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.