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Bulls Game No. 57: The good, the bad and the ugly from Monday’s win over Milwaukee

By Michael Whitlow

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71. 89. 87. 24. Final

Despite an ugly-looking start to the second half of the season, the Chicago Bulls are actually one of the hotter teams in the Eastern Conference, after winning their sixth game in the last seven games on Monday night.

Just when you think the Chicago Bulls “are who you think they are“, they flip the script and win six of seven games to sit inside the Eastern Conference’s top three seeds right after the All-Star break.

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Tony Snell led all scorers on Monday night with 20 points off the bench and Nikola Mirotic provided a 16-point, 14-rebound performance in an 87-71 Bulls victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.

Snell and Mirotic proved two big sparks off the bench for the Bulls, who got just 19 points alone from the starting backcourt of Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler.

Here’s a look at the good, the bad and the ugly for the Bulls during the second game of a current seven-game homestand heading into the month of March:

“The Good”: #SummerLeagueSnell and #Threekola

The best sight of the night for the Bulls was easily the duo of Snell and Mirotic scoring 36 points, 16 rebounds and six made three-pointers combined.

Snell scored 18 of his 20 points in the first half and Mirotic not only chipped in with his third double-double of the season, the rookie from Montenegro played over 30 minutes for just the fourth time all season long.

One of Nikola Mirotic’s biggest supporters? None other than superstar point guard Derrick Rose.

"“He’s a good player, a great player,” Rose said. “This is his first year so he’s just trying to catch his rhythm. I love the way he’s playing, there’s a lot of confidence in his game.”-Derrick Rose on Nikola Mirotic, CSNChicago.com"

Snell also received high praise from head coach Tom Thibodeau after finding his hot streak again on Monday night.

"“Tony is playing well, as long as he’s playing well, he’s going to keep playing,” said Thibodeau before dropping a revealing comment. “He’s playing very good basketball so you don’t have to worry about Tony being in the rotation.”-Tom Thibodeau on Tony Snell, CSNChicago.com"

“The Bad”: Derrick “1-for-13” Rose

Sure, superstars in the NBA have “off-nights”. It happens.

But, even with eight assists and five rebounds, Derrick Rose was awful on Monday night on the offensive end. When you play the Bucks, you can probably afford your face of the franchise to miss 12 of his 13 shot attempts, including missing six of his seven three-point attempts.

There were times where Rose looked comfortable attacking the paint — he made five of six free throw attempts — but Monday was a bad night for Rose.

Despite a bad offensive night, Rose received a vote of confidence from his head coach. “I liked the way he played tonight, even though he did not shoot well,” Thibodeau said. “I thought he was aggressive defensively. He was doing other things to help the team win.”

“The Ugly”: Monday’s game as a whole

The Bulls winning at home (and winning comfortably) is a pleasant sight for Bulls fans all over, but let’s be honest: Monday’s game was a train wreck.

Both teams shot under 36 percent from the floor(!) and combined for 28 turnovers in a game that saw 158 combined points, which is low for today’s day in the NBA with the rise of three-point shooting and spacing.

Credit should be given to the Bulls for one of their better defensive efforts of the season. When you do that though, you have to factor in that the Bucks were severely impacted by the recent trade deadline when they sent Brandon Knight to the Phoenix Suns and their current point guard, Michael Carter-Williams, has yet to see action for Milwaukee.

Next up for the Bulls (36-21): Home vs. Charlotte, 2/25, 7:00 PM CT.

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