Shifting Fortunes Following Tumultuous 2015

When people look back on this current Bulls team, they'll likely point to 2015 as the year they had their final chance to emerge as a true championship contender.  Once they got knocked out by a LeBron James team for the fourth time this decade, a change in leadership was needed, at least according to the Bulls' higher-ups.  It's a sore subject with many fans who still question this change, but only those involved really know what happened.

While the Bulls kept themselves in the conversation regarding East contenders, that conversation was temporarily derailed in February when Derrick Rose re-tore his right meniscus and missed 20 games.  Fortunately, he returned before the regular season ended to help bring the team's final record to 50-32, good for the third playoff seed in the East.  It was their third season with at least 50 wins in this decade and their first since the lockout-shortened 2011-12 campaign.

In the first round of the playoffs, they drew their neighbor 85 miles to the north, the Milwaukee Bucks.  They breezed through the first three games of the series, but sputtered in the next two.  Facing a potential Game 7, the Bulls decided enough was enough and never gave the Bucks a chance in Game 6, a 120-66 blowout win.  The 54-point win set a franchise record for biggest margin of victory in a playoff game.

That set up the conference semifinal with the Cleveland Cavaliers everyone wanted to see.  If the Bulls were ever going to break through against the best player in the game, this would have been the series to do it.  Rose's buzzer beater to win Game 3 gave the Bulls a 2-1 series lead, but that was offset by one from James in Game 4.  After barely losing Game 5, the Bulls got blown out 94-73 in Game 6 at the United Center and the body language expressed by everyone indicated surrender, particularly from Rose and Tom Thibodeau actually sitting down towards the end.

Perhaps Thibodeau knew his days in Chicago were numbered, so he just wanted it all to soak in.  There was heavy speculation all year that barring a run to the Finals, the tension between Thibodeau and front-office heads Gar Forman and John Paxson would be enough for the sides to part ways after the season.  Indications also seemed to be that Iowa State head coach Fred Hoiberg would be the man to replace him.  Both ideas came to pass and many fans, including myself, are still wondering whether it was smart to change the guard with this roster, which was left virtually intact during the offseason except for the drafting of Bobby Portis.

But even all the drama couldn't dampen all the honors many players earned during the year.  Pau Gasol was voted to start the All-Star Game, his fifth All-Star selection overall, and Jimmy Butler was picked for the game as a reserve.  Butler won the Most Improved Player Award and was selected to the All-Defensive Second Team.  Gasol made the All-NBA Second Team and won the Magic Johnson Award in recognition on-court play and outstanding media presence.  Joakim Noah won the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award and Nikola Mirotic was part of the All-Rookie First Team as well the first runner-up in Rookie of the Year voting behind Andrew Wiggins.

Of course, everything was thrown out the window once training camp opened, as is always the case when a new season begins.  Reality hit hard quickly for the new regime when Rose suffered a left orbital bone fracture during the first practice, causing him to miss nearly all of the preseason.  Rose wore a face mask upon his return, but was soon on track for his worst season ever.  Since ditching the mask, his play, while still noticeably dropped off, has improved slightly.

With Rose lagging behind in both play and speaking out, Butler, in the first year of a new five-year contract and clearly their best player, has aggressively tried to take over the prime leadership role on the roster.  No one has tried to stop him, but there are reports that not everyone is on board with this change.  Such growing pains are to be expected for a franchise on the verge of transition.

Yes, I just used the dreaded T-word, but it's a word that's seeped into everyday conversation about the Bulls, something we hoped wouldn't be the case at the start of this year.  But with players adjusting to Hoiball and remnants of Thibodeau's philosophy built into them, we're stuck watching a lethargic offense and a defense that collapses at the wrong times.  By the time I do my next yearend post, it would be better to have a roster more built for Hoiball because what we have now is not it.  And I hate to drop the word "rebuilding" here, but that might be what it takes for Hoiball to succeed long-term if this is what GarPax thinks is best for the organization.

The Bulls won't be able to party much tonight as they open the New Year against the New York Knicks at the United Center.  They should be in a much better position in this match-up than when they had to go to Madison Square Garden less than 24 hours after their quadruple-overtime loss.  And hopefully, Rose will return after missing Wednesday's win against Indiana with hamstring tendinitis.  But in the meantime, stay safe while ringing in 2016 and may it be a blessing for you and your family.

Dealing with Dinos

After splitting a holiday weekend back-to-back in Oklahoma City and Dallas, the Bulls returned home Monday to play the Atlantic-leading Toronto Raptors.  The natural assumption was they would come out and play a quality team seriously, as they typically do.  It took a little over a half to fully figure the Raptors out, but then, the Bulls did something we haven't seen enough of this year:  find a groove and keep pouring it on.  A pleased United Center crowd had their ticket stubs come free Big Mac coupons following a 104-97 win.

