The Chicago Bulls embark on their annual trek across America, aka the "Circus Road Trip," Thursday night when they visit the Pepsi Center to meet the Denver Nuggets.
[b]Ron Cey Jersey[/b] . Tune in to catch the action on TSN at 10:30pm et/7:30pm pt. The circus comes to the United Center in Chicago and forces the Bulls to hit the road. It will be six games away from home for a Bulls team that has won five straight, but is also just 1-3 as a visitor this season. "The way weve always approached it -- and were not going to change -- is that were not looking at it as a long road trip," head coach Tom Thibodeau told the teams website. "Were just looking at it as getting ready for Denver. Thats why you want to establish a routine of preparation and you approach it the same way every game. If you look at it that way, prepare yourself and do the right things, the results will take care of themselves." As if a six-game road trip wasnt daunting enough, the Bulls announced on Wednesday that starting two guard Jimmy Butler didnt travel with the team. He has what is commonly referred to as turf toe and is listed as week-to-week. The Bulls collected their fifth straight win on Monday with an 86-81 home victory over the Charlotte Bobcats. Luol Deng led Chicago with 21 points and eight rebounds. Butler had 14 points, followed by 12 apiece from Derrick Rose and Carlos Boozer, who pulled down 17 rebounds in the win. Joakim Noah managed 11 points. Mondays victory came after the Bulls knocked the Indiana Pacers from the ranks of the unbeaten. They visit Portland, Los Angeles to take on the Clippers, Utah, Detroit and Cleveland before returning home on Dec. 2. The Nuggets have dropped two straight, although they were reasonable setbacks. Denver lost Saturday night in Houston, then fell to the Oklahoma City Thunder, 115-113 Monday night. The Nuggets held a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter against OKC, but succumbed to Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka. Ty Lawson, who is off to an amazing start this season, netted a team-high 29 points. J.J. Hickson had 18 points and 19 rebounds, while Randy Foye, Evan Fournier and Nate Robinson scored in double figures. Thursdays contest will feature the seventh-best scoring team (Nuggets) against the second-best defense (Bulls). "Our offensive execution has to be on point," Denver coach Brian Shaw said. "Typically, their games are lower-scoring games and theyre kind of an ugly, grind-it-out style. You have to be able to score, which means you have to take care of the ball and get a shot on every possession." The Nuggets have won four straight over the Bulls and six in a row and 12 of 13 at home in this series.
[b]Carlos Zambrano Cubs Jersey[/b] . With their coach gone, they finally played offence the way he would have wanted. Amare Stoudemire made all seven shots in the first half, Anthony passed and shot well, and the Knicks shook off the surprising departure of their coach to rout the Portland Trail Blazers 121-79 on Wednesday night, snapping a six-game losing streak.
[b]Brandon Kintzler Jersey[/b] . -- At the beginning of training camp, Andrew Bogut set a goal to play all 82 regular-season games and regain his place among the NBAs best centres.TORONTO - Dwane Casey says his New Years resolution is to cut back on his use of profanity. Lately his team hasnt given him much to curse about. The Raptors have won four straight, nine of their last 12 games, and the NBA has taken notice, awarding Casey Eastern Conference Coach of the Month honours for December. Heading into the month, Casey - like everyone else on the teams payroll - was on the hot seat after a 6-12 start forced Masai Ujiris hand and prompted the first of what seemed to be a series of franchise-altering transactions, the trade of Rudy Gay. Since then and to the surprise of most observers, Caseys club has turned a corner, playing the best and most harmonious basketball of his three-year tenure. Still, the Raptors coach is a long ways from taking any credit for his or the teams recent accomplishments. "I dont give a crap," Casey exclaimed following Wednesdays upset win over Indiana, briefly disregarding his New Years promise after he was asked about the personal satisfaction that may come out of his team success. "I mean, its not about me. Its about that team in there, in that locker room. Im going to be in coaching for a long time so its not about me, its about those guys." No, hes not going to take any credit, but he deserves a whole lot of it. The 56-year-old head coach has held his team together during what could have been, and likely should have been, their most trying period of time. Forced to bid farewell to their (arguably) most talented player and welcome in four new teammates after a rare early-season trade, the Raptors found themselves in a place of uncertainty. They were a franchise in limbo. Many believed Ujiri would immediately clean house, beginning with starting point guard Kyle Lowry, and perhaps even Casey, both in the last year of expiring deals. In spite of the obvious and understandable off-court distractions that hovered over them, Casey kept his troops focused. They remained upbeat, maybe more so than ever before, and continued to fight the good fight. The results speak for themselves. "I know, to win in this league you have to be a physical, bad-behind team," Casey said, staying in line with his resolution after the Raptors closed out December with a comeback win in Chicago, finishing the month with an 8-6 record. "Im not going to let up, Im not going to relent from that because thats who we are, its who weve got to be." All 15 players have bought into what Casey has been selling. They have defeated the best team in each conference and engineered four comeback victories on the road in a span of six games. Still, they remain grounded, focused and hungry for more. "The two wins [are] great but it would have been nice to finish with one more," Amir Johnson had said after a hard-fought loss in San Antonio, coming off a pair of surprising road wins over Dalllas and Oklahoma City.
[b]Chicago Cubs Shirts[/b]. "We cant settle." "Its a process," Casey says so often that the words have lost their meaning, but it has been and continues to be a process. DeMar DeRozan, the teams leading scorer, has never participated in a playoff game or been part of a winning team. Johnson hasnt won since he was a spectator on the contending Pistons teams. Jonas Valanciunas and Terrence Ross, both starters, are barely a third of the way into their second season as NBA pros. Somehow Casey has this group believing they can win, behaving like theyve been in this situation before and for the most part, they havent. From Caseys standpoint, nothing has changed. His approach remains the same, his work ethic is still unmatched but like anything else in professional sports and in life its about taking advantage of the right opportunity. Finally, the Raptors third-year head coach is getting the chance to show what he can do with a healthy, stable rotation. In his first season with the team, the lockout-shortened campaign of 2011-12, Casey overachieved despite using 20 different starting lineups and losing 124 man-games to injury. In many ways last season was three-in-one, as Casey has called it. The Raptors used 22 different starting units in 2012-13, losing 163 games to injury while navigating through the deal that brought Gay to Toronto midseason. Through 30 games this season, the team has had the benefit of good health, losing just five games to injury. As a result, Casey has started four different five-man units. In return for Gay, Ujiri was able to acquire four veteran players, three of which have been featured in Caseys nine-man rotation, the first consistent rotation he has felt comfortable using consistently over an extended period of time. "Guys are playing their role, guys are producing, that makes any rotation easier when guys produce," Casey said earlier this week, deflecting the credit once again. Since the trade, a vast majority of Caseys bold coaching decisions have paid off. Moving Ross to the starting lineup, cutting Tyler Hansbroughs minutes to include Patrick Patterson in the rotation, utilizing veteran forward John Salmons over Landry Fields and Steve Novak, rotating Ross and Salmons to close games, theyve all contributed to the teams recent surge. As they embark on another challenging road-trip - visiting the red-hot Wizards, defending champion Heat and conference-best Pacers - the Raptors sit atop the Atlantic Division for the first time (this late in the season) since 2007. That was also the last year a Raptors coach was named Coach of the Month. Casey becomes the third coach in franchise history to receive the honour, joining Lenny Wilkens (April 2002) and Sam Mitchell (January 2007), who went on to win the NBAs Coach of the Year award that season. ' ' '
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