Younger Bulls Take Issue With Wade's Practicing or Lack Thereof

One day after Dwyane Wade, Jimmy Butler and Rajon Rondo were all fined for their recent comments and the former two were benched at the start of a 100-88 loss to the Miami Heat, Taj Gibson let it be known that the younger players on the team want Wade to practice more.  Both the 35-year-old Wade and Fred Hoiberg agreed to watch his practice schedule carefully at the start of the season.  No doubt sitting out some practices has allowed him to play on both ends of back-to-backs.  But those still learning the NBA said during Friday's team meeting that they don't care for this arrangement.

Wade did practice on Saturday, but the issue remained.  His sitting out of many practices was enough of an issue for Rondo to bring it up in his Instagram post.  He and Hoiberg have defended it several times.  Whether or not they continue to do so remains to be seen.

While it's completely understandable for Wade to take steps that will max out whatever he has left, leadership is also about setting examples for those who have come after you.  It would be in the best interest of the team for him to sacrifice a little playing time to help develop these guys outside of games.  On the other hand, he signed with the Bulls to play meaningful basketball, not pickup games.  He's truly caught between a rock and a hard place with his body and being in the good graces of his teammates coming to blows, something he probably didn't expect or at least wasn't hoping would happen.

Wade will need to do some soul searching and maybe even have a long conversation with Hoiberg on how to best move forward.  With a little less than half the season to go, that's a lot of time left to spend with these players.  Heck, the Disney on Ice Trip starts after Sunday's home game against the Philadelphia 76ers.  He can consider this his own little retreat in which he can reflect on this issue.

As Wade gets closer to the end of his Hall of Fame career, it's time for him to decide what legacy he wants to leave those who will still be playing when he hangs it up.  Does he want to be known as a great player who was also easy to be around?  Or will he be one who thought of himself first more as his body started to break down?  The choice is his.

Rajon Rondo Instagram Rant Points Blame at Wade, Butler

I gotta hand it to the Bulls.  When controversy comes their way, they don't shy away from it.  In fact, they seem to love adding one layer after another.  And as we found out Thursday, they can even cause a ruckus on social media.

In the immediate aftermath of Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade calling out their young teammates following Wednesday's blown game against Atlanta, the most vocal response came from Jerian Grant on Twitter.  But Rajon Rondo's grating Instagram post on Thursday made Grant's tweets look like high praise.  For those who can't be bothered to follow the link, Rondo posted a picture of himself with Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett during his Boston days.  Here's the full message that accompanied it in all its glory:


My vets would never go to the media. They would come to the team. My vets didn't pick and choose when they wanted to bring it. They brought it every time they stepped in the gym whether it was practice or a game. They didn't take days off. My vets didn't care about their numbers. My vets played for the team. When we lost, they wouldn't blame us. They took responsibility and got in the gym. They showed the young guys what it meant to work. Even in Boston when we had the best record in the league, if we lost a game, you could hear a pin drop on the bus. They showed us the seriousness of the game. My vets didn't have an influence on the coaching staff. They couldn't change the plan because it didn't work for them. I played under one of the greatest coaches, and he held everyone accountable. It takes 1-15 to win. When you isolate everyone, you can't win consistently. I may be a lot of things, but I'm not a bad teammate. My goal is to pass what I learned along. The young guys work. They show up. They don't deserve blame. If anything is questionable, it's the leadership.

Well.  That sure resolved everything going on with this team.  In fact, Bulls management appreciated it so much, Rondo's contract might be bought out.  It's as if to say "We love how you spoke your mind, so why don't you do it someplace besides here?"

The scary thing about Rondo's post is he's not completely wrong.  Go back to any non-game story involving Wade or Butler this season and you'll find things that match what Rondo is saying.  So it's not a huge shock that he doesn't like how they've conducted themselves as team leaders or simply as players either.  Their postgame comments were clearly the last straw for him, but even with all that time between then and when he made the post, he still felt strongly enough that he had to tell the world what he perceived to be the wrong way to guide a team.

The biggest irony of this whole thing is that it was Rondo who coined the term "The Three Alphas" and in less than 24 hours, they all added fuel to the fire that is this dysfunctional season.  Worse yet, it's turned into two alphas against one and unsurprisingly, the player by himself has by far contributed the least this year.  What is anyone hoping to gain from all this?  Unless some magic potion that brings unity is somewhere in the locker room, it's hard to imagine much.