The Raptors led by nine after the first quarter, after which the Bulls crept closer to trail by just three at halftime.  About halfway through the third, the Bulls got hot to the point where the final was closer than the game itself.  The bench especially broke out with 51 points.  It got so good that Derrick Rose, who continued a recent upturn with 20 points, nine from 3-pointers, started the fourth on the bench and didn't return until the final minute.

Pau Gasol was the top scoring starter with 22, a total matched by Tony Snell, who only played with Doug McDermott nursing a sore right knee.  Nineteen of his points came in the final 17 1/2 minutes, which only serves to further puzzle us on whether we'll get this Snell regularly or this is just his latest of many teases.  Aaron Brooks embraced being the bench's floor general with 17 points and five assists, tying Jimmy Butler for the team-high.  Bobby Portis has made the most of his more frequent opportunities lately and this game's 12-point performance keeps us wondering why he wasn't unleashed sooner.

The Bulls are stacked with talent and we wish we could see it on display more.  Too often, we've seen them hold back for whatever reason, particularly against teams generally unworthy of respect.  We'll have to see if they've shaken off that trend as the season goes on, but for now, we'll settle for coming out prepared for any game.  It's all about baby steps when you're trying to regain the respectability you're quickly losing.


One of the common criticisms for this year has been the Bulls don't have the right personnel to succeed in Fred Hoiberg's system.  Maybe the bench has turned a corner and figured out quicker than most of the starters.  That's not to say the Roses, Butlers and Gasols aren't comfortable with Hoiball, but if that's the case, they can probably get away with it a little because of their collective amount of talent.  Everyone else must know how to run it in their sleep so they can succeed as much as they did here.

We've been waiting for the Bulls' depth to show itself and maybe, it's finally here.  For all the talk there's been about breaking the team up for the greater good, perhaps it's been a classic case of overreacting to a slow-starting team lying in the weeds.  I suppose the overplayed "better late than never" label would apply here and there's nothing wrong with it.  Still, imagine where the Bulls would be now if the backups had started bailing the starters out earlier.

The final game of 2015 will be Wednesday at home against the Indiana Pacers, with whom they've split the first two meetings.  With only half a game separating them in the standings, this could be critical in determine playoff seeding thanks to how closely everyone is bunched together.  Still, Paul George has more talent than either DeMar DeRozan or Kyle Lowry, though both are worthy comparisons as far as their roles for the Raptors.  Regardless, whatever the strategy is to shut George down, it just has to work.

Shoulder Shelves Noah

Never mind that Joakim Noah has been invisible for the vast majority of the year.  Forget that 4.5 points per game and shooting 40.7 percent from the field would be career lows or 8.8 rebounds per game would be his fewest since his second year in the league.  He's been improving lately and his energy remains important, so losing him for an extended period would be a blow to a Bulls team already struggling to get anything going consistently.  Yet that's exactly what they're facing.

Getting tangled up with Andrea Bargnani in the third quarter of Monday's loss to the Brooklyn Nets resulted in a sprained shoulder for Noah, according to MRI results.  He will miss at least two weeks, during which he will rehab the shoulder.  After that, he will be re-evaluated.  Fred Hoiberg speculated he might need as many as four weeks to recover.

For all the talk we've had about Noah being a shell of his former self, he still shows flashes of that player at times.  It was on display when he made his first start of the year for the resting Pau Gasol in New York last Saturday, dropping a team-high 21 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.  Granted, he was less fatigued than his fellow starters who played almost all 20 minutes of overtime against Detroit the night before, but he still used Madison Square Garden as a platform for how valuable he still is.

Suddenly, one of Hoiberg's options for shaking up the starting lineup at a time the Bulls have dipped to fourth in the Central and seventh in the East is not there.  He probably would have stuck with Taj Gibson, as he's been doing recently, but he needs all hands on deck to try and break this three-game skid.  With a tough back-to-back on the road against Oklahoma City and Dallas approaching, this is a bad time for the Bulls to become shorthanded down low.  Zach Lowe of ESPN wrote there are no defensive energy issues on this team, but based on all the second chances I've seen them surrender lately as well as not cracking down on teams in the clutch, that's a bunch of baloney and that might become even more true these next few weeks.

Even with his overall struggles this year, Noah at least gives them a chance to succeed on defense.  After all, he wasn't the 2014 Defensive Player of the Year for nothing.  But that, along with his energy, are now unavailable, so those will have to come from someone else.

If Jimmy Butler really wants to be the undisputed leader of this organization, maybe that will have to come from him.  Perhaps this serves as a wake-up call for Derrick Rose, as in seeing his longtime teammate go down in a troubling time for the team will light a spark that's been missing from him all year.  Or will Gasol and Gibson have to collectively make up for it?  If it comes down to that, the Bulls might be in worse shape than we thought.

Alas, the games must go on and the Bulls will continue to play them.  Whether they play well in them is the burning question.  My 27th birthday likely will have come and gone by the time Noah returns and who knows where the Bulls will be by then in such a tight conference?  They'll likely be ready for these upcoming quality opponents as they usually are, but how can they do that without their main oil?

