Way Too Close

Okay, I know things aren't exactly optimal for the Bulls right now.  Taj Gibson is out indefinitely with a fractured rib, Jimmy Butler has become the subject of offseason trade rumors and Derrick Rose missed the second half of Thursday's game with the Houston Rockets with a left elbow contusion.  But can every contest going forward be a little less stressful?  We could do without a 14-point comeback and nearly blowing a eight-point lead in the final 45 seconds of a 103-100 win.

While the Bulls made just enough free throws in the final minute, their poor transitional defense allowed Patrick Beverley and James Harden to hit a pair of 3-pointers, making things way too close.  When Justin Holiday missed a foul shot with 9.6 seconds to go, it gave Houston a chance to tie the game.  Trevor Ariza found himself wide open in the corner behind the arc and let it rip.  Luckily, it didn't go in and we were spared from having to watch an overtime period which surely would have featured more bad basketball.

Nikola Mirotic, fresh off his 20 first-half points in Tuesday's win over the Indiana Pacers, scored 19 in the first 24 minutes of this game and led everyone with 28 points.  Butler, having to step up his game in Rose's absence, had 21 and you could tell he knew his extra effort was necessary.  Doug McDermott didn't have his cleanest game as he missed a close layup as well as passed off late in the shot clock in the final minute, but he still scored 15 and finished one rebound short of a double-double.  Pau Gasol did complete the double-double with 12 and 10.

The win puts the 38-37 Bulls one game behind the Pacers for the final playoff spot in the East.  Still, anyone who watched this game knows their play resembled anything but that of a postseason participant.  Poor defense, blown chances on offense and a general lack of awareness left many shaking their heads.  Yet somehow, they got the better of a Rockets team, now half a game out of the last playoff spot in the West, fighting to stay alive itself.  Then again, someone had to win this awful game and it just so happened to be the Bulls.

With just seven games left, the Bulls have less than two weeks to show they're capable of putting together a gutsy run that will allow them to sneak into the playoffs.  All the messiness we've seen makes it tough to believe anything of the kind will happen, at least not easily.  It's that very reason many don't want to see them make the playoffs at all.  But we're not part of the franchise, so we can't dictate how things go.

The next game is Saturday against one of the teams the Bulls are battling with for playoff position:  the Detroit Pistons.  Last time they were at the United Center, so was I and I was treated to a quadruple-overtime loss.  There's no way history will repeat itself, right?  Then again, why am I convinced nothing will happen with them when there's always a chance it will?

Still Sinking

Don't let the smiles behind this official team photo fool you.  Taken at face value (no pun intended), you see people happy to be competing together.  But in reality, there's no real indication anyone in this picture has enjoyed doing that this season and it shows.  The latest addition to the Bulls' four-game losing streak, Monday's 102-100 loss to the Atlanta Hawks, showed a better effort than they had in the past week, but it still put them 2 1/2 games out of the final playoff spot in the East.

Recent news hasn't exactly done much to inspire confidence for the regular season's final nine games.  Jimmy Butler has flip-flopped on whether his ailing knee needs offseason surgery.  A team meeting was held Sunday less than 24 hours after a brutal loss to the Orlando Magic.  Mike Dunleavy has called this "do-or-die" week and obviously, it's not off to a good start.

We shouldn't be hearing these stories on the doorstep of April, but what else can you expect when the Bulls are below .500 at the latest point of a season since Vinny Del Negro's final season?  Just when you think the season couldn't get any lower, something always digs the hole deeper.  It prompts more fans to get upset and even cope by pulling out the Vine of Tom Thibodeau's laugh, a message that the Bulls made the wrong move in letting him go.  I even took to Facebook after Monday's game with a message that had 11 likes as of early Tuesday afternoon:

will juggle chainsaws on fire if Jerry Reinsdorf or Gar Forman or John Paxson or SOMEBODY high up in the Bulls' hierarchy will say maybe, freaking maybe, we completely screwed up this season and we need a total overhaul on how we do things.

That's what it's all about, isn't it?  GarPax, with Reinsdorf's blessing, changed head coaches and preached a different offensive philosophy that would blow the often stagnant Thibodeau one out of the water.  Instead, the team is 20th in the league in offense, averaging 101.5 points per game.  It's higher than their 100.8 scoring average last year, but that still ranked 15th, the upper half of the league.

