Big Welcome Home

The Bulls' return to the United Center against the Sacramento Kings was filled with storylines.  Kings interim coach Tyrone Corbin will be replaced by George Karl after the All-Star break, Mike Dunleavy was back in the starting lineup and the Bulls had a two-game winning streak to bring into their homecoming.  All that mattered though was a convincing 104-86 victory.

Although the Kings kept the deficit reasonable throughout the first half and Jimmy Butler exited the second with a shoulder injury, the Bulls took control in the third quarter with a 27-15 edge.  Eventually, Tom Thibodeau emptied the bench.  Although names like McDermott, Moore and Mohammed only saw floor time for a minute, the win was all that mattered on this night.

 Pau Gasol had his latest double-double of 26 points and 16 rebounds, which was to be expected.  Derrick Rose scored 23 and pleasantly dished out seven assists.  But Tony Snell's 24 off the bench on 9-of-11 shooting was what had everyone talking.  Oh, and he played 41 minutes.

Fans have been pretty hard on Snell this year and even I've admitted to forgetting he was still on the roster.  I would love to eat crow over nothing more than to see Snell become a impact player as we head to the second half of the season.  Butler barely made a mark until late in his second season, so maybe lightning is striking twice.  But it won't happen if Thibodeau doesn't play him more, so he should take this game as a warning of what he may miss out on if he continues to ride the second-year guard on the bench.

More importantly, the win showed how dominant the Bulls can be when they're at full strength.  They themselves had not seemed to be aware of this lately and the latest addition to this winning streak was the most impressive.  They didn't need an injury to a key opposing player, nor did they allow a comeback after building a big lead.  All that was required was a reminder that this team is talented enough to make a run at the Finals and this game was just that.

The Cleveland Cavaliers come to town Thursday for one last game before the All-Star break.  This nationally televised tilt will hopefully be closer than the blowout the Bulls suffered in Ohio on MLK Day.  These Bulls have yet to defeat the rebuilt Cavs, so a win would boost confidence in everybody that the East runs through them.  People have talked about it, but can the Bulls walk that walk?

Returning with Relief

The Bulls have needed wins in the worst way recently.  They got just those this past weekend against New Orleans and Orlando.  After Anthony Davis left with a shoulder injury, the Bulls proceeded to blow the Pelicans out of their own building.  Then, they nearly choked away a win over the Magic and would have for sure had Tobias Harris not blown a last-second putback attempt.

Miraculously, the Bulls finished their Frozen on Ice trip at 3-3 and are somehow one seed higher in the East (3rd) than they were when they left.  I don't like to say I can predict basketball because if I did, I would be working in Vegas.  Had I been a betting man, I might have lost money on how this road trip finished.

Recently, we've seen glimpses of Jimmy Butler's newfound stardom, Pau Gasol's consistent double-doubles, Derrick Rose's scoring and playmaking as well as what Tony Snell can do when given a chance.  We've even gotten to see Doug McDermott play coming off his recent injury.  Granted, it was at the end of a blowout, but hopefully, Tom Thibodeau will have more confidence in the rookie going forward.  It's tiring to see these nine-man rotations, so any change in strategy is welcome.

In any event, the Bulls need to understand that all these things are needed consistently if they want to win the championship this year.  And in today's NBA, it starts with finding the right balance between playing hard and playing smart.  More importantly, you can't take any big lead for granted because just about every team can come back.  So it's really a matter of bringing your game and not letting up.

I said recently that the Bulls needed to get to the All-Star break in the worst way, but maybe they just needed a couple of wins to get going.  Sacramento comes to the United Center on Tuesday and Cleveland arrives Thursday.  You have a team with coaching issues followed by the hottest club in the Central.

Based on the Bulls we've seen this year, it's easy to say they'll take it easy against the Kings and make a futile hard effort against the Cavaliers, who have won the first two meetings of the season.  They need to get back to looking at every opponent in the same fashion because winning when they should and losing when they shouldn't is frustrating to watch.  If they're not looking at it from the fan's perspective, they better start doing it now.  We're tired of getting our hopes up against sub-.500 teams only to be let down.

