Ball don’t lie! Ball don’t lie!
That was the taunt of Detroit’s Rasheed Wallace as the Pistons were blowing out the Bulls 92-79 at the United Center earlier this month.
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Bulls players clanked free throws during a third-quarter meltdown and missed 17 in the game. Wallace wheeled in for a shot, yelled, “Bank!” and the ball went in. Wallace chortled loudly as he ran back downcourt.
The Pistons flexing their muscle and confidence as early-season championship favorites?
Nothing of the kind. Once again, a team had decided to attack the Bulls’ Andres Nocioni, who last season committed an ugly foul–the Pistons called it dirty–on Tayshaun Prince.
“No big deal,” Nocioni said after the Bulls defeated the Raptors in Toronto on Wednesday night and prepared to head to Detroit for Friday night’s game with the Pistons. “It’s just a game. I play hard sometimes. I hit him in [the] eyebrow.”
The Pistons weren’t in the winking, or forgiving, mood.
“‘Sheed was laughing at Nocioni because guys say Nocioni is tough but not that tough,” one Piston said later. “They wanted to let him know that his act doesn’t faze them.”
This Bulls group isn’t particularly demonstrative. In fact, when coach Scott Skiles was trying to explain the recent emergence of Darius Songaila (20 of 30 shooting the last three games and double-digit scoring in all three), Skiles noted Songaila was shy and quiet and took time to adjust to his new teammates.
Several of the Bulls players are like that, Skiles said. That doesn’t necessarily suggest weakness–the Bulls have a reputation around the NBA for taking hard fouls and playing physically through cuts and possessions–the Bulls don’t seem the type of team to go seeking revenge.
Skiles would be. He pointedly said he would have “done something” about Wallace’s behavior after the Dec. 3 Detroit game. But the NBA frowns on such things these days.
Of course, one could say it’s the fault of Wallace, who often acts strangely.
And then there’s Nocioni, who has not endeared himself around the league, labeled a “goon” or a “thug” after incidents involving Jermaine O’Neal, Ron Artest, LeBron James and Gilbert Arenas last season.
Lately, however, Nocioni has had problems around his own team.
He has been starting at power forward, perhaps the smallest in the league at the position, and sharing frontcourt matchups with Luol Deng. With Tyson Chandler gaining confidence and strength since coming off the bench and using an inhaler for his breathing problems, it seems Skiles has settled on a starting lineup.
“I want to see it this way awhile,” Skiles said. “I don’t know if I’d put too much permanence into it. I want to be open, but I don’t want to be changing it every 10 games either.”
Chandler, who seems more comfortable coming off the bench, said he expects to play Friday night despite a knee contusion suffered in the Toronto game.
Ben Gordon’s status is less clear. He has averaged about 23 minutes the last two games.
Nocioni was effective offensively in the early part of Wednesday’s game against the Raptors and shot 10 of the Bulls’ 17 first-half free throws. But he seemed befuddled by defensive rotations and was pulled from the game several times. It’s an ongoing problem.
He’s probably better suited to being a role player coming off the bench, but the Bulls don’t have such luxury with the roster at this time. So he gets Wallace again Friday.
“I don’t know if it was to me or the team,” Nocioni of Wallace’s antics. “Detroit had a big game in Chicago. . . . We want to play better. Last game I played a terrible game.”
He shot 3 of 11 as he wilted under Wallace’s glare and menace.
“Detroit is a hard team, one of the two, three best teams in the league,” Nocioni said. “I need to play better because the team needs me. I need to step up my game.”
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Otherwise, the Bulls will be stepped on again. We’ll see how they respond.
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