400 Posts of Fun

"Hopefully, these next 100 posts will include something special in the playoffs and other wonderful happenings for the Bulls."

Those were my words to begin my conclusion to my 300th post last Christmas Eve.  Funny how much the Bulls' direction has changed in the 363 days since.  We've had LeBron James knocking them out of the playoffs again, head coaches change and virtually the same roster from a year ago struggling to adjust.  There are even signs of turmoil among the players and some are speculating that could be shaken up via trades before we know it.

But this is not a post to be discussing those.  This is one to look back on my highlights from the past year.  Just like with my previous milestone posts, I'll be counting down my five most-read posts out of my previous 99.  Kind of appropriate that I'm giving you this retrospective so close to the end of 2015, no?


5) Enough's Enough and Craving Cleveland - May 1 (44 views):  I don't usually combine clincher recaps and playoff series previews in one post, but I had to after I was unable to recap the end of the first-round series with the Milwaukee Bucks the night of.  Most of this previewed the conference semifinal with the Cleveland Cavaliers.  People were hyped to see if the Bulls could finally get past LeBron and reach the NBA Finals.  It ultimately didn't happen, but anything involving LeBron will trigger some response, so people wanted to read about this.

4) Beasts in Brooklyn - Oct. 28 (45 views):  This year's Bulls opened the road schedule against the Brooklyn Nets and won 115-100.  Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic both came within a rebound of a double-double, prompting me to give a shoutout to a fellow Spaniard of theirs:  my DePaul classmate and Bulls MARCA reporter Teresa Garcia Alonso, though she didn't travel with them that night.  She retweeted me and many views came from their homeland.  We also had an interesting exchange about me possibly learning Spanish from all three of them.

3) Jordan Moving Inside - Jan. 23 (54 views):  The story that the Michael Jordan statue would be moved inside upon completion of the office building currently under construction next to the United Center caught some people's attention.  My post about it was noticed by bulls72, a popular Twitter account that celebrates the 1995-96 Bulls.  A pair of retweets in a tweet that linked my post helped drive the spike in traffic.  Though I felt a little bad since it wasn't original reporting on my part, I still appreciated the visitors.

2) Gasol Honored for Media Presence - April 22 (70 views):  During the Bucks series, Gasol won the Magic Johnson Award, a honor by the Professional Basketball Writers Association for on-court excellence and strong media cooperation.  I lauded Gasol a lot here and cited an interview he did with Teresa just before the playoffs.  She was happy I did so and her kind tweet got me a lot of visitors from Spain.  If she helped me gain any regular readers from her side of the Atlantic as a result of her endorsements, I can't thank her enough.

1) Boom, Baby! - May 8 (157 views):  When Rose hit the buzzer-beater against the Cavaliers in Game 3 to give the Bulls a 2-1 series lead, it brought excitement and my most viewed post ever with a little assistance.  When Jason Patt, fellow Bulls blogger as well as managing editor for Today's Fastbreak, tweeted out his "drunk Derrick Rose thoughts," I tweeted this post back at him, which he retweeted, shooting my view count through the roof.  It was a Friday night and with over 4,100 users following Patt as of Tuesday afternoon, 85 views alone came from that tweet.  And to think I requested off work that night to play in an alumni basketball game, thus allowing me to write at the absolute peak of everyone's high from that moment.

These next 100 posts might contain less optimism than any previous group of 100 posts.  More changes might be coming sooner than we think.  But I'm going to keep talking about the turmoil and turnover as best I can.  I wouldn't be doing what I set out to do when I created this blog otherwise.

Nets Nuisance

While Pau Gasol came ready to score 20 points and grab nine rebounds against the Brooklyn Nets on Monday, the same couldn't be said for most of his other teammates.  The Nets came into this game on a five-game losing streak and an eight-game slide on the road.  But continuing a trend going back to last season, the Bulls, for whatever reason, weren't about to take their inferior opponent seriously.  Fred Hoiberg's postgame comment about this being a "bad, bad loss", this one a 105-102 decision, was documented multiple times.

The Bulls have now lost three in a row and just like with the previous two, this one looked like they weren't ready most of the time.  That forced them to play catchup, but despite their best efforts, the Nets seemed to either find another step or be on a higher wavelength.  Offense and defense were lacking at the most critical moments.  While it was their second close loss in their last three, they're starting to resemble the Bears in giving away games they shouldn't.

Brook Lopez, much like Andre Drummond in the game I attended, dominated in the paint with 21 points and 12 rebounds.  Thaddeus Young had his own great game in the post at 16 and 13.  Wayne Ellington poured in 13 in 28 minutes off the bench, Joe Johnson and Bojan Bogdanovic each had 12 and Willie Reed (no relation to Hall of Famer Willis Reed) contributed 11.