Let's go further.  During their 14-25 record since Jan. 9, the Bulls are averaging exactly 101 points per game for 25th in the league in that span.  Opponents are averaging a league-high 6.4 blocks,11.6 turnovers, tied for second fewest, 40.8 field goals, tied for fourth most.  There are other damning numbers out there, but it's a clear indication of how south things have gone.

What's it going to take for some serious changes to be made?  Whether the Bulls make the playoffs or not, there's no way they can't be considered.  They might be singing Kumbaya in the front office, but the rest of us have had more than enough of these overhyped underachievers.  Nobody has said anything significant yet and maybe they're waiting until the end of the season, but until they do, how are we to believe it's actually going to happen when everyone knew Fred Hoiberg was going to replace Thibodeau well before the end of last year?

GarPax are beyond the point of trusting because they completely miscalculated on how much they could change things with the current group.  Maybe Thibodeau's act wore thin on some players last year, but at least he got results.  Hoiberg can't receive too much blame since he was charged with implementing a new strategy to Thibodeau's roster, although he's had his fair share of missteps along the way.  Even if you disagree with that statement, you can't argue it was GarPax that set it all up and as such, they need to be held responsible.

It would work so much better going forward if Reinsdorf showed one or both of those guys the door out of disrupting what worked before as well as roster negligence.  Being at the helm of an NBA franchise involves much more than changing your ship's captain and expecting completely different results for the better.  You have to have players who can adapt to that new strategy.  This is the wrong group to showcase Hoiball with and don't try to convince most other people otherwise.

People want to love this franchise so badly, but they're just so fed up with everything.  It's why blowing up the whole operation and starting over is worth considering.  But first, you have to do it with basketball minds that know how to construct a winning team for the long run.  Those in charge now have run their course, so it's time to look in another direction.

If the Bulls have anything left in the tank, they'll try showcasing it next on Tuesday against the Indiana Pacers.  The question is did they work too hard trying to keep up with Atlanta on Monday to make this next game better?  Actually, don't answer that.  It might be too depressing.

Relaxing Too Much

As frustrating as the Bulls have been to watch this season, the New York Knicks haven't even had a chance to be a fringe playoff team.  So with the Bulls as healthy as could be, it seemed Wednesday's meeting at the United Center would give them a good shot at hanging onto that final playoff spot in the East.  Instead, they got outscored by 26 over the second and third quarters by playing lackadaisical defense and making dumb decisions on offense.  Despite a fourth-quarter comeback, they still lost 115-107, ending New York's nine-game losing streak in Chicago and putting Detroit a full game in front in the playoff race.

Kristaps Porzingis, a Rookie of the Year contender, was the game's top player in achieving a double-double of 29 points and 10 rebounds.  Robin Lopez had a more modest one of 11 and 13.  Carmelo Anthony, showing what the Bulls missed by not landing him two offseasons ago, scored 24, including four 3-pointers.  Jose Calderon and Aaron Afflalo combined for 23 points and 15 assists.

Nikola Mirotic scored a career-high 35 and had nine buckets from 3-point land to tie Ben Gordon's Bulls record.  Derrick Rose chipped in 21 while Taj Gibson and Aaron Brooks each had 10.  Jimmy Butler could only add seven on 3-of-11 shooting, putting him at 36.4 percent from the field in the six games he's played since returning from a knee injury.  While he says he feels fine, he's not happy with his recent efforts.

It's gotten to a point where Fred Hoiberg is at a loss to explain his team.  How could a team that didn't turn the ball over once in the first half suddenly go down by 23 in the fourth quarter?  How does anyone get outrebounded by 29 over any two-game stretch?  Then again, there's nothing that shouldn't be considered if Northern Iowa can blow a double-digit lead in the final minute.

I briefly flipped over to ESPN's postgame coverage after watching the local broacast and Jalen Rose posed a question on everyone's mind:  do the Bulls really want to make the playoffs?  It's sad that our discussions about this team have come to those topics, but it's unavoidable.  When you let a team in disarray like the Knicks shoot whatever they want whenever they want, you're asking people to stop believing.  Every time you think their apparent disinterest in playing defense has reached a fever pitch, they find some way to outdo it and that's not the sign of a playoff team.

