Dirk Punches Our Gut

Losses don't get more excruciating than this.  With the Dallas Mavericks on the ropes, the Bulls appeared destined to extend their winning streak to four.  After letting a Mavericks run tie the game at the end of the third, they came out in the fourth and built a 97-85 lead, which should have meant the victory was secured.  But led by Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas went on a 15-1 run, capped off by a Nowitzki three and beat the Bulls 100-98.

If you're going to lose, let a great player beat you.  Nowitzki is just that, proving so with 15 of his game-high 35 points in the fourth quarter.  At the same time however, the Bulls let themselves down.  Defensive lapses, poor offensive movement down the stretch and missed free throws did the trick.  Jimmy Butler's empty trip to the line resulting in Nowitzki's winner was eerily similar to that of Omer Asik's when the Bulls were eliminated in last year's playoffs.  As long as a team has a once-in-a-lifetime player on its side, no lead is safe and you must do all you can to protect it.  The Bulls suddenly looked out of sorts once Dallas started scoring points and they just couldn't get things back together.

Wasted were fine performances by Luol Deng, Carlos Boozer and Nate Robinson, all of whom scored 25 points.  Robinson in particular was amazing, going 7-for-7 from three-point territory.  Deng was 4-for-7 from that distance and was able to get easy, open looks frequently.  Boozer found his way close to the basket and his 11 field goals were bested only by Nowitzki's 14.  These descriptions should translate into wins in most games, but not today.  Had the Bulls shot better than 55.6 percent from the free-throw line, we'd be praising the aforementioned performances even more.  But Deng leaving Nowitzki open at the worst possible time put a damper on his afternoon particularly.

The Bulls remain the only team in the league not to have a four-game winning or losing streak this season.  That probably means little seeing as they've already clinched a playoff spot.  Still, this game proved that momentum can be fleeting in the NBA.  One day, you're celebrating the fact you're responsible for ending a long winning streak.  Next, you learn that any superstar can beat you regardless of what jersey he's wearing.  Sure, the Mavericks are in a different conference, but if you have them where you want them, you need to keep them there.  They may not make the postseason this year, but they still have a future Hall of Famer.  As long as he's with them, nothing is a gimme for the opposition.

With a little over 24 hours to lick their wounds, the Bulls will head back to Chicago and play the Detroit Pistons tomorrow night.  They can't let what could have been impact them.  It's time to remind the Pistons just who they are, which is a terrible team with little upside at the moment.  And in case I don't get a chance to recap the game, Happy Easter to all.

Who You Gonna Call? Streakbusters!

I'll begin by apologizing for my severe lack of updates this month.  I know I'll be setting an all-time low for posts in an in-season month, but work and traveling have prevented me from tending to my duties of keeping you informed about Bulls basketball.  But I'm rambling, so let's get to the fun part.

With Derrick Rose's season remaining in question and the lack of Joakim Noah, Rip Hamilton and Marco Belinelli, it seemed fair to predict the Bulls would be the team that would send the Miami Heat's winning streak to 28.  I have to admit I even had doubts about this game and I'm usually one of the more positive Bulls fans around.  Perhaps the Bulls decided it was time to show a national TV audience why exactly Tom Thibodeau rides them as hard as he does.  It's so they stay focused game in and game out.  They were rewarded with a widely recognized 101-97 win.

The Bulls came out firing on all cylinders, leading by double digits for a good stretch.  Besides a stretch that lasted a few minutes combined in a slumping third quarter, they never trailed in the game.  Every time the Heat attempted to get on a roll, the Bulls had an answer.  Thanks to the most intense defense they played all year and providing enough offense to distance themselves from the defending champs on the scoreboard, they were able to positively influence a United Center crowd that was one of the most raucous you'll ever see for a regular-season contest.  They also converted on second chances, got open looks and grabbed timely rebounds.  And they did it all without their franchise player, emotional leader, veteran starter and three-point specialist.  As Heat coach Erik Spoelstra put it after the game, the team that deserves to win usually will.  That was the Bulls tonight.