Jimmy Butler, 48 hours removed from his comments about Hoiberg not bringing out the whip, led all scorers with 24 points.  Doug McDermott found 11 and Taj Gibson totaled 10.  Derrick Rose failed to reach double-digits for the second straight game, giving further rise to the notion that this is now Butler's team.  While that may or may not be true, it says a lot about who typically plays better when the team is struggling, although last Friday may have been an exception to this newfound rule.

The biggest impact might have come on the loss of Joakim Noah, who winced and hollered with pain in his left shoulder after making hard contact with Andrea Bargnani in the third quarter.  With eight rebounds in nearly 16 minutes, Noah immediately headed to the locker room and didn't return.  X-rays were negative, but an MRI exam will be held Tuesday.  Losing him for any amount of time would be detrimental as he's started to look more like the player of old recently.

With the game decided in the closing seconds, Stacey King took the opportunity on the CSN broadcast to really give it to the Bulls over their general lack of effort.  In summary, he said it doesn't matter which jersey the opponent is wearing:  they have to show against everybody and not just the class of the league.  If you don't feel like showing up to play 48 minutes regardless of opponent, you're going to sit.

The sooner the Bulls figure out they can't take anyone for granted, the better.  You might have read some of this stuff from me recently, but it's because I'm running out of ways to say "these Bulls have no heart."  Whether they don't enjoy playing with each other, can't adjust to Hoiberg's system or are weary of everything that's happen with this organization the last couple of years, it's coming at the expense of our enjoyment.  Games might be sold out, but no one cares to watch a team that doesn't play up to its potential consistently.

This poor stretch may or may not be an indicator that we'll see a large roster turnover come next year.  The Bulls are very good when they're on, but lackluster when they're off.  Honestly, I would prefer blowout losses regularly to always coming up just short against the Nets, Suns and Timberwolves of the world.  At least then, we'd know there's a large discrepancy between this team and the best of the league.  But there isn't, so we have to see them play with no urgency against nearly every bottom feeder not based in Philadelphia.

 The Bulls will be off until Christmas Day, when they play a road matinee against the Oklahoma City Thunder.  They haven't won at Chesapeake Energy Arena since 2010, so their work is cut out for them.  That's a team with loads of top-tier talent, meaning the Bulls should be ready to play.  But can we get that kind of preparation for every game under our trees this year?

Bypassing Quadruple OT Win

Christmas hams were cooked to perfection, babies grew into toddlerhood, and every railing inside the United Center received a fresh coat of paint, which dried completely.  Okay, not really, but those were the most creative superlatives I could come up with to describe the longevity game against the Detroit Pistons my dad and I saw Friday.  For the first time since March 16, 1984, the Bulls played a quadruple-overtime game.  They won that game in Portland, but 31 years later, they lost 147-144, snapping a four-game winning streak.

Andre Drummond was one of three Pistons to foul out in the final overtime, but not before putting up a monster line of 33 points and 21 rebounds.  Reggie Jackson was similarly monstrous with 31 points and 13 assists.  Marcus Morris scored 20 before leaving the game with six fouls.  Rounding out Detroit’s key scoring were Ersan Ilyasova with 18, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope with 17 and the fouled-out Stanley Johnson with 16.

The Bulls had three guys score at least 30 points in a game for the first time since Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Toni Kukoc did it on Dec. 17, 1996.  Jimmy Butler had a career-high 43 points, but missed the game-tying 3-pointer that would have sent it to an unprecedented fifth overtime.  Derrick Rose put up a season-high 34 on a career-high 34 field-goal attempts.  Pau Gasol’s 30 made him the oldest Bull to reach that plateau in a game at 35 years, 165 days, besting when Jordan scored 45 in Game 6 of the 1998 Finals.

You can’t argue these stats would likely be much smaller had this game ended in regulation. It’s also difficult to debate this as anything but an exciting game that came down to one final shot.  But above all, people should be in agreement that the Bulls missed their opportunities when they had them.  And that came back to hurt as this marathon dragged on.

Guys were tired and it showed when the Pistons scored seven unanswered to begin the last overtime.  The previous three extra sessions never saw a lead like that from either team, but they did see multi-possession leads evaporate within seconds.  The Bulls were victims in two of them.  Some might think this all could have been avoided if Rose had done more than just let the clock run down in regulation before forcing a stepback jumper.

More than anything else, the Bulls were lacking on defense, a trend more familiar than they’d like to admit.  The Pistons had just 11 turnovers in 68 minutes, won more battles for loose balls, got to the paint with ease and converted from there most of the time.  It’s a real indictment on your team when the little things are making the difference, even in a game like this.  It happened a lot in regulation as well and would have ended it a lot sooner had the Pistons shot better than 58.7 percent from the free-throw line.