Chicago native Michael Wilbon is often known to be brutal to teams from his hometown, especially when it comes to Jay Cutler, but he might not be exaggerating when he calls the Bulls the biggest disappointment in the NBA this year.  We've seen a lot of reasons to believe it, including two of the three games I've attended this year.  And the worst part is we've seen no indication from the organizational heads to win or else that Tom Thibodeau got last year.  I'm still waiting for a real reason to believe in this team and not what Gar Forman and John Paxson preached to us when Hoiberg was hired and did almost nothing to alter the roster last summer.

This was the first of a home-and-home with the Knicks as the second game will be held Thursday at Madison Square Garden.  The last time the Bulls were there, they were just coming off that quadruple-overtime loss I had a chance to see.  They were too winded to be competitive that night.  Hopefully, they won't use the excuse of being let down by tonight to play well this time.

Luck on the Day of the Irish

Was it the fact that the Bulls and Benny decked themselves out in green for St. Patrick's Day on Thursday?  Did the Brooklyn Nets having an even worse year than them have something to do with it?  Whatever the reason, we shouldn't complain.  The Bulls won 118-102.

The Bulls led by as much as 24 in the first half.  But because they don't believe in making anything easy, they let that lead go down to four, allowing 37 third-quarter points in the process.  Luckily, they made up for it by scoring 39 in the fourth and making all 15 of their free throws.  It reminded the Nets that for as many problems as there are in Chicago, like Pau Gasol missing another game with knee inflammation and E'Twaun Moore exiting early with a hamstring injury, Brooklyn has it worse with few quality players to begin with and an ongoing transition at head coach and general manager.

Doug McDermott led the Bulls with 25 points on 8-of-16 shooting, continuing a campaign in which he's letting everyone know he can and should be a special player in the NBA.  Jimmy Butler's 22 came from eight free throws and seven field goals.  Four other Bulls scored 12 points apiece:  Derrick Rose, Taj Gibson, Aaron Brooks and Bobby Portis, who achieved a double-double by grabbing 14 rebounds.  Cristiano Felicio made himself useful in his forced expanded roles with 10 boards of his own.

The Bulls are capable of great things that, for whatever reason, we just haven't seen enough of this year.  Still, there are times when that team is on display and that's when it's fun to watch.  True, the extended defensive lapses, which were common even last year, are always cause for concern, but as long as they recognize them early enough and do something about them, the result will almost always be a victory.  A nice bonus in this case was they made it a medium-sized blowout by the end.

With the win, the Bulls are now 34-33 and back to eighth in the East, leading Detroit by half a game.  They'll next play Saturday when the Utah Jazz, a fringe playoff team in the West, visit the United Center.  When you've got two teams fighting to extend their seasons beyond mid-April, it should make for some entertaining basketball.  Then again, there are reasons their postseason fates are hanging in the balance, so it might not be as pretty as some make it out to be.

Crummy in Nation's Capital

We are so far past our quota for lousy Bulls basketball this season, it's not even funny.  Still, Wednesday's road game against the Washington Wizards provided just one more example.  Without Pau Gasol due to right knee inflammation and with Taj Gibson leaving early with a hamstring injury, it only hampered the Bulls' chances.  The not-so-shocking result was a 117-96 Wizards victory.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of this tumultuous season was that no one had recorded a triple-double against the Bulls.  John Wall took care of that with 29 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds, becoming the first opponent to pull off the feat since LeBron James last April.  Every other Wizards starter reached double figures, including 20 points from Bradley Beal.  Garrett Temple made five 3-pointers off the bench in the first half and those 15 points were his offense for the whole game.

Doug McDermott came off the bench to lead the Bulls with 20 points, making all five of his free throws.  Jimmy Butler had 17, but nine came from the charity stripe as he shot just 4-of-12 from the field.  Derrick Rose's 16 would have been higher had he shot better than 7-of-19.  Justin Holiday scored 13 and even mentioning his name is an indicator of how this game went.

