Could it be any worse? Just one win out of 7 games

This is a very sad time for me. I am from Turkey and the things have not settled down yet. Every morning, I learn a new heart-breaking news and not being able to solve the problems makes me nervous. I hope that each individual of Turkish society spares some time to think about ongoing issues and try to fix them with a positive attitude. The worst thing in those moments would be to loose your confidence.

The Bulls have played 7 games since my last post, and they could only beat Detroit Pistons. Their performance sucks. Bulls schedule was:

• 12/13 Tue: MIN
• 12/15 Thu: @MIL
• 12/16 Fri: MIL
• 12/19 Mon: DET
• 12/21 Wed: WAS
• 12/23 Fri: @CHA
• 12/25 Sun: @SASS

They played 4 home games, and they could not beat any team but only Detroit Pistons. I am a huge fan of Dwayne Wade so I want to see them in winning mode again; however, there is no promising sign to do that. The only argument I can propose might be the level of their game against stronger teams. Spurs and Cavs are two of the strongest teams in NBA and Bulls were able to beat both of them. On the other hand, Mavericks and Timberwolves are two of worst teams and Bulls were not able to win those games. Heat is the third worst team in Eastern Conference and Bulls were hardly able to beat them. All these examples prove that Bulls can beat stronger teams but they are not very successful in beating weak teams. However; is it really the case?

NBA is like a marathon. Teams play 82 games during the season, and standings in mid-season might be misleading. Some teams play most of their games against weaker teams rather than stronger teams so their winning percentage might look like better. In some cases, teams play more back to back games at the beginning of the season which causes more losses. Therefore, it is always better to compare current standing with the projected ones to see real performance of the team.

Before Bobcats game, Bulls was the 6th best team in Eastern Conference with 14 wins and 14 loses. ESPN uses "Relative Percent Index" (RPI) which is 25% team winning percentage, 50% opponents' average winning percentage, and 25% opponents' opponents' average percentage. According to RPI, Bulls was the 10th best team in Eastern Conference, 10th place is worse than their current 6th place. This index means that Bulls has not played against stronger teams yet by comparing to other teams.

Although RPI is a good way to see actual standing of teams, there are other ways to see it as well. Bulls played 7 times against teams which have 50% and above winning percentage. Bulls played 28 games before Bobcats game and just 7 of them were against teams which have better than 50% winning percentage. This is not a good statistics especially for a team which is just above playoff spot. The only good news is that Bulls is able to win 4 of 7 games which they played against teams which have 50% and above winning percentage.


Let's quickly recap games:

12/13, Tuesday, MIN 99 - 94 CHI

Bulls fans did their best to support their team

The game day was dedicated to the Chicago Luvabulls, the official dance team. At the gate, we received free Luvabulls posters (see pictures below). There were short video clips about Luvabull girls so we were informed about their personality, background, and their dedication to work.

The game was awkward with ups and downs. The Bulls started the game quickly. In 7 minutes, the scoreboard was 26-6. We dominated the game for a while. The scoreboard was 49-28 in the second quarter at 7:28. I was thinking to leave because Timberwolves players cannot play worse. The point difference was still 16 close to the end of second quarter. That was the time when the momentum was shifted from Bulls to Timberwolves. Bulls cannot score any points in last 3 minutes of the second quarter.

Luvabulls dance show

Timberwolves won the game by 5 points. They performed a great team play and you can see it from statistics as well. All of their starters scored double digit points. Karl-Anthony Towns did not start the game too well. Maybe, he observed the game in first half but he played great afterward. He did most of his points in the 4th quarter. He started the last quarter with 2 points and finished the game with 16 points. The biggest problem with the Wolves is about their bench which could make just 9 points. My expectations were high about Kris Dunn but he played just 13 minutes and made 3 turnovers.  

There is not so much thing to say about Chicago Bulls. Wade was poor. He could score just 12 points, 4/13 field goal. The Bulls are #1 rebounder team in NBA but they gave a lot of easy rebounds in the game. The Timberwolves took 7 more rebounds than the Bulls and 2 more offensive rebounds.

