Bulls continue to show that, yes, they can

The Bulls keep raising expectations.

They started this mysterious season as maybe a .500 team if all their new players and coaches jelled quickly.

Then maybe the Bulls could be a playoff team. Then maybe they could earn homecourt advantage in the first round. Then maybe they could win the conference …

Now maybe the Bulls can — my goodness, dare we say — win the freakin’ NBA title.

Heck, why not? Why not the Bulls? Why not here? Why not now? Why not discount all the other why nots?

That was foremost among the thoughts that flitted through the mind Sunday as the Bulls extended the escalating excitement with an 87-86 victory at Miami.

The Bulls again played with a subtle swagger that whispers to the world that they think they’re good enough to beat anybody, anywhere, anytime.

Perhaps the rest of us should start thinking that, too. Or maybe you already had and I’m simply late to the party?

“We’re an all-right team … we can play,” Derrick Rose said on national television after the game with that knowing smile of his.

It’s still too early to go crazy and predict that the Bulls will even make the NBA Finals, much less win them. But about an hour before the Heat game I read rankings by a noted national pro basketball writer.

The Bulls were No. 2 in the entire league, behind only the San Antonio Spurs.

Didn’t that sort of sneak up on you as the Bulls steadily advanced through the season, up the standings and into higher expectations?

Rose is a contender for league Most Valuable Player now. Tom Thibodeau is a contender for league Coach of the Year. The Bulls might as well be contenders for league champions.

Whatever happens from here, it has become clear that Rose not only is a superstar point guard but a savvy analyst: The Bulls indeed can play.

Seriously, for four months now the Bulls pounded at instincts that insisted they couldn’t have become this proficient this soon.

Rose declared in training camp that he could be the MVP, and it was hard to believe him. The Bulls beat the Lakers, Heat or Spurs, and it was difficult to believe they did. They came home with a winning record from a customarily losing road trip, and it was hard to believe it wasn’t a fluke.

The Bulls won when Carlos Boozer was injured. They won when he came back and Joakim Noah went out with an injury. Now they’re winning when everybody is healthy.

At some point this has to be considered more than luck. It has to be either a good team playing great or a great team playing at a championship level.

For now it’s up to you to decide which.

Personally I’m still not certain how good the Bulls are, but the past week eliminated any doubt that they’re, as Rose put it, “an all-right team.”

The Bulls went 4-1 on the recent road trip that ended in a victory over the Magic with Dwight Howard and the completion of a sweep of the season series over the Heat with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

The Bulls are 25 games over .500 at 43-18, ahead of Miami by 2 games in the loss column for second place in the East and scaring the shorts off first-place Boston.

Not bad for a team of which little was expected a few months ago, except by the players themselves.

Until they prove otherwise, these Bulls sure can play.

mimrem@dailyherald.com