in the ‘refuse to die’ part of the season
I’m very concerned. All it took was wins over the Pistons, Rockets, and strug-gle-ing Nuggets to get stuff like ‘season saved’ and picking out small samples of the team performing well.
Update after the Rockets game. The Bulls 5-man lineup of DeRo, Vuc, Bev, LaVine, and Caruso with 155 mins played together is:
1st in NBA* in Defensive Rating at 95.5
1st in NBA in Net Rating at 23.6
13th in NBA in Offensive Rating at 119.1(*Minimum 150 mins played together) https://t.co/V6QQnGTL3r
— Kevin Anderson (@Kevin_NBCS) March 12, 2023
No! What the fuck!
We should indeed ‘not look now’ when hearing the Bulls offense is 8th over 8 games when they played mostly awful defenses.
This wouldn’t be a concern if we had faith in the competence in the front office. But this stuff is going to go from the Bulls media’s mouths to AK’s mouth (bypassing the ears, no brain folks) in between sighs.
The play-in is still in play but we have seen enough. You can’t say that and then go back on it when you see more. If it looks like Zach LaVine has clicked for the 17th time in his career, you can say it, but only in case other teams executives also don’t know ball like ours and can be duped.
Shit, they may beat the Kings tonight, makes no difference. Bulls certainly have a rest advantage and are at home, but the Kings are the feel-good story of the season, up to 3rd in the West and may hit 50 wins for the first time in forever. They beat the Bulls in early December if you can remember that far back (I can’t, and I wrote this!). They have the best offense in basketball, but the 26th defense. So look for the Bulls to put up some points and take advantage, while the Kings are subdued by Chicago witchcraft and shoot 10/44 from three. It’ll be a close game and one the Bulls will likely lose, but they will have put up a good net rating. Just gotta give this group more time to grow.
Injury Report
Late scratch for the Bulls as Alex Caruso is out sick. I don’t follow betting lines too closely, but noticed that it went from Bulls -.5 to +1 after this news.
For the Kings, backup bigs Richaun Holmes (illness) and Trey Lyles (suspended) are out
Game Time: 7pm CST, NBC Sports Chicago