12/15, Thursday, CHI 97 - 108 MIL

This was the first meeting of two back-to-back games between Bucks and Bulls. The game was on national TV but I was not able to open it until last minutes. There were 3 minutes to go and Bulls was losing by 10 points. I did not watch the game until the end because there was no comeback sign. At the end, Bulls lost the game by 11 points.

12/16, Friday, MIL 95 - 69 CHI

Milwaukee Bucks is another promising team with a lot of young talents like Timberwolves. They started the game fast. After 6 minutes, Bucks were 10 points ahead. Then, it became 20 and Bull had no sign of life at that moment. The only thing which I was thinking about Timberwolves came back which happened just 3 days ago. I thought that since Wolves were able to beat Bulls from 20 points deficit, Bulls could do the same thing to Bucks. But no way! It was totally humiliating game for the Bulls. Bucks players enjoy the every moment of the game. Bucks were usually 20-30 points ahead during the game. Bulls could only melt the difference in garbage time.

It was a Star Wars night because of the premier of Star Wars-Rogue One. I was late to the game so I missed the action before the game but an artist drew a picture on the court during halftime. However; the drawing was not very clear. Obviously, he did it on purpose. "Come on now, you can guess what that is", I said to myself. Sometimes a missing line makes it so difficult to understand the object in the drawing. I thought that he did not draw some major lines, so perhaps that's why the viewers and I were not able to identify the image. I tried to concentrate on identifying what was missing rather than what was there, but to no avail. If you enjoy some brainstorming, then you may spare a couple of minutes to guess what the artist did that made it so difficult to figure out drawing.


And...............

The trick was he drew it upside down. Clever, right :) The painting was a portrait of Yoda.

12/19, Tuesday, DET 82 - 113 CHI

Busy schedule! Another day, another game and we were not ready for another loss. It was not a good time for Detroit Pistons as well. Before the game, Bulls had lost 3 games in a row and Pistons had lost 2 games in a row. Each team wanted to break the sequence.

Bulls started the game aggressively and scored points from the paint. All the players made a great effort but I would like to mention especially performances of McDermott and Mirotic. Both of them scored 13 points and assisted twice. I expect a bright future for McDermott. He would not be an all star player but he is very good fit to a team who is fighting for a championship. Believe it or not, I am sure that he will be a part of a championship squad in the future. Most probably not in Chicago Bulls but who knows. Time will tell the truth. Let's wait and see.

12/21, Wednesday, WAS 107 - 97 CHI

I was looking forward to this game because of Beal and Wall. John Wall joined the league with high expectations and it is hard to say that he has met those expectations so far. On the other hand, I have special interest to Bradley Beal. I am playing Yahoo Fantasy League with friends and Beal is in my squad is last few years. I always have high expectations and he could not deliver it most of the times. The problem with Beal is reliability. He might explode in a game with 40 points and then finish next 3 games with less than 10 points. For me, it is always hard to decide when I have to pick him up for the squad in my NBA fantasy squad but it is my problem, not yours :)

Bulls were better than Wizards in the first half but they could not lead the game in the second half. Wizards could beat Bulls easier if they could not miss a lot of 3-pointers. Wizards missed 15 3 pointers and Beal missed 6 of them by himself. 

 

12/23, Friday, CHI 91 - 103 CHA

I did not watch this game but according to Chicago Tribune, Wade woke up with migraines in the morning and missed morning shoot-out. It is not easy to keep yourselves healthy after that many losses :)

Bulls players need to calm down and perform better during the game instead of getting technical fouls at the end of the game.

Two sweet wins and the Family Fest

After 3 defeats in a row, Bulls established itself as a creative team and won the last two games. Let's start with Spurs game.

It was Northwestern University night on last Thursday when Chicago Bulls played against San Antonio Spurs. My wife is working at Northwestern University so I told her that she should go to this match. At the beginning, she did not want to go to the match because she was with Northwestern community always and being them again does not look like too attractive :) I explained to her that

• The game would be on TNT (National Broadcaster), 
• The atmosphere would be amazing,
• Spurs is one of the best teams in NBA, 
• She deserves to experience such an activity in her lifetime. 