One day before St. Patrick's Day, the Bulls have 33 losses, one more than they had all of last year.  But Gar Forman and John Paxson, please tell us again why things are so much better around Chicago with no Tom Thibodeau and virtually the same roster.  I'm guessing becoming a team that goes in and out of the final playoff spot in the East was not in your plans, yet here we are.  The injuries haven't helped, but the way you set this all up makes that hot seat burn hotter, though I don't know if Jerry Reinsdorf has the guts to turn the heat up on you.

The Bulls have to get right back at it Thursday against the Brooklyn Nets.  Perhaps luckily for them, not as many people will be watching because of the first real day of March Madness.  That's probably good news for most of us.  We can get excited about basketball instead of being disappointed.

Messed With the Second Best in the West

The common thought this NBA season is that only the San Antonio Spurs could potentially eliminate the Golden State Warriors in this year's playoffs.  They had also won 39 straight home games entering Thursday, so the Bulls were underdogs already based on that.  While Dr. James Andrews confirmed Jimmy Butler had no new issues with his knee, the All-Star still missed the game.  That made the 109-101 loss more predictable, but still not any easier to take.

The Bulls played about as evenly as they could for most of this game.  It was nationally televised and they tend to show up to play in the spotlight.  But the 21 turnovers to go with an inability to finish on offense were too much to overcome.  On the other hand, the Spurs simply don't lose at AT&T Center, so if the aforementioned issues didn't kill them, something else surely would have.

Demonstrating how well the Spurs are at sharing the wealth with each other, Kawhi Leonard (29 points), LaMarcus Aldridge (26) and Tony Parker (20) all made 10 field goals apiece.  Parker achieved a double-double with 12 assists, as did Aldridge with 11 rebounds.  Leonard and Aldridge made all 11 free throws attempted between them.  Tim Duncan became the sixth player in league history to grab 15,000 career rebounds.

Derrick Rose and Pau Gasol tied for the Bulls lead in scoring with 21 each and Gasol also had 12 boards.  E'Twaun Moore scored 20, including four 3-pointers.  Justin Holiday, who has jumped Tony Snell in the rotation, added 12.  Nikola Mirotic pulled down 10 rebounds.

There's not much to say about this game other than the Bulls were simply outmatched and probably would have been even if Butler had played.  You can't argue with the effort against the NBA's second best team.  Were they playing a weaker opponent, they might have had a better shot.  Instead, the Spurs made them pay for their mistakes, as all elite teams typically do, and we have ourselves a measuring stick on how poorly the Bulls would do in the playoffs, and probably the regular season, if they had to face the best of the West so frequently.

With the loss, the Bulls drop to 32-31 and half a game behind Detroit for the final playoff spot in the East.  They'll have to forget this quickly as they go right back at it Friday at home against the Miami Heat.  Last time these teams met, Miami greatly humbled their hosts in South Beach.  Here's hoping this game will at least be as close as Thursday's was.

Doctor, Doctor, Give Jimmy the News

As it turns out, Jimmy Butler's return in last Saturday's win over the Houston Rockets was a blip in a long stretch of game inactivity for the Bulls' best player.  He missed Monday's 100-90 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks with knee swelling.  On Thursday, he'll meet with Dr. James Andrews in Alabama to get a second opinion on that knee.  Accordingly, he'll miss Thursday's nationally televised game with the San Antonio Spurs and is also questionable for Friday's contest against the Miami Heat.

The very name of the prominent orthopedic surgeon makes some people concerned that the knee is worse than initially thought.  Andrews' name comes up all the time when pitchers need Tommy John surgery.  This is all precautionary and for Butler's peace of mind, at least according to Fred Hoiberg, but nobody knows where this could lead.  It falls right into the narrative that has been a frustrating season for the Bulls.

Butler played 34 minutes of the Rockets game before fouling out.  He's tied with James Harden for the league lead in minutes per game at 37.8.  In fact, that was Butler's final average last season and he led the league.  The very thing Gar Forman and John Paxson held against Tom Thibodeau, playing guys too many minutes in the regular season, has turned into the second verse being the same as the first in Butler's case.