It’s still rather sickening that we have to say poor defense was part of yet another loss, especially one like this.  These players, many of whom lived through the days when defense was put first and offense was a premium, need to rediscover what made those teams from earlier in this decade such a force.  They’re still a decent team, but not exactly striking fear into many opponents’ hearts right now.  We keep waiting for that turning point where they rediscover it, but as the season goes on, we wonder if it’s ever going to happen.

The Bulls won’t have much time to recover because they get right back at it Saturday against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.  The travel and having to play another game with such a quick turnaround could prove taxing.  We’ll be happy if they can pull off a miracle, but the odds are stacked against them.  Then again, we never know which team is going to show up, so the uncertainty will continue.

Saddling 76ers with Sustained Sourness

Finally, we had a game on Monday that not even the Bulls could screw up.  But even facing the one-win Philadelphia 76ers at the United Center wasn't enough to prevent some drama.  Philadelphia scored 37 second-quarter points to led by five at halftime and cause Bulls fans to shake their heads.  The Bulls got their act together in the third, outscoring the 76ers 34-12 and never looking back in a 115-96 victory.

Jimmy Butler and Derrick Rose both played ill, so were lucky to get a rest thanks to every active player seeing action.  Rose attempted a career-low three field goals when playing over 20 minutes and scored just six points.  Butler handled personal adversity much better to the tune of a game-high 23 points and two steals.  Use that to draw the latest comparisons between those two if you wish, but given their circumstances, that's probably stretching it.

Two players who have come under increased scrutiny made everyone forget why, at least for the moment.  Nikola Mirotic, who hasn't been able to hit enough shots to assist in putrid team efforts, scored 15 of his 17 points from behind the 3-point line.  Tony Snell started again tonight despite the fact that he's been mostly invisible on both ends for most of the year.  This time, he came out with something to prove and did just that, grabbing a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Another two players flirted with their own double-doubles, though it in no way affected anyone's thinking of how they played.  Doug McDermott continued a rejuvenated NBA sophomore season with a conventional 13 points and eight boards.  Joakim Noah had a line more conventional for him than most other players:  15 rebounds and eight assists.  Not bad for a player with hopefully his best days ahead and one whose best may or may not be behind him.

Every active Bull getting in meant Bobby Portis and Cameron Bairstow got a chance to show off their skills in garbage time.  Portis, playing his first regular-season game at the United Center, scored seven points in four minutes.  The crowd, which had been chanting his name lustily, was as happy to see him as they were to get their free Big Macs.  Bairstow, whose presence was not nearly as anticipated as Portis', made a close field goal.

It was relaxing to see the Bulls make easy work of a team for once, even if it was the 76ers.  We've been so used to seeing a stagnant offense and lackadaisical defense (and we still saw them in the first half), we were starting to wonder when those things would go away, even just momentarily.  Our answer came right here and it couldn't have happened against a team that deserves its fate more.  I don't hate the 76ers:  just the loud way they've told everyone they're tanking.

The 14-8 Bulls will try to extend their conference-high three-game winning streak Wednesday against the Memphis Grizzlies.  That's a nationally televised affair, which the Bulls seem to do well on most of the time.  Of course, the game is on ESPN and TNT is the network they have a better recent record on.  Whatever network broadcasts them though, whether they can show the country what they're capable of when everything comes together is what's really important.

Avoiding Collapse Against Clippers

It's been a frustrating week for the Bulls.  But they had a chance to end their three-game losing streak Thursday against the Los Angeles Clippers.  This nationally televised tilt would cause you to hit your head against the wall if you like good basketball.  Even though the teams shot a collective 34.9 percent from the field, Bulls fans can't argue with an 83-80 victory.

Most of the game followed a narrative we've become all too familiar with.  The Bulls broke open a close contest to lead by as much as 16.  The Clippers, perhaps fueled by a questionable flagrant 2 call that ended Blake Griffin's night in the third quarter, scored 12 straight points on threes early in the fourth to tie it up.  Fortunately, the Bulls found just enough offensive firepower at the right time and completed the win after Chris Paul missed a game-tying three in the final seconds.

Pau Gasol, in his latest showing that he's still a decent player, led all scorers with 24 points, including nine in his first career game with three treys.  Jimmy Butler shot poorly (4-of-14 from the field), but made six of eight free throws to score 14.  Taj Gibson took Nikola Mirotic's place in the starting lineup and had 12.  Aaron Brooks returned to action after missing three straight games and finished with 10.

The curious case of Derrick Rose persisted in the first half when he didn't score at all.  For the second half, he ditched the surgical mask that has defined his look this season and looked like a new player.  It was only an 11-point effort (nine in the fourth) and many decisions were questionable as they have for much of the season, but he looked more like the fearless player that made him so beloved in the city and around the league.  Whether it was because of no mask or Fred Hoiberg's coaxing, it was refreshing to see him make a meaningful impact with the game on the line.

Joakim Noah still can't score to save his life, making just one field goal in this game.  Still, he came off the bench and grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds, six on the offensive end.  We're not expecting much from him on offense, but getting into double figures more often would go a long way for this team.  While that might be asking too much of someone who will be 31 in February, we're just trying to avoid the feeling that this might be as good as he'll be for the rest of his career.

