Chris Richard? Bulls beat Wolves 99-94
Posted on October 14th, 2009 – 11:59 PMBy Jerry Zgoda
If this happened tonight, just imagine what might be possible when the Wolves finally play the Wizards.
Chris Richard — you remember him, don’t you — scored two points in his first four preseason games trying to win a job with Chicago and then delivered a 17-point, 13-point rebound performance at Target Center that proved his former teammates still need to practice some on their defensive concepts.
“Just trying to get a job,” Corey Brewer said of his former Florida teammate. “He played good. I’m happy for him.”
Meanwhile, did you see the the boxscore from Washington’s victory tonight overĀ a Cleveland team that played without LeBron?
Mike Miller: 9 for 12 from the field, 5 for 5 from three point range, 24 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists.
Randy Foye: 6 for 10 from the field, 9 for 9 from the line, 21 points, 5 assists, 2 steals.
Both guys are going to come off the bench for a Wizards team that will start, barring injury, Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler.
Some of this, some of that after tonight’s Wolves game, in which they trailed by 16 points (32-16) after a quarter, rallied to take a three-point lead in the final five minutes and lost after Richard scored the first five points in a telling 11-3 run on a night when the Bulls played without Derrick Rose, Tyrus Thomas and Brad Miller:
* Al Jefferson’s minutes were pushed to 26 — by nine the most this preseason — but Kurt Rambis said Jefferson’s conditioning still is an issue after he has been on the floor for six consecutive minutes or more.
“I’m feeling better and better as we go,” said Jefferson, who had season-ending knee surgery in February. “I felt like I could have gone a little longer, but better safe than sorry. We’ve got a long way to go.”
* Oleksiy Pecherov made his debut but nearly 19 minutes of play in which he went 0-for-5 from the field, collected four fouls and got schooled by Joakim Noah.
“He had a couple good days of practice, but it didn’t translate to the game, let’s put it that way,” Rambis said.
* It sure looks like, at least for now, that Rambis has concluded that Jonny Flynn and Ramon Sessions can’t play together. At least he hasn’t played them together yet in three preseason games and says he doesn’t like the way they looked together in practice scrimmages.
If they can’t play some together, how’s this going to work with them splitting time. Neither’s going to be happy playing 24 minutes a game, which is what they roughly played tonight (Flynn 23:43, Sessions, 24:17). You gotta believe that at some point he has to put them together just to keep everybody happy.
* Three-point shooting tonight: 2 for 18.
That’s 6 for 42 in three games.
That’s 14.2 percent, sports fans.
* If you’re a believer in those plus-minus ratings, here’s some from tonight:
Best of the plusses
Damien Wilkins, plus-15
Brian Cardinal, plus-7
Ramon Sessions, plus-6
Worst of the minuses
Jonny Flynn, minus-11
Kevin Love and Mustafa Shakur (in 5:14 minutes!), minus-10
Ryan Hollins, minus-6





