Tweet of the Night: Michael Wilbon puts the Chicago Bulls on blast

The Chicago Bulls have been one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference for much of the season, and they are still the favorites to come out of the East in Vegas when all said and done.

Does that sound right, though?

They finished with a fourth-best 27-14 at home last season in the conference with a seemingly worse roster than the one they currently sport, but are already closing in on the 14 losses from last year (there is still over half the season left to play) with an anemic record of 12-9 at the United Center. Yes, that’s a winning record and for whatever this is worth, still good enough for the fourth-best mark in the East. It’s just not “the best in the East” kind of material. Nowhere close to it, in fact, with Atlanta, Washington and Toronto combining for a 49-12 record at home.

Simply put, you have to take care of homecourt if you want to be a great team in the playoffs, and the Bulls have failed to do so in a big way for some unexplained reason. Why is it unexplained? Because they are 14-5 on the road – the third best mark in the entire league. It’s tough to blame it on the schedule, given inexplicable losses to weaker teams like Brooklyn, Utah, Orlando, Indiana and Boston – all teams with a sub .500 record. To be completely fair, the team has had some injury issues with various players on the roster, but that’s something most teams have to deal with as well.

After watching the Bulls suffer yet another home loss on Wednesday against the Washington Wizards, Mike Wilbon of ESPN had some critical words for the Vegas favorites:

Hard to figure out how Bulls are East betting favorite in Vegas when one team after another comes to Chicago and smacks ’em around…

— Michael Wilbon (@RealMikeWilbon) January 15, 2015

Fair to now wonder if Thibs can’t wake them up if and when players themselves will decide to start playing with energy and purpose again???

— Michael Wilbon (@RealMikeWilbon) January 15, 2015