Finally, she could not resist the temptation and accepted my offer. I dropped them to United Center and tried to find a place to watch the game.

my dear son and my dear wife

I decided not to use any technology in order to find a place to watch the game. I am not against to technology but sometimes I believe that we should explore the place where we live by ourselves so we might end up with an interesting experience which does not exist on the Internet. The only technology which I used was my car. In addition, I used my navigation app on my cell phone a couple of times when I was not sure about my location. It took me 90 minutes to find a place so I was not very lucky. I found a place at the beginning but then I learned that their opening time is late. That's weird because in a huge billboard they mention that it is a great place to watch all professional Chicago sports teams but they were not open on time in one of the best games. When I decided not to use the internet in order to find a place, I thought that there will be a lot of options near to United Center. In Turkey and England, there are a lot of bars close to football stadium so people who do not have a ticket for the game go to the bar and watch the game on TV. At the end of the game, fans unite around the stadium and celebrate the game if the team which they support win the game. However; this is not the case in the US. I am not sure about the reasons. Some people claim that the game itself is an experience so winning or losing a match especially during a regular season is not very important. You may think it like a movie; your hero can beat the villain at the end of the movie but it does not need to be in that way. In addition, you do not hate the movie because of the result. On the other hand, I watched the game and fans near to my section supports Chicago Bulls from their heart and becomes very angry when refs make an unfair decision. Therefore; it is not easy to say that culture in the US is very different than Europe. I believe that the US fans have a potential to become similar to their European counterparts but do not show it at the moment.

Benny the Bulls is on air

LuvaBulls did a great job in putting the fans in an enthusiastic game mode. In fact, they were so much in the game, that when Pao Gasol thanked as a former Bulls player, they started chanting "traitor"

I would like to thank retired police officer who sat next to my wife during the game. He entertained my wife by chaffing his friend who became angry to biased refs. Chicago Bulls started the game very productive and took the lead by 6 points at the end of 1st quarter. San Antonio Spurs reduced the difference down to 2 points at the beginning of 2nd quarter but then Chicago Bulls took the control and finished the quarter with 13 points advantage. Chicago Bulls continued to play their game in the 3rd quarter and reached the maximum point difference in 6 minutes. The scoreboard was 65-47.

Bulls was leading the game by 70-57 in the 3rd quarter

San Antonio Spurs is one of the teams which does not concede the game easily. In their last 4 games before the Bulls game, they were more than 10 points behind their opponent but at the end; they found a way to win the game. Therefore; I was not very comfortable with 18 points difference. Apparently, Kawhi took the lead and reduced the point difference just to 4 points 3 minutes before the end of regular time. Then, Chicago Bulls defended well and allowed just 7 points.

Dwayne Wade scored the highest points in the Bulls with 20 points and also he made 5 assists and 5 rebounds. Rajon Rondo missed triple double by 1 assist (12 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists, and 2 steals). As a team, Bulls made 19 turnovers and it is a miracle to win this game with that many turnovers. 

Kawhi Leonard made 24 points and Patty Mills contributed him with 16 points (12 of them via 3 pointers). San Antonio Spurs missed 19 three-pointers whereas Chicago Bulls missed 13 of them. 

Sweet win! Emir Arber enjoys the result!

Two days later, on Saturday, Chicago Bulls played against Miami Heat. We missed the beginning of the game because of bad time management. We decided to go to ballet on Saturday but we forgot that there was a game on Saturday. I am usually very careful about planning but I did a mistake because we planned to go to ballet on previous week but we decided to go one week later due to my son's chess tournament and it was bumped with Heat game. Anyway, it is not a big deal and we just missed first 6 minutes of the game like many supporters. On the other hand, we watched a great ballet performance at Northwestern University.

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

I knew that a snowstorm was expected on Saturday night but I did not know that it would start while we were watching the ballet show. I and my son left our beloved Dorina behind and started to run our home to get in our car. It was a good sprint for 10 minutes and we felt tired at the end of course. I was not the slowest driver on the road but I was very cautious due to my lack of experience in such weather conditions. There was a traffic jam but like usual days so we were in United Center after an hour driving. 