But perhaps some good will come of this.  Maybe this is what Gar Forman and John Paxson needed to finally stop turning the other cheek and do something about this mess they created.  Years from now, we might look back on these past couple days as the moment when the Bulls finally decided to get serious about building the franchise's next great era.  And to think, all it might have taken was an online rant from a player who many felt was a poor teammate and bad for Fred Hoiberg's system to begin with.

All we know for sure is we're all sick and tired of season after season turning into a soap opera for one reason or another.  Two years ago, it was GarPax against Tom Thibodeau.  Last year, Butler seized leadership from Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, much to the chagrin of the now-Knicks.  The latest one is Rondo vs. Butler and Wade vs. everybody.

Why do we as fans have to put up with this?  Even the Tim Floyd era didn't see so much drama for so long.  If Michael Reinsdorf doesn't realize now is the time to get his father Jerry to sign off on something new, this organization is a lost cause.  This all could have been avoided if they took the proper steps to assemble a winning, united basketball team, but here we are.

The longer the higher-ups remain silent about this, the more fans are going to tune out.  It's a shame to see the same franchise Michael Jordan became famous with reduced to something no one should want to be a part of.  A real culture change is needed.  No one should care about how it happens as long as there's a light at the end of this God-forsaken tunnel, which there currently is not.

Maybe Jerry will see how happy SoxFest attendees are this weekend to know his other team is finally taking proper steps to get back to winning.  If that's the epiphany he needs to realize Bulls fans would be just as happy to endure lean years for a better future, so be it.  Maybe it starts with dumping Rondo and admitting he never should have been signed to begin with.  Let's see somebody take to social media about that.

Postgame Comments From Wade, Butler Remove Any Doubt of Discord

If any people were still wondering about the unity of this year's Bulls, there's no longer any question regarding it  after Wednesday's late collapse against the Atlanta Hawks.  Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade, the only two players to make any meaningful contributions in the game, really let their teammates have it.  Wade, already in the spotlight this week for threatening to walk after this season, said he doesn't "know that they care enough."  I won't reprint the expletive Butler dropped, but his sentiment echoed Wade's, saying his teammates "just got to care if we win or lose."

The teammates in question surely took the comments in their own ways.  Jerian Grant had the most public reaction so far, sending out four tweets about it.  It's understandable because none of us like to be talked down to at our jobs.  Still, it's disheartening to see this young player, the latest in a revolving door of starting point guards at a time when the Bulls sometimes have no one on the court at that position, respond to the on-court leaders in this fashion.

For the second straight season, Fred Hoiberg has lost control of his locker room.  Not being able to get the best out of every player is one thing.  So is not knowing which player should be doing what in clutch situations.  It's quite another to see words flying to the point where your players aren't getting along.

Okay, Rajon Rondo brought his baggage with him as everyone expected, but at least when he's the story, it ultimately goes squarely back to him.  Now, you've got the best players on the team throwing the young players who are supposed to be developing under the bus.  That's multiple parties on both sides of the aisle involved.  How are we expected to believe this will all get resolved before the season ends?

We can't blame Hoiberg for this entire mess though.  What will really be intriguing is if we hear from Gar Forman or John Paxson, the architects of this dumpster fire, about these latest developments.  While we probably won't, it's hard not to want to be a fly on the wall during their private meetings.  Do they feel they need to take action or do they just not care?

I'm not holding my breath on whether GarPax has learned what could happen when you're indecisive on the direction of your franchise.  Collectively, they've made one poor decision after another without consequence.  Even when Forman says they're going to put together a younger and more athletic roster, he finds players to fill that description who aren't that good and also abandons that plan halfway through it.  And he's getting paid a lot of money for it all.

If there's any good to come out of this latest episode, maybe this will finally convince management to pick a lane and follow it through to the end.  As seemingly everyone but them suspected, you can't just sign high-profile players to put butts in seats.  Sure, the Bulls are still selling out games, but turnout has not been very good and tickets are being cheaply resold everywhere.  So much for taking the marketing route this year.