Such things only add to people wondering why the Bulls are so desperate to save their season.  We're getting columns on how they need to shut Butler down and start tanking.  There's nothing to gain long-term by making the playoffs, but perhaps they seem to think no postseason would hurt their image as well as those who might rely on playoff bonuses for whatever reason.  That everyone in the organization lives in their own little world and is seemingly tone deaf to the outside calls for change reflects poorly on them.

This might just blow over and Butler will be back after this coming weekend at the latest.  But how many more of these stories must come out?  Maybe dropping TV ratings and season tickets not being renewed will finally make the Bulls realize something serious has to be done.  Then again, we shouldn't hold our breath either.

Basking With Butler?

The welcome sight of Jimmy Butler's return in Saturday's 108-100 win over the Houston Rockets proved to be just that.  While it was nice to see Nikola Mirotic and Taj Gibson return to the court as well, it served as reminder that Butler is the most important player on the Bulls right now.  His double-double of 24 points and 11 rebounds to go with six assists gave his team just what it needed to snap a four-game losing streak.  He also fouled out for the first time in his career, but few were talking about that afterward.

Butler led all Eastern Conference scorers in January with 24.9 points per game.  In fact, despite missing most of February, he still leads the conference in scoring since the start of the New Year.  While we'd like to say it's a coincidence that the Bulls had a three-game winning streak sandwiched between two four-game skids during his time out, there are just as many arguments that say his absence single-handedly pushed them to the playoff brink.

Now that he's back, it only adds to the debate on how the Bulls should go about their final 21 games.  At 31-30, they hold the tiebreaker over Detroit for the East's final playoff spot.  That puts them barely on the outside looking in for the draft lottery.  While the entire organization wants to return to the playoffs, most everyone else, including Tribune beat writer K.C. Johnson, find it more beneficial for the Bulls to forget about the postseason.

If Butler stayed out for a much longer period, it would be much easier for more people to say this season is for the birds.  But now, we've got a situation where barring another catastrophic injury to a key player, the Bulls have just enough talent to finish eighth or higher in the East.  You can either count on facing Cleveland so that LeBron James can bounce them again or look forward to playing Toronto, whose number the Bulls have.  Even if the Bulls eliminated the Raptors, they'd be facing either third-seeded Boston or sixth-seeded Charlotte if the playoffs started today and those teams have given them problems.

With the timing of Butler's injury, I knew he wasn't going to be out long enough for the Bulls to tumble far out of the playoff picture.  They still might, but the chance of that happening is more unlikely now.  There's simply too much talent on the roster for them to play poorly for too long.  See what kind of limbo they're in?

Missing the playoffs forces the front office's hand in significantly revamping the roster.  But they might just chalk it up to all the injuries  and do nothing.  Making them holds them back and they can also use that as an excuse to stand pat.  It's a very bad spot for any team.

All I know is whether you want the Bulls to win or lose, Butler's return should signal a return to smarter and better basketball.  Those who don't watch them regularly should at least be treated to a good game should they choose to flip it on.  Their chances of seeing that go up when you consider the Bulls' 27-22 record with him is the best for any player on the roster.  Say what you will about forcing himself to the top of the pyramid, but you can't deny he's given results and who's going to argue with that?

No Magic for Bulls

Maybe it's good I missed Wednesday's game with the Orlando Magic due to being in class.  When Taj Gibson was ruled out with the right hamstring strain he suffered in Tuesday's loss to Miami, Cameron Bairstow was thrust into the starting lineup.  That's all you needed to know before this 102-89 loss.

That wasn't the only pregame drama to emerge either.  Tony Snell somehow missed the team flight the previous night, making us wonder what the heck could have happened.  Then, a report came out that Boston offered its two first-round draft picks this year for Jimmy Butler at the trade deadline, but the Bulls turned it down.  Gar Forman and John Paxson continue to look worse by the day.

Four of five Magic starters scored in double figures, led by Nikola Vucevic's 24.  Mario Hezonja totaled 21, Aaron Gordon had a double-double of 13 points and 15 rebounds and Elfrid Payton dished out 12 assists.  Not bad for the worst team in the Southeast.