Luol Deng led the Bulls with 28 points, was 4-of-8 from 3-point territory and hit all four of his free throws.  Carlos Boozer came up huge with a double-double of 21 points and 17 rebounds.  He had his usual rough spots, but made up for them with his hustle.  Jimmy Butler, making an uncommon start, had a performance reminiscent of the one against the Lakers in January, scoring 17.

The biggest credit has to go the point guard duo of Nate Robinson and Kirk Hinrich.  Robinson once again quieted his naysayers who love to nitpick every other asset of his game besides scoring.  He may be a risky one, but my, does he look pretty when he finishes.  His 14 points were big in the box score and his emotions were huge in swinging momentum.  As for Hinrich, all he did was show he had guts to literally take down LeBron James (who led all scorers with 32 points) and go low defensively late to catch Chris Bosh off guard, leading to a possession that gave Taj Gibson two critical points.  If they gave nightly awards for veteran leadership, Hinrich would certainly have one after this game.

The Bulls have played Miami very well ever since Thibodeau became head coach and the Big 3 came together.  What made tonight different was that this team had lower expectations due to its recent struggles and rash of injuries.  To play the way they did tonight was quite miraculous, so this was the biggest win they've had against the Heat in the last few years.  It's also up there with wins in regular-season history.  Any game that ends the second-longest winning streak in NBA history has to be.  Yes, there are still problems with the team and we'd like to find out yesterday if Rose will be returning this year, but for tonight, just enjoy this win.  They won't have a bigger one this year, so you always want any sense of pride to soak in.

Lost in all this hoopla is that the Bulls clinched a playoff spot tonight.  Now, it's time to really take the fight for seeding seriously.  That begins during Saturday's matinee against the Dallas Mavericks.  With momentum on their side and the Mavericks not exactly resembling the title team from two years ago, this is a perfect chance to extend the winning streak to four.  You don't want a letdown after a game like tonight's.

It's too bad the win couldn't occur on a happier date.  Earlier today, former Bulls center Tom Boerwinkle succumbed to a form of leukemia called Myelodysplastic syndromes at age 67.  Boerwinkle played 10 seasons with the Bulls in the '60s and '70s, ranking second in rebounds (5,745) and eighth in assists (2,007).  He holds the team record for rebounds in a game, grabbing 37 on Jan. 8, 1970 against the Suns.  After his playing days, he remained active with the organization.  Among his duties was providing color commentary on the radio alongside Neil Funk when the longtime broadcaster first arrived in Chicago.  I didn't know much about him personally, but his loss will be felt among longtime fans and he will be greatly missed.  RIP Tom.

What's Going to Happen?

Is this run of turmoil ever going to end for the Bulls?  Even when it seems like they do things right, luck isn't even falling their way.  Joakim Noah gets called for offensive interference in Monday's game against the Denver Nuggets even though an earlier, closer call the other way isn't.  A four-point swing is all it takes for them the lose.  Thursday sees the return of Kirk Hinrich and Taj Gibson, so a win against the Portland Trail Blazers is almost a given, right?  Wrong.  They get swept in the season series against the team from Oregon.  And on top of that, Derrick Rose's uncertain return is coupled with the news that Rip Hamilton may miss the rest of the year with back spasms.

All these factors lead me to reach one conclusion:  fate is not on the Chicago Bulls' side.  As the Miami Heat continue to pile up victories, the Bulls are only collecting questions.  This has gone beyond just a bump in the road.  With each passing day, they're getting farther away from home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs and closer to likely being bounced by Indiana or Miami as a seventh or eighth seed.  They sit in the sixth spot in the East now, but they have the same record as Boston.  I've conceded the Central to the Pacers and am more worried about regaining the fourth seed, which is getting tough with so few games remaining.  If they're going to make a move in the standings, it has to come now.