Yes, we did it! Not on time but we missed just a little part of the game.

When we arrived in United Center, we spent a lot of time in the queue for security and ticket inspection. I felt that the weather condition affected other fans as well. Maybe that is something usual which I am not aware of because I tend to be there at least 1 hour before the game. We were so unlucky that we heard the honk for the first timeout when we arrived our seats at section 330.

We were hungry due to rush during the day so it is time to eat something!

I was excited to see the performance of Hassan Whiteside and Goran Dragic. They both played well in the first half. Wade, Butler, and McDermott are the best in Bulls. Neither Bulls nor Heat could lead the game by many points. At the end of first half, both teams went to locker room with a tie (55-55).

Half-time competition

During the half-time period, there was competition between young talents. Unfortunately, my favorite artist who plays piano lost against rock music guitarist :)

Wade made a lot of spectacular moves so I highly recommend you to watch highlights of the game. This is one of them but there are more...

Heat substitute Reed missed two consecutive free-throws during the 4th quarter so all fans won free chicken sandwich. Unfortunately, I could not claim it because sellers said that they are out of stock. If there is no award, why did we scream a lot during free throws? :)

At the end of the game, Chicago Bulls won by scoring more than 100 points so all ticket holders won a free big mac from McDonalds. Yuppi!

After the game, Dwayne Wade made a short interview on the court. He said that he was happy to win the game. He mentioned about Lakers game which they were in a similar situation but lost the game. He said that they learned the lesson and did not repeat the same mistake. Good for them. Well done Bulls!

Freezing weather outside and it is just December. We are looking forward to coming games in January and February!

So far, we always parked our car in a closed parking area. Unfortunately, the place which we usually parked was fully reserved. We ended up to park outside so it was covered by snow at the end of the game.

We went back to our home safely!

This was a busy week for Chicago Bulls fans! There was a family festival on Monday so season ticket holders visited United Center and participated several activities with old players and enjoy the arena. Here is our experience during the family festival:

Welcome to Press Conference of Ahmet Bombaci

Welcome to Press Conference of Emir Arber Bombaci

Bulls Legend Horace Grant

There was a very long queue for Tony Kukoc. Did you see Emir Arber in this picture? If not, look carefully :)

Pop-a-shoot challenge

Photo with 6 trophies

Photo with 6 trophies. We hacked the queue by taking photo from far end :) Next time, I will use my photoshop  skills to make it more professional :)

Girls look like happy to be with us! Thank you, LuvaBulls!

We practiced on the court

From the bench

Another picture on the bench

It was a lovely day with a lot of activities. Unfortunately, we could not do all of the activities due to long queues and time limitation.

Finally, the next game is tonight against Minnesota Timberwolves. Timberwolves has started this season with high expectation but they could not perform so well until now. Unfortunately, it looks like it will be another lost season for them. Assignment of Tom Thibodeau as head coach was a good sign to make the team winner but it is very hard to change the habits. Most of the people might think that competition is very high in western conference so it is not fair to criticize western teams. I strongly disagree due to Lakers performance. Timberwolves should perform better in this season because they have the superstars of the future who are Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins, and Zach LaVine. These players will lead their teams in near future and we will witness to it altogether. In addition, I like to watch Ricky Rubio since he was 16 years old. Pekovic and Dunn are great team players so they do not have any excuse to lose their games. I hope that they will loose against Bulls tonight :) but I will support Timberwolves later on in this season. This squad deserves better results.

Bulls are in trouble!

Bulls played 4 games in 5 days and they could only beat the first game which was against Cavaliers. It is still early days of the league but Chicago Bulls have to find a way to win the games again. Although it won't be easy very soon because the next game is against Spurs which lost only 4 times in this season. However; it is neither impossible because Bulls is 1 of the 5 teams which are able to win against the last champion Cavaliers. Wade is in his form, Butler is the star of the team, Rondo might master the team occasionally so Bulls have definitely a chance to win the game. And also, do not forget, the game will be televised on TNT (National Broadcaster) so all of the Bulls players and also coaching staff will do their best for this game.

