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.