That move won't be easy however.  Two of their next three games are against the top two East teams.  The Pacers invade the United Center Saturday.  After a quick trip to Minnesota the following day, the Heat will be in Chicago.  Whether we see Derrick Rose in any of those games is kind of a moot point now.  The Timberwolves are kind of a wash, but the Heat and Pacers have to be licking their chops at their upcoming games.  One can put the final dagger on the division race while the other can continue a historic streak if it survives until then.  The last thing you want is to face teams with increasing momentum, but the Bulls have no choice.

It hasn't been this frustrating to watch the Bulls in some time now.  If there's a plus side, it would have to take a monumental collapse in the final few weeks to miss the playoffs.  That looks good on any team's resume.  To be seeded so low however would be a disappointment after the team got off to such a nice start.  The season we're in looks destined to be remembered as one that wasn't looked highly on to begin with and turned out to be exactly that.  A healthy Derrick Rose would ideally change that, but so would Michael Jordan in his prime.  Neither looks probable right now.

Deflating

When I concluded my last post, I gave a rallying cry that the Bulls should give Sacramento Kings fans a lasting image since last night's game could have been the final time they seem them.  That lasting image was given all right:  one that says the Bulls are pushovers on the fast track to being sent into oblivion.  Somehow, the worst defensive team in the NBA sent their guests away with an embarrassing 121-79 defeat.

I'll skip the top individual players and just dive into the relevant team stats.  It was that much of a blowout.  Feel free to skip to the next paragraph any time.  The Kings had 27 fast break points to the Bulls' 17, scored 23 points off 17 Bulls turnovers while giving the ball up just five times themselves.  They won the steals battle 9-2 and the shooting contest 54 percent to 39.  Or how about this?  The Bulls shot 2-of-21 from three-point territory, a stat a park district team of 9-year-olds could compete with.  For Bulls fans, the game quickly became unwatchable and unlistenable.

This team has had a lot of bad losses to bad teams this season, but this could have been when the bottom finally fell out.  We know about their inability to stay healthy of late and that's its own issue.  This game might have swayed everyone who had been in denial that their badly fatigued.  When you've trotted the same few players out there for some time now, it's going to catch up to you and it did so in a big way last night.  The Train in Sleep Train Arena came out and just ran this group over without mercy.  Before they knew it, they were out of the game well before halftime.  It's just further proof that any NBA team, even the worst, can beat you down if you're not ready, which was clearly the case with the Bulls last night.

What worries me most is how this affects the team going forward.  When you've lost four of five and just played one of the most forgettable games in franchise history, it can't do wonders for your self-esteem.  Considering all the trouble they've had to deal with, you just don't know how they'll respond.  As they continue to wait patiently for Derrick Rose's return, they have no choice but to press on.  The NBA season stops for no one.  Although they've more or less locked up a playoff spot, how well they play from here on out depends on who they'll play.  If they don't find some way to weather this storm soon, they could ultimately be looking at a quick sweep by Miami as the eighth seed.  There's no disgrace involved with that, but they were in much better shape earlier in the year and you don't want your seed to be a testament of how fast you fell.

The Bulls will have to put this behind them and play the Golden State Warriors tomorrow.  That's a Western threat you don't want to have to deal with, especially in their building.  Again, they just have to make the best of it.  That's what professionals do after all.

Reality Hurts. So Does D-Rose

There's no denying these are tough times for the Bulls.  You can safely say that about a team that's lost five of its last seven and has struggled to beat good clubs lately.  Dropping to the Spurs here and catching the hot Lakers there adds up to quite a problem, but before addressing that, a bigger story is dominating the headlines.

Since my last post, the news has broken that Derrick Rose has been cleared to play by doctors.  It was initially reported that he wouldn't return until he could confidently dunk off his left foot.  On Sunday, Rose told ESPN's Doris Burke that his hamstrings felt like they were "on fire" after workouts and he won't play until that issue is resolved.  I wouldn't be shocked to see yet another "development" over the next 48 hours.

