Bulls prepare for finishing kick
The Bulls will return to practice Wednesday rested and refreshed after an extended all-star break.
Keeping one of the top three seeds in the East is a desirable goal. But the Bulls need to improve, not repeat, their pre-break performance.
With that in mind, here's a checklist for how the Bulls can finish strong during these final 28 games of the regular season.
Buying or Snelling
Before the break, Tony Snell might have turned in the best two-game shooting performance in franchise history.
In the wins over Cleveland and Sacramento, Snell knocked down 18 of 22 shots from the field and scored a combined 46 points. The last Bulls player to shoot 80 percent from the field over two games while scoring at least 20 points in each was Horace Grant in 1991.
Of course, there's no chance Grant drained 9 baskets from 3-point range during his 80-percent shooting spree the way Snell did.
If Snell keeps this up, he will be the greatest late-season X-factor in the history of the NBA. But while the second-year swingman has been consistently pretty good for the past month, there's no telling what to expect when the Bulls resume play Friday at Detroit.
This much is true: Snell has been playing well enough for coach Tom Thibodeau to consider dropping Kirk Hinrich from the rotation when he returns from a turf-toe injury. Snell is never going to be a physical defender, but he had the speed and long arms to at least challenge LeBron James before the break.
Rose to the rack
Here's a number that hardly requires a mention: Derrick Rose is shooting 29.4 percent from 3-point land this season.
He can get hot from the outside, but generally Rose does not excel as a long-range launcher. On the other hand, he is shooting 47.2 percent on 2-point shots this season.
Obvious to any Bulls observer, when Rose is pushing the ball and attacking the basket, he's still one of the NBA's best offensive weapons.
He says his knees are feeling fine, but it also seems apparent Rose relies on the 3-point shot because he's either tired or not feeling up to the task of attacking the basket.
No one expected to see vintage Rose after nearly two years on the sideline. So the fact that we're seeing it some of the time is encouraging. The most hopeful Bulls scenario has Rose feeling close to 100 percent by the playoffs, ready to stay on the attack for entire games.
Get some stops
Remember early in the season when the Bulls weren't great on defense but were able to turn it up in the fourth quarter? Yeah, what happened to those guys?
Well, during the four-game winning streak leading into the break, the Bulls gave up an average of 88.3 points, so maybe that's a step in the right direction.
It seems as though the Bulls' defensive issues start with the decision to drop Thibodeau's usual practice of attacking pick-and-rolls. Instead, they're letting the big men (Pau Gasol mainly) back off and watch what happens. Quite often that's a guard accepting the screen and burying an uncontested 17-foot jumper.
Will the Bulls change tactics when the playoffs approach? Will they sit Gasol in the fourth quarter? Those are interesting questions.
Refine the offense
Sure, Pau Gasol has been a great addition. But how much has he improved the Bulls?
Gasol, Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson have combined for 36.8 points this season. Last year Noah, Gibson and Carlos Boozer combined for 39.3 points.
There are plenty of reasons for that. Noah hasn't been completely healthy. Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler are scoring far more than they did last year, which leaves fewer opportunities for the big men.
But another way for the Bulls to finish strong would be to get Noah and Gibson playing more at last season's level, as well as meshing better with Gasol's skill set.
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