Ben Wallace owns one NBA championship ring, four Defensive Player of the Year awards and a $60 million contract.
Ben Gordon won an NCAA title at Connecticut, an unprecedented Sixth Man of the Year award as an NBA rookie and is the Bulls’ third highest-paid player.
The Bulls feature eight new faces on a team that made its second straight first-round playoff exit last season, so to pin all the blame for a wildly inconsistent start on the two Bens is shortsighted.
But rightly or wrongly, Big Ben and Little Ben will be scrutinized more closely than most Bulls all season–Wallace for the hope and hype he brought to the defense and Gordon for the explosiveness and expectations he brought to the offense.
Coach Scott Skiles said Gordon “is arguably our most talented offensive player from an individual standpoint” on Tuesday in Dallas. And Wallace got all those zeroes on his contract because he’s one of the league’s dominant defenders.
That’s why Tuesday’s loss in Dallas stung beyond dropping the Bulls to 3-4.
Erick Dampier clearly outplayed Wallace, who finished with a pedestrian–for him–eight rebounds and one block in 35 minutes. And Gordon’s return to an off-the-bench role did little to jump-start his jump shooting: He went 6-for-18 and forced several shots.
You never need tea leaves to read Skiles’ bluntness.
So when he says the Bulls had “zero basket protection pretty much the whole game,” he’s not singling out the inactive Martynas Andriuskevicius. And when he talks about “guys going on their own,” Gordon’s one-on-five-fest in the fourth quarter comes to mind.
Several of Dampier’s dunks did come after Wallace rotated to provide help for teammates beaten on the perimeter. But Dampier also got two offensive rebounds on Dallas’ first three possessions, setting a tone.
“I’m not playing as well as I’d like to play, but I think that just comes with learning a new system and new teammates,” Wallace said in a recent interview. “I’m continuing to work at it. I want to make sure our team is successful. Personally, I don’t think I ever play as well as I should. I think I have a lot more to offer.”
Gordon hit his first three shots, but also missed on three straight possessions in the fourth quarter–typically his time–as Dallas put the game away with an 11-0 run.
Slow starts are nothing new for Gordon, who was removed from the starting lineup after eight games during his rookie season and shot 36.4 percent after seven last season. But given how much this team needs his offensive outbursts, this season’s inconsistency is glaring.
“I just have to take the challenge upon myself to play better,” Gordon said.
The Bulls are three games removed from Gordon dropping 37 points on Milwaukee and Wallace cramming the same box score with six points, 10 rebounds, five blocks, four assists and three steals.
Skiles surprisingly canceled Wednesday’s practice, although the team watched film and players worked out individually. Both Bens participated–a good sign for a Bulls team that needs their work to translate to victories.
Number crunching
Granted, seven games don’t represent a season. But any way you slice it, statistics for the Bulls’ two Bens–Wallace and Gordon–are down. In several major categories, both players’ averages are worse in almost every one than after seven games last season and compared with their career numbers.
%%
BEN WALLACE
G FDG% FT% DEF. REB. REB. BK. PTS.
Career 705 48.2 42.0 7.4 10.7 2.3 6.6
2005-06 7 50.9 65.5 8.7 11.7 1.6 10.7
2006-07 7 41.7 55.6 5.4 10.0 1.3 5.7
DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN
BEN GORDON
G FDG% 3PTFG% FT% TO ASST. PTS.
Career 169 41.5 41.6 82.1 2.3 2.5 15.8
2005-06 7 36.4 42.4 73.7 2.0 2.3 14.2
2006-07 7 37.8 22.2 72.7 2.4 3.1 13.4
UP DOWN DOWN UP UP DOWN
———-
kcjohnson@tribune.com
%%
%%
%%