As time passes, the Rose soap opera continues to take many strange and frustrating twists and turns.  The Bulls are in a spot where they need all the help they can get right now, but is Rose the answer for this bunch?  More importantly, will he play this season?  The truth is I can't definitively decide what I think is going to happen.  Not anymore.  All this talk about what may or may not happen is only adding to the headache the Bulls are suffering.  Now that Rose can physically play NBA basketball again, we should have seen all these reports at the end of the tunnel a mile away.  Rose isn't at fault much.  He's only guilty of dropping occasional quotes to the press which are then blown up.  It's just too bad he can't control people's emotions or constant need for information.

Very soon, Rose has to take a good look in the mirror and decide what's best for himself.  Michael Jordan's first return to basketball came on March 19, 1995.  That date for 2013 is quickly approaching, so the next week is going to be crucial for him.  Everybody wants an answer and is sick of the uncertainty that has surrounded the point guard ever since he went down.  Does he feel like he has to help the flailing Bulls quickly or would rather wait several more months so he can play at an elite level for the rest of his contract?  He'll have to choose quickly and wisely so this circus can close up shop.

Of course, what should be the bigger issue right now is the Bulls' inability to stay healthy, which is leading to losses against competitive teams that could have been wins earlier in the year.  But that was when Kirk Hinrich, Rip Hamilton and Taj Gibson were healthy and providing enough offense.  Now, in the time of the starting backcourt of Nate Robinson and Marco Belinelli, they're barely squeaking out wins against the Utah Jazz and surviving late runs by the Brooklyn Nets.  Neither would have happened at the beginning of the year.

When the best you can against the Pacers in Indiana is stay with them and consider that a moral victory, you're in trouble.  It sure seemed like a given that the Bulls could earn at least the fourth seed in the East.  That's still possible, but they're suddenly in a dogfight for seeding with the lower playoff teams in the conference.  If they want to stand out again, they simply have to get healthier.  It's not something that can happen with a simple lecture from Tom Thibodeau however.  He's doing all he can to stay in games, but he can't control his players' health, even if he screams himself hoarse.

We'll find out more soon about this team as we head into the final month of the regular season.  Will one of the healthy players unexpectedly take up the on-court leadership role the Bulls seem to be lacking right now?  Can Luol Deng and Joakim Noah coax those left over into stepping up their game to the point where they'll be as feared as the team benches of the recent past have been?  Anything that can stop the bleeding would be appreciated.  It just depends on if the Bulls have the manpower and mental ability to make it happen.  The NBA is a strange place.  Maybe we'll be talking about a hot club a couple of weeks from now.

The strange mid-March trip to the West Coast continues Wednesday when the Bulls take on the Kings in what could be their last visit to Sacramento.  Despite their recent struggles, let's hope they can give the people of California's capital a lasting impression before their team possibly becomes the new Seattle SuperSonics.  Plus, you just have to win if you're playing the worst team in its conference.  That's how it typically works, right?

Playing Without Parker No Problem

It was going to be tough for the Bulls to stick with the San Antonio Spurs despite the absence of Tony Parker.  Rip Hamilton, Taj Gibson and Kirk Hinrich were all out, which shouldn't have given them much of a chance.  A five-point halftime lead surprised the crowd at AT&T Center and a national TV audience, but then the Spurs showed why they're a real threat to dethrone the Thunder as Western Conference champions.  They consistently found open looks everywhere on the floor and frequently converted, adding up to a 101-83 victory.

Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili didn't play when I saw these teams meet in Chicago last month, so they let the Bulls know just what they missed that night.  They each scored 18 points to lead the Spurs.  Duncan finished the double-double with 10 boards while Ginobili was one assist short.  Tiago Splitter also had a double-double line, this one to the tune of 13 and 10.  As a team, San Antonio shot 54.1 percent from the floor.  They had no reservations passing the basketball and the game turned into a shooting contest down the stretch that the Bulls just didn't have the resources to compete with. 

