As we approach the All-Star break, the Bulls currently sit in 2nd place in the East, 3rd overall in the league (yes, the ENTIRE league), are 14-5 against the West, 11-0 in their division, have beaten each of the top teams in the league once, except the Spurs, have the top defense in the league for FG%, give up the 2nd or 3rd fewest points per game, have a LEGIT MVP candidate in Derrick Rose who by the way is an All-Star starter (the first since Jordan), all while not having their full team playing healthy at not even ONE point this season. If that doesn't get you behind this team, nothing will.
All of this they are doing and no one is talking about them for legit title contenders. While I tend to agree with that assessment, I also watch this team every game and they are proving that not only are they very good and every bit as good as their record suggests, but that they also have a room for improvement.
I'm not going to bore you with stats, because no one pays attention to them much anyway. What I will say is that this team should have MORE wins than they have. Looking at a couple of losses, one to NY early in the season, NY shot 16-24 from three, plus when the Bulls' bench was making a comeback, they pulled to within four and Thibodeau never put Rose back in the game in 4th quarter. Since that game, The Bulls defensive effort has been nothing short of outstanding. They don't give up anything on defense. Teams are having to work extra hard to get points on the Bulls.
Consider the effort the Bulls put in on three games this season. These can serve as a testament to just how good they are collectively and individually on defense. The biggest individual defense effort has come from Luol Deng. Take the game against the Memphis Grizzlies: Loul Deng completely shut down Rudy ***, one of the premier scorers in the league and a top young talent. He locked him to 1-10 shooting for the night while also having a great offensive game.
This leads me to the Orlando Magic game. The Bulls unleashed a tried and true strategy and it worked to perfection. They let Dwight Howard, have a monster offensive game (40 points), while shutting down the rest of the team. This was in parts great team defense and other parts great individual defense provided by Luol Deng on sometimes play-maker Hedo Turkoglu. Deng abused him on the offensive end by scoring and driving at will, and on the defensive end by not allowing him to set up the offense and letting them get a rhythm.
This same strategy was employed against the Los Angeles Clippers. They let Blake Griffin go off in the first half and completely him down in the second (25 in the first, 7 in the second). The Bulls also shut down the rest of the Clippers and forced a lot of "one and done" trips down the court for them.
The Bulls also played great team defense while beating the Dallas Mavericks twice, The LA Lakers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Miami Heat, Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic.
So why can't they be considered contenders?
One might point to the starting SG position and while it is a black hole for the team, they have been doing very well despite Keith Bogans' liability. He's become a barometer for victory. The Bulls are 11-0 when he scores 6 or more points. His defense has improved and he isn't getting beat off the dribble as much as he was. He is also making 3-point shots more consistently and is starting to make teams pay for playing off of him so much. So since he isn't as much of a liability as he once was, can we say the Bulls have legit title hopes this year?
It is a lofty goal, but in the playoffs, defense wins championships. The past two seasons the Bulls lost in the playoffs because they weren't good defensively, they were also going up against the defending champs and the top team record-wise in the league respectively.
That has changed. This team is on pace for nearly 60 wins.
Let that sink in for minute, 60 wins. The last time a Bulls team won 60 games in a season, they won a title each time they did it. The last time they won 57 games was in 1993 and that team won the title while not having the best record, not having HCA in the Finals blah blah. But that team had Jordan and Pippen. The question is: Can Rose become Jordan (he's already got the reverse layups down), can Luol Deng become Scottie Pippen (he's got the offense and is getting there on defense), cam Kyle Korver step into the Steve Kerr/John Paxson role as a knock down 3-point shooter and can Carlos Boozer be a better Horace Grant/Dennis Rodman (he gets the points and gets the rebounds)?
And also, can the Bulls bench continue to befuddle opposing teams with their amazing defensive and offensive play?
These questions remain to be seen, but it's going to fun watching it unfold.
