Recounting highlights of the Bulls' circus trip
The Bulls followed up the circus road trip with a Thanksgiving vacation.
With just one game in a span of seven days, coach Fred Hoiberg gave the Bulls the weekend off. Practice will resume Monday and they don't play again until hosting the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday.
The Bulls went 4-2 on the circus trip, their best record on this annual event since going 6-1 in 1996-97. It's only the third time they've posted a winning record out of 17 tries since the championship era ended. Twice, Tom Thibodeau's teams went 4-3 on the circus trip, in 2010 and 2014.
The November road trip used to be an absolute nightmare for the Bulls. They went 0-32 over a five-year stretch from 1999-2003.
So there is reason for the Bulls to celebrate. Here's a look back at the biggest highlights from this year's circus trip, which might be the last one. The United Center will reportedly change or cancel their agreement with Ringling Bros.
Butler's star shines:
The formula for winning in the NBA is pretty simple. First, find yourself a superstar and go from there.
The Bulls have reason to feel good about Jimmy Butler's rise. On the road trip, he averaged 28.3 points, 8.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists. Butler shot 51 percent from the field and averaged close to 10 free throw attempts per game.
Other players have better offensive numbers, but when factoring his defense, Butler ranks as one of the league's elite. Starting in the All-Star Game and making an All-NBA team for the first time seem like reasonable goals this season.
Bookend blowouts:
The Bulls started and finished the trip with easy victories where they jumped to an early lead and were never seriously threatened.
They should have won Friday in Philadelphia against a Sixers team resting top scorer Joel Embiid. But the opening game in Portland didn't seem to be a likely victory when the Bulls were packing for the road.
Escape room:
On an off day in Denver, the Bulls organized a team trip to an escape room challenge. That's where groups of people are locked in a room and have to follow clues to figure out how to exit.
The outing was a good example of how the Bulls have better team chemistry, which seems to carry onto the court. There were also social media accounts of a team-wide movie night early in the trip.
Dinner with the Anthonys:
Dwyane Wade got a chance to catch up with former Bulls star Derrick Rose at Carmelo Anthony's Thanksgiving dinner in New York City. Wade and his wife Gabrielle Union chartered a helicopter to travel from Philadelphia to New York and treated Snapchat followers to a nice nighttime view of the Statue of Liberty from the air.
Room to improve:
There weren't any strong negatives from the trip, but the Bulls' reserves didn't have many highlights and continue to be a concern. Also, strength of schedule should temper enthusiasm for the 10-6 start. The Bulls have just two victories over teams with a winning record as of Sunday morning - Boston in the season opener and Utah.
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