The best we can hope for now besides wins is Butler and Wade making sure there are no hard feelings and they just want everyone to play to the best of their abilities.  They might have to do it quickly though in case GarPax wants to sell at the trade deadline.  Even if the season that never was is officially lost, at least the interpersonal relationships can be healed, right?  Of course, that's not what season-ticket holders pay a lot of money to see, and we have to wonder how long they're willing to do that.

Butler, Wade Can't Do It All in Late Collapse to Hawks

Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade are the only reasons to pay attention to the Bulls this year.  They play the best basketball of anybody on the team and happen to be very good at what they do.  In Wednesday's game against the Atlanta Hawks, they were poised to carry the Bulls to victory by themselves.  But their supporting cast couldn't help them protect a lead that lasted almost four quarters and the Bulls lost, 119-114, for their seventh consecutive loss to the Hawks.

Though Atlanta never really went away, it seemed like its effort wouldn't be enough to stop Butler (40 points) and Wade (33 points) either.  The two combined to get the Bulls to a 110-100 lead with 3:02 left.  That's when the Hawks scored 12 unanswered points for their first lead en route to a 19-4 run that ended the game.  Not helping in the final few minutes were ill-advised 3-point attempts by a trio of Bulls bigs:  Taj Gibson, Paul Zipser and Nikola Mirotic.

All five Hawks starters, plus Tim Hardaway Jr., scored in double figures:  an effort led by Dennis Schroder's 24 points and game-high nine assists.  Paul Millsap scored 21, Thabo Sefolosha had and Hardaway poured in 17.  Dwight Howard and Kent Bazemore totaled 16 points apiece and for good measure, Howard hauled in 12 rebounds and Bazemore dished out seven assists.  Schroder and Hardaway each knocked four 3-pointers while Millsap and Sefolosha each made three.

Even more telling than the Hawks' successful reliance on the long ball was leading the Bulls, 29-18, in the assists category.  They were smarter and better offensively while making just enough defensive stops.  The Bulls, as they have done far too often this season, tried to play hero ball more than they should have and didn't run the proper offensive sets when the tough got going.  In other words, they took a crack at more challenging opportunities when they should have simplified things because nobody besides Wade and Butler was contributing much of anything.

The Bulls fell back to a game below .500 with this loss and the more we see these types of games, the greater the chance they'll finish the season at that mark.  Yet remarkably, that might still be enough to reach the playoffs in the East.  Even at 23-24, they lead Milwaukee for the conference's final spot.  Maybe reaching the postseason is all the organization cares about, but everyone and their mother knows it will just be a bandage over a wound that will continue to grow until a clear direction is determined.

The second of a three-game homestand will be played Friday against the Miami Heat.  The Bulls have won the first two meetings of the series this season and can earn the sweep with a win.  They'll need to put this latest disaster behind them though.  And for the sake of Wade's future, let's hope he lets this roll off his back as well.

Bulls More Magical Team in Orlando

The news early Tuesday revolved around Dwyane Wade indicating the rest of the Bulls' season would determine whether he'll stick around for the second year of his contract or opt out.  There was still a game against the Orlando Magic to be played though.  Regardless of if Wade has been thinking about this for awhile and just needed to get it off his chest, he didn't let it affect his play.  In fact, the Bulls put the comments behind them long enough to earn a 100-92 win.

The Bulls came out shooting poorly, but remedied that before the Magic could pull away.  From there, the teams went back and forth until the Bulls slowly extended their lead.  Though they never put it out of reach, they got to a point where they kept Orlando on the precipice between threatening the lead and completely dropping off.  Helping was the Magic missing three players due to injury, including ex-Bull D.J. Augustin.

Wade scored a game-high 21 points and recorded seven steals (tied for the most in the NBA this season), picking up right where he left off in Saturday's win over Sacramento.  Jimmy Butler was just behind with 20 points and a team-high four assists.  Cristiano Felicio continued his ascent with a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds.  Doug McDermott scored all 12 of his points from 3-point range.

The Bulls will take a win however they can, even with the distraction of Wade making his departure after this year a possibility.  They created opportunities for themselves and converted on just enough of them.  They also showed the defense that allows them to get the better of inferior teams, at least on certain nights.  In this case, they forced Elfrid Payton into eight of Orlando's 19 turnovers.