As we come ever closer to the second half of the season, let this be a time for the Bulls to examine where they are and how far they still have to go.  National writers and analysts still think this team is the one to beat in the East, so now is the time to back that up.  If you're not doing it for the media, do it for your fan base and yourselves.  The worst thing that can happen is for a talented team to come up short and look back on what might have been.

Since I made my last post, I've lost my dear grandfather whom I referred as Pa Shunk.  Though he wasn't the biggest Bulls fan, he knew how I excited I was to watch them when they were winning championships.  He and my grandmother have always done their best to support me in this part of my life and it's a shame he won't be around to witness the rest of what could be a special Bulls season.  Any thoughts and prayers are appreciated.

Frank Foys:  1931-2015

All Butler's Fault?

With the Bulls losing to the Houston Rockets Wednesday, they've dropped into a tie for first in the Central with Cleveland.  The NBA's tiebreaker system ranks the Cavs ahead in the playoff seedings.  That happens when one team is hot and the other is not.

Much of the Bulls' struggles have been pointed to a defense that has been uncharacteristically lacking, but is Jimmy Butler the main reason for it?  Before the Houston loss, the All-Star said he believed he was.  At least he felt it started with him.

"I'm supposed to be this prime-time defender and I don't think I've been holding up my end of the bargain lately," said Butler.  "So I think whenever I start kicking it up three, four notches on defense and not worry about offense as much, I think it'll all turn around.''

A member of the All-Defensive Second Team last season, the concerns about Butler's defensive drop are not unwarranted.  But do we really want to place the blame squarely on the team's top scorer?  Looking at just one player for a collective defensive seems a little extreme.

If you're going to blame anything, you should look to a player's absence, not presence.  Mike Dunleavy has been out for a month.  Even with Butler not playing up to defensive speed, it's still better than him not playing at all.  We don't know how much worse the Bulls would be without Butler, but he's still out there.

More importantly, everyone on the team just needs to stop talking and start walking again.  There's been way too much talk about lack of effort, poor communication and insistence of no animosity within the organization.  All of these issues would just be background noise if the last month hadn't seen so much inconsistency on the court.  But if the team is failing, people are going to look for reasons and start shouting at the powers that be to fix it.

The Frozen on Ice trip concludes this weekend with trips to New Orleans and Orlando.  That's hardly a breather considering the Bulls' poor play among lesser teams.  The Pelicans aren't even really a break as they just happen to be 26-23 and fifth in the Southwest.  The All-Star break just needs to get here and fast.

Get Us Out of January!

Currently, the United Center is exclusively home to Frozen on Ice.  On a daily basis, the usual home of hoops and hockey is filled with a bunch of young girls singing Let It Go at the top of their lungs.  And boy, the Bulls couldn't be happier to let go of this month.

Take away their three wins to start January and the Bulls went 5-9.  At the same time, Cleveland has caught fire and won nine in a row.  So there's only game in the loss column separating to two clubs.  A Central Division title that once seemed like a formality is suddenly not so certain.

With four days off until their next game in Houston, nobody could use a break more than the Bulls.  While they've brought their A game against the superior teams (San Antonio, Dallas, Golden State), they've looked very disinterested while playing inferior clubs (Utah, Orlando, L.A. Lakers).  Hopefully, all they've done is hit a wall after winning 13 of their previous 15.  But what if it's something more than that?

Has winning against teams below .500 become uninteresting to them?  Have they become so content with their improved offense, they've decided the defense will just come on its own?  Whatever is going on, it's not the sign of a championship club.  All the pieces are in place to make a run this year, but what we've seen lately is not giving us confidence that can happen.

The worst offense by this team is their hearts don't seem to be in it most nights, at least not in the first half.  By the second half, they have to play from behind and go twice as hard to make that ground up.  Despite comebacks against the Lakers and Suns, neither resulted in a win.  There's a lesson in there I think you can figure out.

Many years ago, I used to play the computer game Backyard Basketball.  One way your team could be described was "stacked with talent, but it takes more than that to win in this league."  The sooner the Bulls rediscover that, the better.  I love watching them win games they're supposed to lose, but if you're losing games you're supposed to win, that's a bigger measuring stick.

There's still half the Frozen on Ice trip to go and there's no time like the present to break out of this swoon.  Maybe while the Bulls are back in Chicago for a couple of days, some can take their minds of basketball by taking in the ice show going on at their arena.  Hey, at this point, I'm willing to get them to focus on anything.  If they can sit still for a couple of hours, maybe that will help their attention spans, which will let them know of the danger they'll be in if they don't straighten up.