Bulls lost against Dallas terribly on Saturday and Dallas Mavericks is the worst team in all NBA right now. They won just 4 games and Bulls lost the game by 25 points (82-107). I did not watch the game and I have to remind you that the game was just 1 day after Cleveland game and Bulls traveled from hometown Chicago to Dallas. However; these reasons still cannot explain 25 points difference. How come worst team in the NBA without any purpose (actually they have a purpose and their mission is to loose as many as possible games in order to draft players from the lowest possible spot) could win Bulls team by 25 points? Unbelievable! During this game, Rondo discussed with coach Fred Hoiberg and suspended for Portland Trailblazers game.

I was in United Center to watch Portland game. I was not very optimistic about the result but Bulls played better than I expected. Wade played like an all star. He scored  23 points in the first half and completed the game with 34 points. He did everything to beat Portland but it was like an impossible mission for the Bulls. The scoreboard at the end of the game was 112-110 but Portland controlled the game from the beginning and Bulls played the game in Portland way. It is not easy to beat your opponent by playing their game.

Portland team was great and congrats to them. It is always a pleasure to watch Damien Lillard. He mastered Trailblazers with 30 points, 7 assists, and 4 rebounds. Plumlee played poorer than I expected. He needs to practice more on his mid-range shots. C.J. McCollum took an active role when Bulls tried to close the point difference. I have to admit that I do not follow NBA very closely during last couple of years so I was not aware of most of the player transactions. I was surprised to see Evan Turner on the court yesterday. I did not know that he was playing in Portland. Anyway, I observe his performance since he was drafted by Philadephia 76ers in 2010. I always believe that he had the potential to become the next superstar. Apparently, it had not happened so far and it is too late now for him after that many years. On the other hand; he played well yesterday (10pts, 4ast, and 2reb). He did more than his statistics. His existence created more space to his teammates. The surprise of the day was Allen Crabbe #23. It was easy to recognize him with his stylish hair. Allen improved his game a lot during last years (2014/15: 3.2 ppg, 2015/16: 10.1 ppg). He played 32 minutes and made 17 points (mostly in 3rd quarter). Stay tuned and watch his performance closely.

In Bull site, Wade played like a superstar. He deserved to win the game. Butler help Wade with 26 points, 7 reabounds and 5 assists. And, that's all for the Bulls. No more contribution from other players. Their defense was very poor. They could not stop most of Portland attacks. Grant has started the game instead of Rondo because of Rondo's suspension after Dallas game. I would like to make more comments about Bulls but it is very hard to find something to say. They led the game during first quarter thanks to Wade's performance. They came back in the third quarter with 12-0 run. It was not a very poor performance during the game but I never felt that there was a real chance for the Bulls to win the game.

That's not all about the game, right? Pregame and ingame shows make the experience memorable. Many kids from Chicago area schools came to United Center and made a wonderful dance show before the game. All the kids deserve a big hug for their performance. There was a bike show during half time which was breath takings especially in last minutes when biker was jumping over cheerleader again and again.

The most enjoyable moment of the game was 4th period during Portland free throws. Before the game, Chicago Bulls announced that all ticket holders for the game would get free chicken sandwich if opponent player missed 2 consecutive free throws during the 4th quarter. There is absolutely no better way to let everybody to scream with all energy. Did we eat free chicken sandwich? Unfortunately not. I guess Portland missed just one of their all free throws during the 4th quarter. You should be there after the missing first free throw. We were screaming a lot during the first throw but we leveled up after the miss. However; Portland player took the shot like there was no noise at all and made the shot easily. It is very easy to critize players but I would like to congrat Shaquille O'Neal for his 30% free throw performance because even 10% would be a great performance under extreme circumstances.