This and pretty much every game for the rest of the season will be critical in determining what the 35-year-old Wade does next year.  True, his mere presence has gone against the younger and more athletic route that Gar Forman pledged, but he's also provided the good basketball he has left to the city.  What would it say about a future Hall of Famer in the twilight of his career bolting from his hometown team after just one season of a two-year deal?  Whatever the answer is, Forman and John Paxson might soon learn they've been going about the way they do business all wrong.

A Wednesday meeting at the United Center with the Atlanta Hawks means a quick turnaround.  The way the Bulls start has no place to go but up after Friday's clunker.  At least the bench was ready to put the Hawks on their heels toward the end.  If the Bulls are going to play like that though, they need to do it for a full 48 minutes instead of 12.

Butler Voted as All-Star Starter

While Jimmy Butler might be downplaying Thursday's news on the outside, he's gotta be ecstatic somewhere on the inside.  For the third straight year, Butler will be joining basketball's elite at the NBA All-Star Game.  And this will be the first time he gets to start for the Eastern Conference.  Thank the revamped voting process in which fans account for half the vote's weight while players and media members get a quarter each or we'd be talking about Joel Embiid starting instead.

Before Butler heads to New Orleans for this glorified exhibition without any defense, he should soak in all the congratulations he's getting.  A player who has worked hard to elevate his game and done just that since he first came into the league deserves the spoils.  People have recognized the payoff of that work and this is Butler's reward.  It helps that he's putting up career-best averages in points (24.8) and rebounds (6.8) while also tying for his career high in assists (4.8).

It's almost cliche at this point to recount Butler's underdog tale, but it only makes you appreciate him even more.  A teenager who got kicked out of his home in the Houston suburbs and had to go to junior college to draw attention from Division I schools would probably have his basketball success stop there.  But he accepted an athletic scholarship from Marquette and played well enough for the Bulls to take him as the last first-round draft pick in 2011.  You know the rest.

This year, Butler's star keeps ascending at a time when the Bulls are uncertain about their future direction.  Without him, they wouldn't be holding onto the last playoff spot in the East, albeit with an unimpressive 21-22 record.  The presence of future Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade has helped him and the Bulls as well.  Wade has credited Butler as a major reason he bolted from Miami, so the appreciation and helpfulness goes both ways.

As time goes on, we have to appreciate Butler for the great player he is.  His hard work, the fruits of said work, the way he looks out for his team and his personality are all attributes people look for in an NBA player.  Few are able to back up their talk with walk the way Butler is.  Sure, some might not like how he called out Fred Hoiberg last year or forcibly grabbed leadership among the players, but you can't look me in the eye and expect me to believe he hasn't earned it.

This is his time and his moment.  We in Chicago should be lucky to have him.  Otherwise, we'd be watching some pretty bad basketball with little to no excitement.  Congratulations Jimmy!

More Lackluster Play as Mavericks Defeat Bulls

Sure, Taj Gibson missed Tuesday's game against the Dallas Mavericks with left ankle soreness, but would it have made much of a difference?  The Bulls have been average both with and without him in the lineup.  So you never know which team is going to show up.  The bad version showed up in this game and Dallas came away victorious, 99-98.

The Bulls scored the game's first seven points, but it was very much an up-and-down contest from there.  Though the Mavericks outscored their hosts, 30-19, in the second quarter, they couldn't pull away and it came down to the final seconds.  A Jimmy Butler field goal broke a tie with 22.8 seconds left and Dallas, electing not to call its final 20-second timeout, ran a sequence that culminated in Wesley Matthews hitting a wide-open 3.  That gave the Bulls 11.7 seconds to salvage the game, but Matthews played tight defense on Butler, so Butler passed off to birthday boy Dwyane Wade, who missed a corner shot he really wasn't ready to take.

All five Mavericks starters reached double figures.  Harrison Barnes did the most damage for the victors by scoring 20 points.  Seth Curry was close behind with 18 and joined Matthews in shooting 3 of 5 from 3-point range.  Dirk Nowitzki achieved a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds while Deron Williams fell an assist short, though he scored 11.

Butler was one rebound shy of a triple-double, though 24 points and 12 assists while shooting 14 of 16 from the free-throw line is pretty good.  Robin Lopez came ready to play and showed by scoring 21 and grabbing all five of his rebounds on the offensive end.  Wade, now 35, scored 17 and Michael Carter-Williams added 10.