Damning Discord?

Normally, I reserve a special post for the Bulls' All-Star selections.  Pau Gasol's rebirth made him a starter and Jimmy Butler's huge first couple of months allowed him to become a reserve.  Yet this story has been overshadowed by reports of disharmony between Tom Thibodeau and the front office duo of Gar Forman and John Paxson.

Before the Bulls grinded out an embarrassing double-overtime loss to the Lakers Thursday, Forman attempted to downplay these reports by letting everyone know of their focus on winning.  He claimed they will let nothing stand in the way of winning a championship.  Even so, a toxic environment internally can't be ruled out.

Jeff Van Gundy started this last week when he threw the Bulls' front office under the bus for supposedly not respecting Thibodeau enough.  That was fueled by league sources telling local media the relationship between the two sides was beyond repair.  There may be two years left on Thibodeau's contract extension, but don't be shocked to see this basketball guru leave after the season, they said.

I don't know what's happening behind closed doors with Thibodeau, Forman and Paxson, but I know this.  If they can't find common ground, it's going to result in a lost opportunity for a title which, in my opinion, won't come back after this year.  The East is becoming stacked with the likes of Atlanta, Washington and Cleveland.  And this might be the one chance to break through before Cleveland really figures it out and monopolizes conference championships for the next few seasons.

The Bulls have too many good things going for them to let this chance slip up.  However, it's hard to think so lately, what with them going 8-8 in January with one game to go and all.  I'd rather not think this alleged discord is getting in the players' heads and messing them up, so I won't.  But if it is, the powers that be have no one to blame but themselves.

The common complaint appears to be Thibodeau wants to keep riding his guys hard while GarPax would rather he save them for the playoffs.  Sounds like a clashing of old and new NBA philosophies.  Can there be some sort of way for both of them to coexist?  That's the only way this is going to work.

Are these troubles related to the Bulls' habit of playing down to their competition?  Is there another reason that just this month, they've lost to the Jazz, Magic, Heat and Lakers with three of those games coming at home?  Whatever it is, everyone needs to let their personal pride go to correct this tailspin we've been seeing lately.  Otherwise, you risk giving up any home-court advantage in the playoffs and/or playing Cleveland in the first round, both of which are very real possibilities thanks to recent trends.

The trio in charge could take a lesson from Jerry Krause and Phil Jackson.  The two men absolutely HATED each other, especially when they were about to part ways.  Yet somehow, they led the Bulls to six championships in eight years.  They had to swallow just enough personal pride to make that happen.  If the current regime can't take a lesson from that, there's not much reason to believe in that ultimate goal.

Hopefully for everyone's sake, this is all just another chapter in a long regular season.  We could all be laughing at this a few months from now.  But even if we are, we should still be concerned about whether Thibodeau will still be at the helm for when this core still has a chance to play competitive basketball next year.  Tell me someone smarter who would be better fit to guide this team and I'll change my mind.

The Bulls mercifully end January Friday against the Phoenix Suns.  The obvious concern is if they're too tired from a losing marathon to stay competitive throughout.  Conventional wisdom says they are.  But there's nothing conventional about this team, so we'll just have to see.

What a Win!

In the unpredictability that is the NBA, you get some of the weirdest possible stat lines in basketball.  I don't know what Derrick Rose thought when he saw his from Tuesday's game against the Golden State Warriors, but I'm guessing it was something along the lines of "How?"  Especially because he was the primary reason the Bulls snapped the Warriors' 19-game home winning streak 113-111 in overtime.

Near the end of regulation, Rose was saddled with a career-high 11 turnovers and not one assist.  He finally found a dime after a late Stephen Curry turnover allowed him to dish out to Kirk Hinrich for a go-ahead three.  Draymond Green had the tying putback on the next possession, ultimately setting Rose's game-winning bucket with seven seconds left in overtime.  After Klay Thompson missed a floater at the buzzer, Rose's totals were as follows:  30 points, seven rebounds, one assist and 11 turnovers.