This free chicken sandwich deal reminded me a beatiful memo from my old days in York, United Kingdom. There was a regular meeting on Friday night to read and understand the Holy Quran. The name of the activity is "Halaqa" which means circle in Arabic. Everybody sits on an imaginary circle and facing at everbody else. In one of the meetings, an attendant told us his conversation with his friend. He invited his friend to Halaqa but his friend said him that he could not come because he was busy with other activities. Then, he invited his friend to Halaqa again but this time he offered him money as well. He asked whether his friend would come if he gave him 100 British Pound. His friend changed his mind and told him that he would come in that case. Then, he explained his friend that the reward which will come from Allah (c.c.) will be much more higher than 100 British Pounds so he asked his friend one more time. Unfortunately, his friend could not join us in that day. I do not want to blame anybody or judge the decision. It is not our duty to analyze behaviour of others especially about religional acts but in general (not in the case of this specific example), it is always better to think about situations by replacing the rewards with more solid ones and decide about your act accordingly. It is not easy to judge emotional rewards so just be careful next time when you have to make a decision in such case :)

So back to Bulls game, I am sure that all supporters would do their best in order to make Bulls a winner by effecting opponent player with scream, but sometimes you need to get free chicken sandwich for motivation and cheers. It would definitely remind you your duties :)

Mission Completed: CAVS #beaten

It was my first game today and there are a lot of things to share. Before the game action, I would like to tell you about transportation part which was a tough part of this game for me. A lot of planning and decision making were required to the journey.

I am living in Northern Suburb of Chicago which is approximately an hour driving distance to United Center. It is possible to go there by car as well as public transportation. I personally love to use public transportation but this was a special occasion and I would be more comfortable with my car. However; this was not an easy decision because it was Friday evening and traffic jam is very usual. It might take more than two hours to drive there. In addition, I had to go to the game with my son and he had an after school club which ends around 5 pm. The game would start at 7 pm so I might end up to miss the beginning of the game.

I was all aware of these details days before the game. Therefore; I asked about it to my friends and they all recommended to use public transportation. Moreover, I checked traffic estimations about Friday evening from different sources and they all informed me that travel might take between 50 minutes and 2 hours. 

I had to say that public transportation might be very convenient for me and I did not have to spend too much time about these details but I would like to go for it. In addition, using a car needs to plan car parking in advance if you live in a capital city. Otherwise, you might end up with overcharged amount for the park. I studied my homework and compared the all possible options:

1. Chicago Bulls offer $20 parking per game to season ticket holders but you need to buy the parking for the whole season,
2. Chicago Bulls sell single game car parking around $30,
3. Nearby car parks ask for $22

Luckily, there was another option as well. A car park which is half a mile away from United Center offered the parking just for $9 during the game. Since weather conditions are not very harsh in Chicago, walking might be a good exercise for us. I decided to park my car to this location but it was not an easy decision. I will come to that point later.

I checked the traffic estimation last time at 5 pm and I decided to go there by car because the estimation was just 48 minutes. The journey was very smooth until Chicago downtown. I missed a junction and found myself in Chicago underground car road. Until today, I was not aware of underground car roads in downtown. There are many express roads just under the normal roads so it allows you to avoid junction, so the traffic. However, since there are other roads above the surface my phone could not locate GPS signal properly. It was totally like a maze and I had to use my gut feeling to find my way. Traffic was flowing superfast comparing to ground level so you would have like to stay there as much as possible but there were long queues in the exits so you had to pick the one with extra care. I took the exit at Harrison and I think it was the best decision. Though, I did a mistake at the end. I had to turn right and I did not take the right lane on time so I had to squeeze to the queue with a shame. After this extra adventure, we arrived at the car park at 6:05 pm which is not bad for the first time.

I said above that car park decision was not easy. After I booked the car parked, it warned me several times about printing out the details. The comment on the ticket was: "You must have a printout of your receipt to park at this location.". Unfortunately, I do not have a printer and I had also thought that display on a smartphone should be alright in the digital age. However; I could not stop myself to think about Ryanair business model. Once upon a time, RyanAir was selling promotion tickets but they asked passengers to print out their boarding passes at home. Passengers who forgot to print their tickets had to pay unbelievable amounts of money in order to get their boarding passes. Let me give you an example: You might buy a ticket for $50 but you might pay $250 for the boarding pass at the airport. Just pay or miss the flight so the hotel reservations and other plans as well. This business model worked for RyanAir very well for a long period of time thanks to not so careful(!) passengers who do not know how to run a business effectively(!).