The Bulls needed a win in the worst way and while they got it, they still didn't go for the kill when they needed to.  If they felt they could just waltz their way through the rest of this contest after Griffin's ejection, it was one more rude awakening than they should have had all week.  Nineteen points in the fourth quarter will cause you to lose most of the time.  The Bulls got lucky that the Clippers seemed no more interested in knocking shots down than them.

As frustrating as not stomping on their opponents is, missing shots of all distances and values might be a worse basketball crime.  The most notable instance in this game was Butler driving on the Bulls' final possession, getting a clean look at the basket and still failing to close out.  It forced everyone to sweat out another couple of minutes and wonder if overtime was coming.  Considering recent trends it wouldn't have been surprising to see such an outcome be a bad one.

The Bulls will get a night off before returning to action Saturday against the New Orleans Pelicans.  Prepare for one of those letdown games against bad teams following a win over a good one.  It's sad how even me, one of the most optimistic Bulls fans around, has resorted to expecting them.  But you can't mask reality for very long and right now, it's not pretty for the Bulls.

Bad Irish Luck: Bulls Lose to Celtics

It seems the Bulls have hit their worst stretch of the season earlier than we could have imagined.  The Boston Celtics made sure of that Wednesday with a 105-100 victory.  Make that three straight Bulls defeats, completed on the front end of a nationally televised back-to-back.

These teams were locked in battle to the point where they were tied after three quarters.  But the Celtics scored 10 straight points and the Bulls could never recover.  Sure, they tried, but the Celtics matched them whenever they tried to get a run going.

Of the 10 Celtics who appeared the game, eight of them scored.  All of them scored in double figures.  Seriously.  Isaiah Thomas led with 20 points, but the Celtics' scoring sheet more resembled what you'd find in the All-Star Game.  It's tough to comprehend how that could have happened, but did.

Jimmy Butler scored a season-high 36 points and Pau Gasol had his latest double-double of 16 points and 15 rebounds.  Those were the two most normal things we saw from the Bulls all night.  Derrick Rose's 12 points came on a 5-of-11 shooting night, which we should refuse to accept as normal, but might have to pretty soon.  Doug McDermott and Nikola Mirotic scored 11 and 10 off the bench respectively.

I really wish we didn't have to say the Bulls were struggling to figure out who they were, but that might be the case exactly.  Are they a good team just going through a bad stretch?  Or are they a mediocre team who happened to get off to a good start?  Even the best psychologists in Chicago would have trouble figuring that one out.

Maybe the obvious is coming to pass.  While the rest of the league tried to improve itself in the offseason, the Bulls gambled by bringing virtually the same group back and banked on greater success thanks to a new coach and new system.  This isn't like the dynasty years, during which they could afford to have almost everybody back year in and year out.  There's not nearly as much talent and if they weren't a championship-caliber club to begin with, they're in even worse shape than we thought.

The Bulls will return home Thursday for a TNT game against the Los Angeles Clippers.  While that club is certainly older, they also have Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and many other smart and athletic players who on paper, would eat many of these Bulls alive at the moment.  Then again, the Bulls always seem to show up against teams with the most talent.  A pity they can't seem to do that game in and game out.

Phoenix Has Fun With Bumbling Bulls

I should have known before taking in Monday's game against the Phoenix Suns I was snapping a photo of a future crime scene.  The following afternoon, I still refused to believe what happened.  Surrendering 10 points in the third quarter only to give up 42 in the next?  The season hit a low point in a 103-101 loss that might have permanently and negatively changed my outlook for this group.

Once I saw Mirza Teletovic's putback with 0.3 seconds left get a friendly roll, a sick vibe went through my stomach.  The Bulls had just blown a 16-point lead and suffered a second straight home loss to a team they should have beaten.  Both games had themes all too familiar to the Bulls this season.  If you were to list poor shooting (especially Derrick Rose's 7-for-18), lackadaisical defense, careless turnovers, bad on-court communication or no intensity as reasons for these struggles, all would be valid points.

My friend Sam Hines kept saying afterward "At least we got to go and have fun."  True, it's always nice to see your team with someone you've known for 20 years.  But I just couldn't get the game's outcome out of my head.  And the more I thought about it, the angrier I became.

You're not supposed to let a team wrapping up a long road trip in your building look like they have more heart than you.  Somehow, that's exactly how the Bulls made the Suns look.  Even with the superior talent and heightened playoff aspirations (which amazingly still exist to a certain degree), they completely folded by acting careless in all aspects of the game.  I would have preferred a blowout defeat to the most heartbreaking loss I've ever seen in person.