Playing without Jimmy Butler or Mike Dunleavy, the Bulls somehow found themselves in an offensive duel with the systematic Warriors.  To be fair, the home squad was missing Andrew Bogut, but Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry still had a collective 51 points and David Lee caught fire for 24 off the bench.  Even so, they gave up a lot of second chance points and an overtime shooting slump didn't help.  In a way, the Bulls are lucky they caught the best team in the NBA on an off night.

Back to Rose's line, let's put it in perspective.  This was the first 11-turnover game this NBA season and sixth since 2009-10.  It's the eighth game with at least 30 points, seven rebounds and 11 turnovers since 1990 and first since Kevin Durant on Jan. 22 last year.  All four aforementioned stats are the first to happen exactly as listed in basketball-reference.com's database, which goes back to 1985-86.

No Dunleavy or Butler meant more chances for the remaining Bulls to score.  Pau Gasol and Joakim Noah had respective double-doubles of 18 and 16, followed by 18 and 15.  Taj Gibson was one rebound short of a double-double, but still scored 10.  Aaron Brooks also had 10 and Nikola Mirotic totaled 12.

It's frustrating to see the Bulls playing down to their level of competition and yet, so satisfying to see them come away with wins such as this.  I don't know what goes on behind closed doors, but it would be nice for someone to say they need to have these efforts with everybody, not just the league's elite.  Championship teams almost always take of business no matter how good or bad their opponent on a given night is.  Hopefully, the second half of the season can get some consistency going.

Thursday will be a nationally televised tilt with the Los Angeles Lakers.  No Kobe Bryant means a bad purple-and-gold team becomes worse going forward, but we can't chalk this up as a Bulls win yet.  We've seen so-called easy games turn into disappointments more often than we'd like this season.  Stop letting that happen and run the terrible clubs out of the building no matter where you are (especially at home, but we'll talk about that after this road trip).

Why-teside?

Every now and then, your team gets burned by a player you never would have thought twice about going in.  During Sunday's nationally televised tilt with the Miami Heat, center Hasaan Whiteside, who hadn't sniffed the NBA since the 2011-12 season, let the Bulls and everyone else know who he was.  It came during a 96-84 Bulls loss which looked rather lethargic.

The Bulls barely held a lead all afternoon thanks to bad shooting and a poor defensive game plan.  It was the latest in what has been an average home season (13-11) and a poor one against teams below .500.  Not exactly what you want to build on what had been two great victories against San Antonio and Dallas.  And with the Disney on Ice trip starting this week, that's even more deflating despite a nice road season to this point (16-6).

Whiteside, in just his 37th NBA game, came off the bench to achieve his first career triple-double of 14 points, 13 rebounds and 12 blocks.  The number of shots he sent back are a Miami franchise record and a high for the NBA this season.  That meant limited second chances for the Bulls, although the rest of Miami's defense certainly did its part.  Collectively, it was a nice effort on their part, but it served to show what could be another Miami asset in the making.

Additionally, four Heat starters scored in double figures.  Leading the charge was Dwyane Wade, who characteristically scored 12 of his game-high 26 points in the fourth quarter.  Chris Bosh wasn't far behind with 20, illustrating how even without LeBron James, that's still an explosive duo.  Luol Deng, in his Chicago homecoming, shared a 15-point total with Mario Chalmers and grabbed 10 rebounds for a double-double.

Derrick Rose led the Bulls with 19 on 7-of-17 shooting, but missed all six of his three-point attempts.  Aaron Brooks had 17 off the bench and went four-of-five from beyond the arc.  For the second straight home game, he completed a four-point play.  Pau Gasol had yet another double-double (13 and 17) and Taj Gibson came close (11 and eight).

Although analysts continue to insist the Bulls have enough talent to make a deep playoff run, they continue to frustrate their fans and themselves.  How many more of these types of losses must we take?  Every time they show signs of breaking out of this bad stretch, they revert right back to their disinterested ways and playing down to the competition.  If they do this in the playoffs, they'll get blown out of the first round.

It won't get any easier as the long road trip starts Tuesday against the Golden State Warriors.  If the Bulls can somehow play with a sense of urgency again, all will be forgiven for the time being.  But if they follow up such a performance with a putrid showing against the Lakers Thursday, we'll be talking about this all over again.  Win or lose, we just want some consistency.