Give Salmons some credit for his defense

In a nutshell, the Bulls went back to looking like they might be a good team during Tuesday’s 96-87 loss to the Lakers.

While the offense sputtered to a halt in the fourth quarter, they did have plenty of good shots roll of the rim. Someone mentioned that the Bulls went cold in the fourth, but cold has been their natural state this season. They actually got hot early in the game, then returned to normal.

Even after Kobe Bryant and his broken finger scored 42 points on Tuesday, I think John Salmons deserves some credit. He hasn’t been the scorer the Bulls expected this season, but he’s been pretty good on defense.

It seemed like he was doing a nice job on Bryant, but got into quick foul trouble by jumping at a couple of pump fakes in the first half. Once the smaller Kirk Hinrich came into the game, Bryant attacked like a rabid reindeer, knocking down 8 jumpers in just 3 ½ minutes.

Checking the play-by-play, it appeared that Salmons and Hinrich each spent about 20 minutes guarding Bryant. The Lakers star scored 14 of his points and committed 6 of his 8 turnovers while Salmons was in the game. Salmons scored just 2 points himself, so I guess the lesson is stay out of foul trouble.

(dailyherald.com)