I asked myself after the game why I'm supposed to believe Fred Hoiberg is a better coach than Tom Thibodeau.  I still can't believe that divorce went down the way it did.  Thibodeau, with his defensive prowess, never would have allowed Phoenix to score 42 points in any quarter, let alone the last one.  The offense could have gone either way, as was typically the case under him, but even though the defense in his final year was lacking at times, it's doubtful it would have collapsed like how we just saw.

For the record, I'm not blaming Hoiberg's system for this or any other loss to bad teams.  As much as I didn't (still don't) really like the hire, he deserves as much a chance as any NBA head coach to prove he belongs among the ranks.  What's to blame is the players not adjusting to that system to the point where their record and place in the standings reflect the roster.  Taj Gibson can talk about that "new system" all he wants, but talk is cheap and doesn't solve the problem of just going through the motions when you're supposed to go for the kill.

This might all just be a tease to a much better rest of the season, but even in most victories, I see a team whose 11-7 record is mostly cosmetic.  They in no way resemble anything close to a championship contender.  If they were, we wouldn't have to be sweating our way through every fourth quarter fearing the worst.  It happened Monday and will continue to happen unless some collective light bulb goes off in everyone's head.

While I hate to toss the dreaded R-word around at anytime, a rebuild might be closer than we think.  The Bulls will make the playoffs for at least the next couple of years, but exits in the first or second rounds will be inevitable.  Once Rose's contract expires in 2017, we could be looking at a long stretch of young players adjusting to the NBA as well as Hoiberg's coaching.  Whether they'll be bad enough to land a top draft pick remains to be seen, but the term "basketball hell" applies both now and possibly for the foreseeable future.

It's sad to think a group that was supposed to contend for a championship more often has been reduced to what we now see.  With more changes in the ship's view though, depression has started to set in.  If this was a club with a young nucleus coughing up big leads and losing, it'd be tough, but understandable.  Seeing it from players who have been together for so long though can only leave us shaking our heads and hoping a legitimate turnaround can be salvaged.

The Bulls can only put these last two disappointments behind them and try to steal a victory on the Boston Celtics' parquet floor on Wednesday.  While I'd like to say they're the better team, nothing is certain with them anymore.  About the only given now is we can't just sit back and feel content at the end of games.  Still, here's hoping it can feel like 2011 again.

Bulls Beat Nagging Nuggets

After Monday's win over San Antonio, the Bulls looked to avoid the letdown that usually comes after beating quality teams.  On Wednesday, the Denver Nuggets were the club they had to do it against.  While they led for most of the game, the Nuggets refused to go away quietly in the third quarter.  It took a dominant fourth quarter by the Bulls to avoid defeat in a 99-90 contest.

The Bulls led by five at the half, but the turnovers and poor shooting started to pile up during tumultuous third.  The Nuggets took full advantage, outscoring their hosts 26-17 in that frame to take a four-point lead.  During the quarter break, the Bulls remembered who they were and looked a lot more like a winning team from then on, making key shots and forcing Denver mistakes with tight defense.  That meant a 31-18 fourth and the only thing fans at the United Center were bummed about was that the Bulls didn't attempt one more shot to get to 100 and give them free Big Macs.

Whether Nikola Mirtoic would have made it less of a nailbiter will never be known.  He got hit in the face during the first quarter and left the game without returning.  The culprit was a concussion and facial laceration.  While he wasn't needed to help finish off Denver, he'll need to pass league-mandated concussion tests before playing any future games, so he's out indefinitely.

Pau Gasol made his first six shots en route to leading all scorers and rebounders with 24 and 16 in 36 minutes.  He even threw in four blocks for good measure.  My dad said during the game all the basketball Gasol played for Spain in the European Championship this past summer, plus the long NBA season, is going to make him flame out.  He's going to slow down significantly sooner than later, but that hasn't happened yet, so I'm going to enjoy whatever goodness he has left.

Jimmy Butler was just 5-of-16 from the field, but worked his tail off to scored 19 and make up for the Bulls' shortcomings, especially when the offense went stagnant for much of the second half.  It helped that he made all eight of his free throws.  It was very tough to watch Derrick Rose drive to the basket frequently and still shoot 3-of-17 from the field.  But he still scored 11, dished out a season-high nine assists and said after the game his vision is getting better.

Joakim Noah earned more playing time with Mirotic suddenly unavailable and made the most of it.  On a night when he totaled nine points, 11 rebounds and four blocks, his offense was better and he played with an intensity Doug McDermott continued to show off his driving skills to earn 11 points.  Taj Gibson finished one field goal shy of a double-double with eight and 10.

Don't be fooled by this final.  Like so many times this year, this was very frustrating to watch at times.  We've gotten so used to these performances from the Bulls, we expect the worst to happen.  When Denver took the lead, there was reason to believe another collapse would fully come to pass.  While the Bulls are 11-5, it may be the most bloated record in the league.

But we also know of the talent that can be unleashed and in this game, it rescued them in the nick of time.  They cleaned up the glass, took advantage of second chances and found open looks for each other.  If they can just execute better in all aspects, they'll truly belong among the elite of the East.  There have been a lot of doubts about that lately, so it's up to them to dispel those.

