A 106-87 Bulls victory combined with the Lakers snapping a 9-game losing streak against the Pistons in Detroit with their first win there since 2002 has elevated the Bulls to the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference.
John Salmons would lead the way with 27 pts, 5 ast, and 2 stl. He shot 12-22 from the field and was 2-4 on 3FG. Tyrus Thomas had a second straight double-double with 15 pts, 12 reb, 3 blks, and 1 stl. Noah was solid with 10 pts, 7 rebs, and 4 ast, and Brad Miller had 12pts, 7reb, and 4ast as the Bulls got solid production from all of their bigs. Kirk Hinrich had 15 pts on 5-10 shooting and knocked down 4 three-pointers in his second straight start for Derrick Rose, who came off the bench and played through his wrist injury to score 9pts, 7ast, and 5rebs.
Vinny stuck with a 7-man rotation since Tim Thomas was out with a back injury. Aside from 2 minutes of playing time each from Linton and Lindsey, only Ben Gordon and the players mentioned in the paragraph above played, with all except Rose playing more than 30 minutes.
The Bulls have won 6 of their last 7 games. If the season ended today, they would be playing the Orlando Magic in the opening round of the playoffs. The loss drops Miami from the 5th seed to the 6th seed behind Philadelphia by a winning percentage difference of .001% , and would face #3 seed Boston if the season ended today. The Bulls are 3.5 games behind Miami and Philadelphia for the 5/6 seeds. Philly has 12 games left on their schedule, Miami 10, and Chicago 9, so the only chance the Bulls realistically have of passing either team in the standings would likely have to include them going at least 8-1, if not 9-0 over their last 9 games.
The next 2 games are both must-wins, one against a team that’s dealing with injuries and another that’s underacheived. They get the injured Pacers at home on 2:00 Saturday and play in Toronto against the underachieving Raptors on Sunday afternoon. Of course, both of these teams already own W’s over the Bulls this season. We’ll see how it plays out. In the words of Hino…
KEEP THE FAITH
