By Brunson Bench Buddy B-Huge.

Sportswriters around the country should be warned. This game might affect your votes for the NBA season-end awards. Last night Rick Brunson entered the game with 9:47 left in the FIRST quarter. Yes, he was the first man off the Bulls' bench. Thus Brunson might just be out of the running for the Scott Hastings Twelth Man Award and instantly vaulted into the thick of the race for the Sixth Man Award. Unfortunately for Bulls fans as Brunson entered the game Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko turned to him and declared, "I must break you."

Kirilenko scored 9 of his game-high 26 points in the first quarter as the Jazz jumped out to a 27-14 lead at the end of 12 minutes of play. The Bulls never got closer than 7 points the rest of the game. On this night I guess Coach Skiles elected to have Brunson kill the team's chances in the first quarter rather than tear the hearts of Bulls fans out in the fourth quarter (see Rick Report: Bulls Game #2). Thus it has been proved that while I can change and you can change, Brunson's game
won't change.

Brunson ended up playing 28 minutes. He ended up with 11 points despite shooting 2 for 8. Utah Coach Jerry Sloan denied that his team employed the Hack-a-Rick defence in the 3rd quarter but Brunson made them pay with 7 for 7 shooting from the line. Brunson also finished with 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers, and 4 fouls. That effort is what is known as a quintuple single by NBA insiders.

On a non-Brunson note, Toronto Star columnist Dave Feschuk complained that when the Raptors made the trade (known around RickBrunson.com offices as "the other trade") to get Antonio Davis out of town they sacrificed much-needed hustle that was apparent in their dismal loss to the Magic on Sunday. I'll let Davis's 3 for 10 shooting, 2 rebounds, and 3 turnovers while matched up against Greg fucking Ostertag stand as a rebuttal.