Derrick Rose led the Bulls in scoring and assists with 16 and six respectively.  Pau Gasol scored 12 and Doug McDermott had 11 off the bench.  Bairstow played just five minutes until being reinserted during garbage time, ultimately scoring eight.  With so few bigs available, the Bulls were forced to go small and Bairstow just needed to bring some stability at power forward at the start.

The Bulls have officially tumbled to .500 at 30-30 and obviously, were still out of the East's final playoff spot.  To put their four-game losing streak in perspective, only Philadelphia's 10-game skid is longer.  Just about everything with this team is pointing down with no end in sight.

True, they might still get into the playoffs when Butler and Nikola Mirotic return, but who outside the organization really wants it?  ESPN 1000 polled Twitter users about what they would prefer and 67 percent of over 700 voters preferred that the Bulls miss the playoffs.  Most people realize a first-round exit does nothing for them and, given the stubbornness of the front office, they would do nothing to truly revamp the team.

This is why Forman, if not Paxson or both, needs to go after the season.  There's little reason to think he really knows what's best for the future.  GarPax constantly tries to squeeze what little juice is out of the carton, even if an offer for quality assets is on the table.  Until they realize the current roster is a lost cause, we'll be forced to relive this story over and over.

Whether you want them to or not, the Bulls resume play Saturday against the Houston Rockets.  It's at the United Center, where they've won three of their last four.  Any fashion in which they can stop the bleeding would be welcome.  But we've said that too often this year and it's getting very exhausting.

Ugly

My title for this post is the only way anyone can describe the Bulls right now.  Between the porous defense, excess number injuries and mounting losses, team pride has suffered many crushing blows.  Perhaps the biggest one yet came in Tuesday's 129-111 road loss to the Miami Heat.

Although the Bulls got to within six late in the fourth quarter, Miami got on another late run in which it seemingly could not miss.  Buckets were being made all night and marks were set by both franchises on opposite ends of the spectrum.  Miami set a season high for points scored and a franchise high for field-goal percentage at 67.5 percent.  By contract, it's a new Bulls franchise record for opponent shooting, breaking a mark last set against Portland in 1984 (67.1 percent).

Hassan Whiteside led the top two categories with a career-high 26 points and 14 rebounds off the bench.  Recent Heat signing Joe Johnson scored 24 and Luol Deng had 20.  Dwyane Wade totaled 18 and Goran Dragic achieved a double-double of 17 points and 11 assists.  Much of this contributed to the Heat's 71 percent shooting in the paint for 74 points.

Seven different Bulls scored in double figures, though it would not be nearly enough.  Derrick Rose, in his first game after missing three straight and implying he would miss playoff games if he didn't feel right, led them with 17.  Aaron Brooks was their leading bench scorer thanks to 16.  Pau Gasol was one rebound shy of a double-double while scoring 15 and Taj Gibson added 13 before leaving with a hamstring injury.

The Bulls last met the Heat on Jan. 25, when they lost 89-84.  Since then, they've lost 10 of 15 and have surrendered 108.8 points per game.  Over that span, they've given up at least 100 points in every game except the first.  Whether they're unwilling or unable to slow anybody down, there's no excuse not to play like an NBA team should.

A team that had faint championship hopes at the start of the year is now 30-29 and half a game out of the last playoff spot in the East.  The players keep saying they belong in the postseason, but there's been very little walk to back up the talk.  Frankly, nobody should have to watch this bad brand of basketball during the playoffs.  The more losses pile up, the less we can see any benefit of getting there besides the extra revenue, which only management really cares about in the big picture.

Accordingly, missing the playoffs is likely the only way to ensure any possibility sweeping and necessary changes are made.  Even then, we can probably expect the organization to assure everyone it only happened because so many key players were missing for so long.  That's why it's so difficult to be confident in everybody going forward.  There's an unwillingness to change, even when it's clear to those who watch from the stands and on TV that the current product is bad.

The Bulls have to lick their wounds quickly as they play the Orlando Magic in the second of their Florida back-to-back on Wednesday.  I typically make a Disney World remark whenever the Bulls travel there, so this time, I'm hoping Tinkerbell left some sort of magic in the visitors locker room at Amway Center.  That may be the only way to salvage this sorry season.