I thought that this car park owner might choose a similar business model so I might end up to pay $250 extra for the car park. Read my next blog about the car park exit story. Let’s talk about Cavs game now.

My seat is at 3^rd tier diagonal to the court (see original seat view below). It is not the best place to watch the game but the price was economic. It is not the cheapest seat but cheaper than the most seats. There is another factor as well which decided me to go to this section. Chicago Bulls sell empty seats in last 2 hours to season ticket holders with season ticket price tag. That means that I would easily upgrade my seat on special occasions. Chicago Bulls is not the best team right now so it would not be so hard to find a place. And, I was right and I did it in this game (see upgraded ticket view below). The view was not perfect but slightly better than our seat. At least; it should be better. I did not pay $60 for a worse place. Images are below so you decide.

Original seat view

Upgraded seat view

I checked my original seat as well and introduced myself to next seat season ticket holder. He did not believe me at the beginning because I was not there during the first 6 games. I explained to him the promotion which allows to skipping the first 6 games. He told me that he did not hear such a thing before and he looks like a long period of time season ticket holder. I did my best but I guess I could not convince him. Anyway, we exchanged the numbers and I left the section. 

After the regular ceremony and the national anthem, the game had started. Cavaliers started the game better than Bulls. JR Smith scored 2 consecutive 3 pointers but did not do well later on. He could score 3 more points until the end of the game. Lebron James was mostly silent during the first quarter but took more responsibility later on. Cavaliers scored most of the points by mid-range shots and 3-pointers. On the other hand, Bulls were very active in the backcourt. Gibson played like a man of the match and he scored 18 points out of 59. Lopez contributed with 6 points during the first half. Cavaliers lead the game mostly during the first half but Bulls took the lead a couple of minutes before the end of the half time. First half had resulted with 60-59 lead by Cavaliers.

Bulls started the 3rd quarter better than Cavaliers. As I mentioned in my previous post, Cavs could not rest very well after Clippers game. Their performance dropped slightly and Bulls took the lead and manage the game very well until the end of the game. It is very hard to pick somebody from Chicago Bulls as a man of the match because they all played very well as a team. Rondo performed a triple-double effort with 15 points, 11 rebounds, and 12 assists.  Wade, Butler, and Gibson played very well as well though Gibson finished the game with 23 points so made 5 extra points during the second half. 

It was easy for the Bulls to win against tired Cavs team so this game is not a good indicator for the playoff time. However, we all know the ambition of Wade so we should expect the unexpected. It is hard to evaluate Cavs in this game but Lebron could not get enough support from his teammates during the game. JR should score more than 9 points. Love and Irving played below their level as well. Lebron scored 27 points and assistant 13 times to his teammates and Cavs could not win. This is not a good indicator for the Cavs.

Chicago will play against Dallas on Saturday evening at Dallas. I expect them to win the game easily. Then, they will play against Portland Trailblazers on Monday. I did not watch any Portland game this year but I enjoy to watch Damien Lillard. It is hard to make a prediction but due to home court advantage, I would like to say that Bulls will win the game but it won't be easy so a loss would not surprise me at all. I am looking forward to watching Lillard, McCollum, and Plumlee.

There were a lot of other activities as well. The special occasion was the birthday of Benny the Bull (the mascot of the Chicago Bulls). Other mascots of Chicago professional sporting teams came to the game to celebrate him. They enjoyed a lot during the breaks.

And also, we witnessed to a wager between Wade and James. This season Chicago and Cleveland baseball teams played against each other for the championship. It looks like Wade and Lebron made a wager about it so Lebron wore a Chicago Cubs jersey before the game and walked through the press with gigglings of Wade. Click for details

At the end, I left the arena happily after defeating the last champion and headed to the car park.