Teams usually struggle when starters and franchise players are constantly in and out of the lineup. But try telling that to the Chicago Bulls, who hold a record of 25-7, the best in the league. Derrick Rose missed his fourth straight game due to back issues Thursday night, but it did not matter as the Bulls improved to 7-2 without their franchise point guard and continued their dominance at home by defeating the Celtics 89-80. Granted, most of those wins without Rose
Injuries may have finally caught up with the Chicago Bulls. But no one has caught up with them in the Eastern Conference. Late in Wednesday’s loss to Indiana – Chicago’s first at home this season – Derrick Rose turned on the afterburners, sped to the basket and whipped a bullet pass to the weakside corner for a potential go-ahead 3-pointer by his small forward. However, standing in the corner was not Luol Deng, who is out with a wrist injury. In his
// Right about the time “Glee” was airing on Fox, Heat haters up and down the Eastern time zone were experiencing some unbridled glee of their own. The Heat were riding a three-game losing streak, Dwyane Wade was “celebrating” his 30th birthday by wearing a suit and nursing a sprained ankle, and Miami was being manhandled at home by San Antonio, digging itself a 17-point first-half hole. “Glee” ended on Fox at 9 p.m., right around the time the glee ended for
Come fourth quarter of Friday’s game against the Celtics, Bulls fans witnessed somewhat of a rarity, at least by this early season’s standards. About 90 seconds into the final quarter at the TD Garden, when the Celtics had slashed a 20-point deficit down to four, coach Tom Thibodeau looked to his bench and summoned two players we haven’t seen much of in fourth quarters this season, starters Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer. Welcome back to crunch time, fellas. Noah and Boozer played as
There are a dozen games on the slate Friday night, including the Mike D’Antoni Death Watch in Washington. However, the best of the bunch has the Chicago Bulls taking their five-game winning streak to Orlando, where their primary concern may not be Magic center Dwight Howard. Yes, Howard has been his usual monstrous self lately, ignoring the trade rumors to average 20 points, 18 rebounds and 2.8 blocks in his last five games. Right now, the best strategy appears is to
So, let’s go right ahead and get a little carried away over what went down during the fourth quarter in Chicago last night. We now know who the leading candidate is for MVP. It’s the same guy who won it last year, Derrick Rose, who knocked down three 3-pointers in the final period to bring Chicago back from a 12-point deficit. We now know who is the leading candidate for Coach of the Year, Tom Thibodeau, who has drilled his team every
The unrelenting schedule is about to backpick the Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks have to be feeling pretty good about themselves after Monday’s road win over previously unbeaten Miami. That is, if they had time to feel good about themselves. After the win, the Hawks boarded a plane for a three-hour flight to Chicago. They probably got into their hotel around 3 a.m. local time, grabbed some Z’s and awoke for a morning walkthrough before returning their hotel rooms, likely to nap until the
CHICAGO — I tried to not get caught up in all the hype surrounding the first week of the NBA season because, well, it’s the first week of a 66-game season. No matter how frantic the pace – four games in six nights for the Bulls – there’s still plenty of basketball to be played, and much more to be revealed. The first four games for Chicago, and the rest of the league for that matter, were more like an exercise