It's baffling how the Bulls can get swept by the worst team in the Southwest, making it five losses in their past six meetings.  But this is what you get with a club that's both average and plays to the level of its competition.  The defense comes and goes on a regular basis and that's not how you win in the NBA.

The Bulls played well enough to win and most definitely should have.  Sadly, it comes down to when a team makes the big plays and even the most statistically sound game can turn out wrong if you can't shut an inferior opponent down.  Then again, it might come down to the Bulls simply not having the talent to limit playmakers in the clutch.  Until they build a team that can do that consistently, losses to teams that shouldn't happen will continue.

After two days off, the season continues Friday against the Atlanta Hawks.  That's not very comforting considering Paul Millsap just blocked a potential game-winning layup from Derrick Rose in New York on Monday.  The way this Bulls game just ended, it's practically a given he'll make a similar stop in this upcoming contest if it comes down to the end.  Oh the joys of being 21-22.

Bulls Stretched Out, Unable to Finish Wizards

No Jimmy Butler or Dwyane Wade for Tuesday's game against the Washington Wizards should have spelled disaster for the Bulls.  A team they have struggled with a lot these past few years would surely have their way with them.  Surprisingly, that trend was reversed for awhile.  But the Bulls couldn't keep it that way and lost, 101-99.

An even first quarter turned into a 10-point Bulls lead late and that ballooned to as much as 18 in the second.  But the sloppy Wizards were replaced by the cold and sloppy Bulls in the second half and it turned into a nail-biter down the stretch.  The Bulls held a two-point lead in the final minute, only to see John Wall tie it up and then, make the winning basket with five seconds left.  Doug McDermott went for the winning 3-pointer on the final possession and you can guess what happened on a night he shot 0 for 5 from beyond the arc.

Wall led all scorers with 26 points and all passers with 14 assists, which isn't a surprise given he was the only pure star playing in this game.  Bradley Beal and Markieff Morris each poured in 19, though Morris fouled out before he could play a key role in the waning minutes.  Rounding out the starting lineup were Otto Porter's 11 points and Marcin Gortat's 10.  You're probably sick of reading these names as a Bulls fan, but they'll continue to come up until the Bulls can figure them out.

Denzel Valentine came off the bench and had the game of his short NBA career, leading the Bulls with 19 points, including five 3-pointers.  Michael Carter-Willliams and Robin Lopez each hustled to score 14, Bobby Portis hit a trio of treys in a 13-point effort and Taj Gibson completed a double-double of 10 points and 12 rebounds.  Rajon Rondo, earning some of the minutes normally allotted to Wade and Butler, scored 12 and gave out six assists, which might be enough to come back into the rotation after missing the last five-and-a-half games.

While it was a better game than expected under the circumstances, the Bulls still couldn't close the deal.  It happens way too often:  they build a nice lead in the first half only to completely squander it in the second.  They earned a little bit of slack here with their two best players out, but as we've learned many times over the years, no NBA team is ever really out of a game.  That lesson showed itself yet again here.

The other cruel reminder this game served is that the Bulls have very streaky shooters.  They can get hot at just about any time, but when they really need to put an opponent away, the shots simply stop falling.  This is especially true from downtown, where they were 10 for 27.  The number of treys is impressive, but to paraphrase a certain White Sox announcer, tell me when you make those shots, not how many.

The Bulls will meet the newly found Derrick Rose and the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden for a nationally-televised tilt on Thursday.  Wade should return to the lineup and hopefully, Butler will too.  They'll hope to avenge the loss at the United Center when these teams first met.  They almost always play well on TNT though, so don't rule out a game in which they run the Knicks right out of the World's Most Famous Arena.

Bulls Largely Ineffective Against Thunder

Talk about a day in which Jimmy Butler experienced both the highs and lows of NBA life.  Monday started well for him when he was named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week for last week.  But it wasn't known until shortly before tipoff whether an illness would keep him out against the Oklahoma City Thunder.  Though he tried to play through his condition, he was unsuccessful, making just one free throw and none of his six field-goal attempts before leaving prior to the fourth quarter of a 109-94 loss.

