON over at the Sun Times was kind enough to fill in the details.
After building momentum and confidence by winning the final five games of a tough seven-game road trip (all against above-.500 teams), the Bulls laid an egg in their homecoming Tuesday by dropping a 90-82 decision to the Los Angeles Clippers at the United Center.
Just about everything the Bulls did well on the trip, they couldn’t replicate at home.
The performance was a reality check for anyone who thought the road streak was a sign the young Bulls had turned a corner and would be consistent for the rest of the season.
‘’We were sluggish from the get-go,’’ Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro said. ‘’We got back into too much holding of the ball—our ball movement wasn’t good enough—and we didn’t make any shots. We held them to 90 points, 45 percent shooting, but we didn’t put enough pressure on them offensively.’’
The Bulls (23-23) didn’t play well on either end, but the most glaring difference was on offense. After making nearly half of their shots during the winning streak, the Bulls were 30-for-79 (38 percent) from the field and committed 20 turnovers.
Maybe the Clippers (21-27) just have a magic spell over the Bulls. The Bulls also lost to them in the game before the winning streak began.
‘’It was just one of those nights,’’ said point guard Derrick Rose, who scored 16 points on 7-for-20 shooting. ‘’I couldn’t hit nothing. I can laugh about it now because I have confidence I’ll come back.’’
Improved shooting was a major part of the Bulls’ road winning streak. In the five games, the Bulls averaged 104.2 points on 49.4 percent shooting—a dramatic improvement on their numbers for the entire season (95.6 points on 44.2 percent shooting).
But aside from forward Luol Deng (team-high 18 points), no one with a Bulls jersey could hit a shot. Deng scored the Bulls’ first 12 points in sparking them to a 12-8 lead less than four minutes into the game.
But Deng cooled off, and the Clippers—behind guard Eric Gordon (24 points) and center Chris Kaman (21)—got hot. They used a 16-4 run to open a 24-16 lead and had a 31-26 edge after the first quarter.
The Bulls pulled to 33-32 early in the second quarter, and the score was tight for the rest of the half. But the Bulls were unable to regain the lead. The Clippers used a 7-2 spurt for a 50-42 halftime lead.
Things didn’t get any better for the Bulls in the third quarter. In fact, things got worse. With the shots not falling, they became tentative offensively, hesitating sometimes and rushing other times. The result was a host of missed shots and turnovers.
Oh boy was it ever. Watching basketballs cascade like psychotic pinballs was entertaining, in the same manner as watching a car wreck is, but was not really conducive to a quality game.
Like Rose, I am going to chalk this up to one of those days and move on. There isn’t any other option as far as I can tell.
That being said, this team needs to get healthy and do so quickly. When they are all upright and functioning at 100%, or close enough not to matter, they are a force on the floor. When not, well, they tend to make the Clippers look good.