Bad News: Bulls best defense in the league. Great at guarding the 3
Will Melo play? I doubt it. He was in the locker room during walk through and shoot around this morning

Tom Thib deserves credit for keeping this team fighting without their top gun.

Going to have to take high percentage shots all night.

Hmm, we have a lot of 'personal' games coming up- this one, Denver (Melo), Nets, Lakers (D'antoni) and Rockets (Lin).

They rebound the heck out of the ball, so to offset that, we have to make shots, and don't turn the ball over.

not to mention we made 17 3's against them our first meeting last season

In regards to Noah on the boards, when Tyson is focused and hungry (which he will be once going up against his former team) he can compete with any big man in the game today in regards to boarding strong off the glass. Tonight is a good test to see where we stand as a team in terms of rebounding ability.

PG: Raylond Felton vs Kirk Hinrich. I take Felton each and every time. Not even close either.

2G: Jason Kidd vs Richard Hamilton. Two veterans going at it. I peronally believe our future H.O.F leader in Kidd gives us a strong advantage at the 2G position.

SF: Ronnie Brewer vs Luol Deng. Gotta go with Deng here. He's an outstanding scorer of the basketball. Great motor too. Strong defender and can board off the glass as well. Although with Brewer's defense, he'll make Deng work on the offensive end. Contain Deng and we win this game. Shut him down and it's a blowout.

PF: Kurt Thomas vs Carlos Boozer. Gotta go with Boozer here. Yes, Kurt Thomas is a strong veteran role player, but Boozer is one of the leaders of Chicago's ball club. Advantage Chicago at the PF position.

C: Tyson Chandler vs Joakim Noah. I personally take Tyson Chandler, but I'll consider this a wash. We could be on the verge of watching a war with Noah and Chandler fighting down low.

In regards to our starters, matchup wise, it wouldn't even be close with Melo. But with Melo possibly out we have the guard advantage, they have the forward advantage. The battle of our Center's should be a good one.

Due to having Melo out and Kurt Thomas moving to the starting lineup, our bench takes a hit. Our bench tonight should still match up against Chicago's bench. I still believe our bench has a strong advantage.

J.R Smith, Steve Novak, Rasheed Wallace and Pablo Prigioni as our top 4.

Taj Gibson, Nate Robinson, Marco Belinelli and Jimmy Butler as their top 4.

Wasn't expecting a blowout heading into tonight's game, but the more I think about it, the more I feel another 20+ victory for our Knicks tonight. Beating Miami on the road without Melo should give our team all the confidence in the world. The momentum is with us without question.

Marc Berman ‏@NYPost_Berman
No melo. Says probably tomorrow vs. Denver.

CrushAlot wrote:Hamilton is out.

Nice. Let Melo rest up/heal up for his matchup against Denver at home in MSG tomorrow night.

Hamilton being out now gives us two major advantages. A.) 2G position with Kidd vs Marco Belinelli and B.) Our bench. With Marco now becoming their starting 2G, no one on the Bulls bench outside of Gibson, Nate and Jummy Butler average anything over 6.6 minutes per game. Next in line is Nazr Mohammed, and he's not a very good basketball player to say the least.