Just like in '77, these Bulls could surprise
INDIANAPOLIS - There was once a Bulls team that featured a brand new center, small backcourt and a rookie chosen high in the draft.
That squad appeared headed for a mediocre finish with a 24-34 record on Feb. 18, then made a sudden, shocking turnaround. After closing the regular season by winning 20 of 24 games, those Bulls lost a tense playoff series to a team that went on to win the NBA title.
All this happened in the 1976-77 season. Granted, Brad Miller bears no resemblance to Artis Gilmore; Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon don't exactly conjure memories of Norm Van Lier and Wilbur Holland; while No. 2 draft pick Scott May had more in common with Luol Deng than Rose.
That team does have some relevance today, though, because the Bulls have a chance to make a late-season surge. Maybe not a 20-4, push-Bill-Walton's-Trail-Blazers-to-the-limit kind of surge, but the opportunity is clearly there.
The Bulls have shown considerable improvement during the past three weeks by playing with an energetic, up-tempo style. Now they'll find out if the new additions bolster the effort or mess up the successful chemistry.
Sunday's 98-91 loss at Indiana didn't help the cause. While the Bulls played their first game with Miller, swingman John Salmons and forward Tim Thomas, the Pacers preyed on the unfamiliarity by getting aggressive on defense and throwing constant double teams during the final four minutes, when the Bulls were outscored 14-7.
Salmons has a chance to be an effective scorer off the bench. He hit 4 of 8 shots for 12 points and knocked down his first 3-point shot of the game off a pass from Deng. Andres Nocioni usually needed to a couple misses before heating up from long range.
"I like that he can go off the dribble and make plays," coach Vinny Del Negro said of Salmons. "He had a few assists, made some nice passes."
Miller played Sunday for the first time since Jan. 30 when the Bulls trounced his Kings team in Sacramento. The 11th-year center has been out with an abdominal strain and was rusty in his Bulls return, hitting 1 of 5 shots for 6 points, to go with 10 rebounds.
Thomas had a nice eight-minute run in the second half and knocked down a couple of long jumpers, which was exactly how the Bulls planned to use him.
"Obviously we would like to win the game," guard Kirk Hinrich said. "But I think we definitely showed some signs of what we can do when everybody gets more familiar with each other."
Even with the loss to Indiana, the Bulls are 7-4 in their last 11 games and could easily be 9-3 in the last 12 if they had held late fourth-quarter leads at Minnesota and Dallas. One more basket or favorable call would have changed the result of both games.
Looking at the schedule, it's no stretch to believe the Bulls could be above .500 and rank even higher than eighth place in the East at the end of the season.
This week provides an interesting test. With just one more practice day to prepare, the Bulls face a stretch of four games in five nights, starting with Orlando at home on Tuesday. They'll travel to New Jersey and Washington, then host Houston on Saturday.
There are a couple of tough stretches, such as a three-game road trip to Miami, Orlando and Philadelphia, then home games against Boston and the Los Angeles Lakers. But after playing the Lakers on March 21, the Bulls get eight of their final 12 at home and all of those games are winnable on paper. The best opponent on the schedule is Miami.
If Del Negro would only pull out an Ed Badger-style leisure suit, this could be 1977 all over again. The hair already fits.