Rip Hamilton Joined the 15,000 Point Club

Richard Hamilton reached a notable milestone against the New Jersey Nets last night, and the Chicago Bulls hope that he can continue to provide them with a big scoring punch. From the Sun-Times: “Reaching 15,000 career points in a 110-95 victory Monday against the New Jersey Nets was a nice achievement for Rip Hamilton, but the veteran guard has given the Bulls something even more notable in their last two games. Hamilton scored 20 points Saturday against the Charlotte Bobcats, the first time since Tom Thibodeau became the Bulls’ coach that a shooting guard scored 20 points in a game. Hamilton followed up that performance with a 22-point effort Monday, giving the Bulls reason to believe they have found the second backcourt scoring threat they lacked in their five-game loss to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals last season. ‘With me, it’s just not all about scoring,’ Hamilton said. ‘[There’s] so many great players on this team, and … my job is to try to make everybody’s job easy. If it’s scoring, if it’s passing or whatever, that’s what I try to do.’ Scoring might be what the Bulls need most from Hamilton right now. With forward Luol Deng out with a wrist injury, they will need Hamilton to shoulder even more of the offensive load. Thibodeau typically plays Deng more minutes than any other player. If Monday was any indication of how Thibodeau will redistribute those minutes while Deng is out, Hamilton will get the bulk of them. He played more than 42 minutes against the Nets.”