Whereas the Bulls were strongest in the full-court, especially on fast breaks, the Spurs executed the half-court about as flawlessly as you can expect from a basketball team.  Everyone should take notes when they watch them.  Plus, they dunked on the Bulls with the biggest frequency I've since the Clippers game in December.  Whichever company donates money to the Spurs' charity for every dunk will be dishing out a sizable amount from this game alone.

Give credit to the Bulls.  They tried their hardest to keep up.  Marco Belinelli led all scorers with 21 points.  Luol Deng was just behind with 19 and the next highest scorer for the team was Marquis Teague.  Yes, that's right.  Teague had 11, nine of which came from first-half three-pointers.  Keep in mind he hadn't hit one from downtown all season, so to see him break out that way is rather amazing.  Carlos Boozer scored 10 while Joakim Noah grabbed 13 rebounds.  Noah especially did his best to keep the game from spiraling out of control, but it didn't matter in the end.

Yeah, times are tough for the Bulls.  Many key players are suffering injuries and that's not boding well against playoff-bound teams.  The more losses I see, the more I realize we're seeing the team many thought we'd see throughout the season.  It just so happened most of the wins came in the first half as opposed to now.  In the past, the opposite has usually happened, though none of those types of recent playoff teams were coached by Tom Thibodeau. 

The best explanation I can offer is that with the grind of the long season rearing its ugly head and the return of Derrick Rose still uncertain for the year, the exposing of the Bulls for who they really are has finally happened.  They have a couple of All-Stars and at least one very good player trying to help its supporting cast to no avail.  Until that second superstar elects to come to the Windy City, this is the team we're faced with watching even when Rose returns.  He'll be responsible for a few more victories each season, but someone needs to compliment him.  Not Deng, not Noah, but anybody who can generate an interest in the Bulls to an even higher level.  That someone has to be marketable, which usually describes the best players in the game.  They need help and it just has to come.

The Bulls will be back at it Friday against the Utah Jazz.  The United Center needs to host some hoops even while the Blackhawks continue their historic start to their season.  More importantly, it needs to be the home-court advantage the Bulls have enjoyed in the recent past.  Let Tyrone Corbin's club know it come tip-off.

We Beating Brooklyn, Baby

I thought I'd run out of ways to describe Joakim Noah's value to the Bulls.  That's part of the reason why I didn't give him his own post again after his historic Thursday game in which he had 23 points, 21 rebounds and 11 blocks.  Not so fast.  He came to play again tonight in a 96-85 win over the Brooklyn Nets.

Noah had another double-double, this one consisting of 21 points and 10 rebounds.  He decided that wasn't satisfactory, so he added five assists and four blocks.  Carlos Boozer scored 20 and recorded a career-high five steals.  Jimmy Butler had 13 and 12 points each came from Kirk Hinrich and Nate Robinson.  But the story once again was Noah. 

The Bulls are coming off a bad month and they needed a spark.  They had trouble with the 76ers Thursday and Noah provided the difference.  Although they played well most of the way, they had trouble closing.  Were it not for their All-Star center, a collapse might have been complete.  The way the Bulls have been slumping, somebody needed to step up and be a leader, especially with the supposed drama of Derrick Rose's injury updates.  Noah provides the most energy of anyone on the team, so it was only natural for him to assume the role.  Thanks to him, the Bulls are back ahead of the Nets for the fifth playoff spot in the East.

No time to enjoy a good start to March though.  The Bulls have to get on the road to meet the Indiana Pacers.  If they want to challenge for first in the Central again, this is a crucial game.  Maybe newly signed forward Louis Amundson will find a way in.  And hopefully, he can fill Taj Gibson's role admirably.