Game three of this four-game homestand will take place Saturday against the Charlotte Hornets.  When these teams met at the same location on Nov. 13, it went much better for the Bulls than when they first met in North Carolina.  That should have been a sign the Bulls aren't going to relax like that against this particular team again.  If they could do that with all other inferior teams, they'd really be in business.

Duos Do It

Before Monday's game with the San Antonio Spurs, the Bulls learned Mike Dunleavy suffered a setback while rehabbing his injured back and will have to stay off the court for two weeks.  It almost seemed like a bad omen.  When they couldn't score from the field for the entire last half of the fourth quarter, nightmares were on the brink of reality.  Fortunately, the Spurs couldn't score when it mattered either and the Bulls won 92-89.

The Bulls scored just 17 first-quarter points before bouncing back to take a one-point lead at halftime.  They were about to pull away in the third, but Kawhi Leonard poured in six of his game-high 25 points consecutively to give the Spurs the lead.  From there, the teams traded decent-sized leads before it came down to the final possession.  Neither club had been getting much of anything offensively down the stretch and the Spurs, who had the ball last, proved it by missing a pair of tough shots from beyond the arc in an vain effort to tie the game.

Notice the headline mentions duos.  It's because without them, we'd be talking about a different result.  25 points came from the conventional and tempo-dictating duo of Jimmy Butler (14) and Derrick Rose (11).  A more unconventional one came thanks to 23 points by starter Tony Snell (11) and reserve Doug McDermott (12).

Pau Gasol led the Bulls with 18 points and 13 rebounds apiece.  While he continues to get eaten alive and pass on opportunities he should take, he turned into the player we know and love late, dominating around the rim.  Joakim Noah looked like the player of old with an unusual, yet effective line:  eight points, 11 rebounds and a team-high seven assists.  If he's still uncomfortable with his knee, it would be nice to see him deal with it like this nightly.

There's no question the Spurs move more smoothly and don't need as much effort as the Bulls to score.  Even with the usual suspects getting older, players like Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge have slowly made the team theirs so that group will continue to be a perennial contender when the Big 3 move on.  It's all part of the magic that is Gregg Popovich's system.

But with all that considered, the Bulls had some productive pairs in this game that would do them a great service going forward.  Rose and Butler need to continue building off each other so that they can hold their rightful place as the one consistent duo.  Others should form on a night-to-night basis to keep their strategy unpredictable.  That might be tough to pull off if you don't know who's going to do well together at tipoff, but it's sure nice to think about.

Check off another quality opponent the Bulls were able to defeat at home.  As we know however, they tend to have letdown games immediately after these types of victories.  Hopefully, that won't be the case Wednesday against the Denver Nuggets.  Just once, it'd be nice to see them break such a pattern and show themselves to be the consistent winners they're built to be.

Eking It Out

Heading into Tuesday, the Bulls hadn't defeated the Portland Trail Blazers on the road since 2007, longer than any current player's tenure with the team (no, I'm not counting Kirk Hinrich's two-year sabbatical).  Though they led wire-to-wire, it was never really a runaway.  In fact, the Trail Blazers tied it twice in the final quarter.  Fortunately, they could never make that one basket needed to go in front and the Bulls won 93-88.

The defense had a few questionable possessions, particularly one where Mason Plumlee went wire-to-wire for a dunk off a rebound.  And at times, the offense looked like it had trouble countering with the Trail Blazers' quick tempo.  But it culminated positively when Joakim Noah blocked C.J. McCollum's potential game-tying three in the final seconds.  Further evidence that what you do doesn't matter as much as when you do it.

Jimmy Butler made most of his eight free throws in the fourth quarter and led all scorers with 22 points.  While Butler was the main man the Bulls needed on offense, Derrick Rose, back after missing two games, complimented his backcourt mate by scoring 17 to go with a team-high six assists.  Nikola Mirotic's shooting improved with a 4-for-8 night from the field, resulting in 13 points.  Pau Gasol made some keys as part of a double-double (12 points, 14 rebounds) and the final two points of Taj Gibson's 10 iced the game with 1.8 seconds left.

The Bulls wrap up the Western portion of their circus trip with a 2-1 record.  Nobody's beating Golden State right now, but taking care of Portland and Phoenix let the rest of the East know they still have a chance to make some noise.  Okay, you really can't judge a team with a new strategy much less than a month in.  Still, with virtually the same roster from a year ago, the talent is also unchanged and that's reflected their 9-4 record, tied with Miami for the second best record in the conference.

The circus trip continues Friday against the Indiana Pacers.  There's a team that's gotten off to a nice start many people didn't see coming.  Some might consider this a trap game, but the Bulls have played well together with this roster longer than the Pacers.  A sure-to-be split crowd in Indianapolis should help them out too, though it's still up to them to take care of business.