Chicago Bulls Sending Loud Message To NBA
The Chicago Bulls won on Monday 114-105, in a grueling game against the Houston Rockets. They are sending a loud message to the NBA — the Bulls can beat anybody, and they are not scared of the Western Conference.
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The Chicago Bulls beat the Houston Rockets on Monday 114-105, continuing their recent hot streak. They won three straight games, and are 13-2 in their last fifteen games.
The Bulls are sending a message to those who, while saying that the Bulls are the favorites to come out of the Eastern Conference, give them no chance of beating anyone in the Western Conference.
The Bulls pulled ahead of the Toronto Raptors for the second seed in the East, just 1 1/2 games behind the surprising Atlanta Hawks.
The Bulls, with Jimmy Butler being the main guy on defense, held the NBA’s leading scorer, James Harden, to just three points in the second half. He did score 20, but he missed all nine of his shots in the second half.
Butler is the leading candidate for Most Improved Player this season, but he is now creeping into the MVP discussion. In the final 3:19 of the game, Butler was terrific. He scored five points and played great defense, taking a charge against Harden that helped cap a 19-5 Bulls run.
The other MVP candidate, Pau Gasol, had 27 points and 4 rebounds. He is continuing his resurgent season. Rose, who just loves not having to carry the team, scored 19 points and dished out 9 assists. Rookie of the Month for December, Nikola Mirotic, continued his good play by adding 17 points.
With the victory, the Bulls are now 9-5 against the Western Conference. Three of those losses came on the circus road trip they took early in the season.
The Bulls beat the Rockets at their own game, going shot for shot with them. The difference between the two teams was evident down the stretch when the Bulls were able to put the clamps down defensively, but the Rockets could not keep the Bulls from scoring.
“It shows the versatility of this ballclub,” Joakim Noah said. “There’s a lot of talent. I think we got stops when we needed to, and there’s a lot of guys playing at a high level right now. It’s just fun to be a part of.”
What’s also fun is watching the Chicago Bulls play well on offense. They are seventh in the NBA in both scoring and offensive effectiveness, after finishing last for most of the past decade. Now that the Bulls have more options, one can see how good of a coach Tom Thibodeau really is. He has a great reputation as a defensive coach, but he is showing his chops as an offensive mind as well.
Even though the defense is taking a hit this season (the Bulls rank 13th in points allowed and 11th in defensive rating), don’t think that they have abandoned their defensive philosophy.
“Don’t say defensive mentality like that’s a negative,” Noah said. “It’s important. You need to be able to play defense if you want to win big in this league. But you also need to be able to score, and this is definitely the best offensive team that I’ve been a part of in my NBA career. But that being said, just because we can score doesn’t mean that defense isn’t important or as important. It’s just as important.”
Now that the Chicago Bulls are scoring points, the rest of the NBA cannot just look at them as a one-dimensional team. They can keep up with teams offensively now, and they still have that suffocating defense that can shut you down when needed. Just ask the Rockets.