A few miles short after 43 good minutes

Should the Bulls be encouraged or discouraged by Sunday's 114-101 loss in Denver? Probably more encouraged, I'd say. They put together a nice effort for 43 minutes and held a lead on the road against a good team with five minutes remaining.
What happened after that can be chalked up as a lesson to be learned for the Bulls. A couple of veterans, 12th-year guard Chauncey Billups and ninth-year forward Kenyon Martin, turned up the volume and the Bulls lost their poise.
The visitors were clearly confused on defense late in the game on a few simple pick-and-roll plays. “We didn't communicate,” said rookie Derrick Rose, who was targeted by the opposing offense, as usual.
Coach Vinny Del Negro sent second-year center Aaron Gray onto the floor late to try to clog the middle. Gray played well on Sunday, but didn't slide over in time to prevent a couple of easy baskets in the paint. Gray had 5 fouls at the time.
On the other end, the Bulls got open shots all night by moving the ball around. The Nuggets packed the lane trying to block Rose's path to the basket, leaving plenty of openings at the 3-point line. Ben Gordon knocked down 5 of 7 attempts from long range, but the Bulls could have easily been ahead by 10 points if they had converted a few more open looks from the 3-point line.
Gordon hit 2 in a row midway through the fourth quarter, then incredibly was left wide open on the Bulls' very next possession, but couldn't make three in a row. The Bulls led 96-94 at the time.
A bigger problem was Larry Hughes, Lindsey Hunter, Thabo Sefolosha and Andres Nocioni going a combined 3 for 17 from 3-point land.
Rose did a nice job of firing cross-court passes to get the Nuggets' defense moving. Now the Bulls need to find a better way to exploit teams aggressively trapping Rose near the midcourt line, the way Denver did late in the game.
The next two games should be interesting. Utah is expected to be without Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams and Kyle Korver on Monday. Then in San Antonio on Wednesday, the Spurs are still without Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. Like I've said all along, two wins on the circus trip would be a positive result for the Bulls and they already have one.

UGLY CELEBRATION
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but wasn't it Joe Buck who apologized to viewers after Randy Moss did his fake mooning in Green Bay a few years back?
I wonder what Buck would have said about Kenyon Martin's celebratory dance after hitting a late 3-pointer on Sunday against the Bulls. Let's just say Martin accentuated a certain part of the male anatomy. Two parts, actually.
If the NBA has any self-respect, it will fine Martin for that gesture. Hopefully, it didn't make it on television, but there were plenty of kids watching from the stands.
Go ahead and celebrate a nice victory all you want, but that was low-class no matter how you look at it.