With Butler's condition a prevailing storyline, more drama was added when Dwyane Wade ran into Nikola Mirotic and lay flat on the court, but he walked off on his own and returned to action shortly thereafter.  Though the Thunder led for most of the contest, the Bulls kept it competitive until midway through the third quarter.  That's when the bottom fell out and Fred Hoiberg eventually emptied his bench save for Rajon Rondo, who sat during his entire bobblehead night.  By the end, many Bulls fans had turned their attention to Derrick Rose's bizarre absence from Monday's New York Knicks game.

Russell Westbrook finished one rebound shy of his latest triple-double, though 21 points and 14 assists were just as impressive.  It's become standard to talk of Westbrook in that regard.  The story for the Thunder involved centers Steven Adams and Enes Kanter.  Both lay claim to the paint with many close layups and dunks, combining to score 42 points and shoot 20-of-25 from the field.

With Butler hampered, Wade took the bulk of the on-floor responsibilities and led the Bulls with 22 points.  Michael Carter-Williams scored 15 in the latest proof that his hustle and play earned him the job of starting point guard.  Cristiano Felicio has been an asset with his athleticism and Jerian Grant is developing nicely as a shooter.  Both used those qualities and more to score 11 apiece.

This game did more expose how bad it can get for the Bulls against quality teams, especially when they're not totally healthy.  After Butler and Wade, the drop in talent on this roster is steep.  So if anyone still wants Butler traded now, just know what you'd be watching more regularly without him.  And don't say it would be beneficial in the long run because rebuilding is not as simple as the Cubs have made it out to be, especially in the NBA.

The daunting task of playing the second of a back-to-back  on the road Tuesday against the Washington Wizards became more challenging after Monday's loss.  Butler will not travel with the team, at least not to our nation's capital.  Wade won't play either so he can rest.  As optimistic as I love to be as a Bulls fan, a victory in this game couldn't be called anything except a miracle.

Bulls Get By Ailing Cavs

Sometimes in sports, it's all about catching a great team at the right time.  In Wednesday's case, the Bulls benefited from a pandemic that's hit the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers.  Kyrie Irving missed his third straight game with a hamstring injury, Kevin Love is dealing with food poisoning and even LeBron James was a question mark until 20 minutes before tipoff thanks to a cold.  None of that mattered to the Bulls, who took it to their hosts and won, 106-94.

It initially looked like a blowout the other way might happen when the Cavaliers opened the game on a 15-2 run.  But the Bulls cut the deficit to seven at the end of the first quarter and from there, commanded most of the contest.  A hot offense outscored Cleveland by 13 in the second quarter and got the lead up to 17 in the third.  The Cavs, led by James' game-high 31 points, made a final push in the fourth and got to within one, but that came during a stretch in which Jimmy Butler scored 10 consecutive points for the Bulls to put the game away.

Butler, fresh off his 52-point performance against Charlotte on Monday, was considerably colder at first, missing nine of his first 11 shots from the field.  Luckily, it doesn't matter so much how you perform as when you do it.  He scored 14 of his team-high 20 points in the final frame.  It was just in time to be one of four Bulls with three treys in the game.

Taj Gibson shot 9-of-10 from the field to end up not far Butler with 18 points.  Doug McDermott made all six of his field-goal attempts in the second quarter en route to a 17-point game.  The good version of Nikola Mirotic showed up and scored 16.  Michael Carter-Williams started again while scoring 13 and Dwyane Wade added 10.

Once again, Rajon Rondo was left on the bench.  The longer this goes on, the more it's worth questioning what exactly his role will be from here on out.  Not even Rondo himself knows as a meeting with Gar Forman and John Paxson answered no questions.  For now, all he can do is support his team from the sidelines while perhaps realizing he's becoming more expendable.

People won't look at this as a defining win for the Bulls because of the fewer Cavs superstars they had to face.  But at a time when they desperately need wins to make up for a bad December, they'll take them even if it means kicking a top dog when it's down.  They almost always show up against great teams on national TV anyway, so as far as they were concerned, this was no different.  And if you're going to stay mediocre, you might as well do it while beating championship contenders.

The Bulls welcome the second-best team in the East to the United Center, the Toronto Raptors, on Saturday.  It will be the first time these teams meet this season after the Bulls swept all four games a year ago.  Will the team that represents our northern neighbors have better luck this time around?  Or are the Bulls in their heads, as is often the case when you just can't top a team you should be all accounts?