Breaking Down The Chicago Bulls Current Win Streak

The Chicago Bulls continued their tradition of outstanding Christmas Day play, with a commanding 113-93 victory at the United Center against the Los Angeles Lakers. Decked in their wacky and festive holiday garb, the Bull’s put together a solid performance start to finish to solidify their recent domination of the now lowly Los Angles Lakers.

Dec 25, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Aaron Brooks (0) shoots the ball past Los Angeles Lakers center Jordan Hill (27) during the second half at the United Center. The Bulls won 113-93. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

The Chicago Bulls have won 8 of their last 10 games and have accumulated an impressive record of 20-9 through their first 29 games of the season. In recent articles on this website, I have suggested that, given the talent all across the roster of this team, the Chicago Bulls have to be considered one of the NBA’s biggest underachievers. After a loss to the Dallas Mavericks on December 2, the Bulls had a disappointing 11-7 record with some ugly losses sprinkled among the 18 games that they had played at that point in the season. Over the last two weeks, the Bulls have executed a complete turnaround and are playing their best basketball of the season. Since December 12th, the Bulls have beat two Western Conference powerhouses in Portland and Memphis and reasserted their Eastern Conference dominance with convincing wins against Toronto and Washington. The Bulls are finally showing that championship potential that we all knew they had at the beginning of the season. A number of factors have attributed to the elite-level play as of late for Chicago. In this article, lets explore some of these factors and suggest reasons why the Bulls have turned their season from good to great in such a short span of time.

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Much of the Chicago Bulls recent success stems from the unit as a whole becoming recommitted to playing hard on the defensive end of the ball. The Bulls are surrendering an uncharacteristic 98.9 points per game to opponents, the highest average total in Thibodeau’s tenure with the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls rank 12th in this statistical category during the 2014-2015 season, after not being outside the top 3 in opponents point average since the 2009-2010 seasons. Some of this regression in defensive production stems from the Bull’s better and faster offense which allows for the opposition to have more possessions per game which explains the elevated points per game statistic. But in the Bull’s most recent 9 game stretch of outstanding on-court performance, the team has really amped up the defensive intensity and its manifestation is apparent in the improvement statistically. In the last 9 games, the Bulls have given up 94.66 points to opponents which is much more on par with what a traditional Tom Thibodeau defense has given up. A focused collective effort made internally by the team has obviously transpired to explain the complete turnaround of this team defensively. When they put forth a concerted team wide effort they are an elite level team defensively as proven by the last 9 games. This is a large part of the reason why they have turned things around.

Dec 25, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Ronnie Price (9) prepares to shoot the ball as Chicago Bulls guard Jimmy Butler (21) defends during the second quarter at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

The Chicago Bulls point per game total doesn’t tell the whole story. In opponent field goal percentage, the Bulls reside tied second in the league. So teams aren’t making many shots rather they’re getting more opportunities because the Bulls play at a much faster pace this season than they have in seasons past. However, the aforementioned drop in opponents point per game averages over the last 9 games remains significant because it isn’t like the Bulls suddenly decided to slow down their offense. They are still playing at the same pace, but are giving up less buckets perhaps because the newly found focus on the defensive side of the ball has yielded more turnovers, blocked shots, etc. The Chicago Bulls biggest problem defensively early in the season was their inability to get key stops late in game to give themselves opportunities to win the ball game. With the exception of the Atlanta Hawks game, the Bulls have done just that, securing close victories against quality opponents late in games in several of these contests in this 9 game stretch. With the way that this offense can score this season, they don’t have to lean solely on their defense to stay in games. If they can tighten the screws defensively late in games like they have as of late, they will win a ton of games.

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As the games have piled up, the continuity issues that I have tried to highlight so diligently on this site have slowly abated. With a large crop of new faces, the issue of teamwork and having a lot of turnovers was inevitable. However, the season average of 13,9 turnovers per game, ranking 15th in the NBA, really hurt the Bulls in a lot of games earlier in the season. The Bulls are finally playing well as a team, and it has manifested into improved play as of late. The Bulls have won their last five games and during this stretch they have averaged only 11.2 turnovers per game. To put this in perspective, if the Bulls kept up this 11.2 turnovers per game pace the entire season they would rank second in the NBA in that category.

Dec 25, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Jimmy Butler (21) dribbles the ball as Los Angeles Lakers forward Wesley Johnson (11) defends during the second quarter at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

Further piggybacking on the issue of continuity, this problem largely stemmed from the Bulls inability to stay healthy. Although there haven’t been any major injuries thus far (knock on wood), almost every key Chicago Bulls player has missed some time with an assortment of injuries and ailments. Rose has missed 10 games this season, Noah has missed 7, Gasol 3 and Taj has missed 9. During this recent stretch where the Bulls have played their best basketball of the season, the injury report has been significantly shortened in length.In addition, the Bulls have begun to figure out how to win without some of their key players. In perhaps their most impressive win of the entire season, the Bulls went into Memphis and gutted out a 103-97 victory without Derrick Rose and Taj Gibson. The Bulls also went 2-1 against three playoff bound teams in Portland, Miami and Atlanta without their leader, Joakim Noah. Earlier in the season, injuries really plagued the Bulls and they struggled winning games without some of their key contributors. As all championship teams must do, the Bulls have turned this around and gutted out victories against quality opponents without key players. In the long NBA season and throughout the playoffs, it is foolish to believe that a team will survive unscathed by injury. That is why it is such a good sign to see the Bulls play well in the last 9 games despite continuing to be plagued by the injury bug.

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Last season, the Bulls were obviously in a lot of nationally televised games because when the NBA scheduled these games they expected that Rose would survive an entire season. I vividly remember hearing one of the national announcers on either ESPN or TNT exclaim that watching the Bull’s offense was like pulling teeth because they had to labor so desperately in order to manufacture a quality shot. At the time, I scoffed at this comment, dismissing it as an uneducated rant made by a person that doesn’t truly follow the Bulls very closely. However, it is undeniable that the Bull’s inability to score points ultimately contributed greatly to their premature exit from the playoffs.  Despite surmounting all expectations after their star went down with an MCL tear and their 2nd leading scorer was traded to Cleveland for peanuts and a handshake, the offense remained a major weakness on this team. . Man have things changed in Chicago. Over the last 4 games the Bulls have put up 108.5 points per game. Small sample size? Yes, but still impressive that has traditionally struggled to break 100 consistently. The Chicago Bulls season average is 103.2 points per game, which ranks 8th in the entire NBA. Since 2010, the Bulls have failed to put up more than 98.6 points per game. In the two seasons where Rose sat out with injury, the Bulls ranked dead last in the entire NBA in points per game. The great improvement in this category speaks to managements’ commitment to get better by addressing the teams’ most pressing issue by bringing in all these powerhouse offensive players. When you break down the Bull’s offensive numbers into an even more revealing category, the Bulls offense looks even better. The Chicago Bulls rank 5th in the NBA in offensive efficiency which evens the playing field by adjusting the scoring totals per 100 possessions eliminating the confounding variable of pace that obviously affects how many points a team scores in a game. The Chicago Bulls are winning games because of their prolific offense for the first time in the ‘Tom Thibodeau Era”. If they raise the defense to the level of the offense they are going to be a difficult team to beat in May and July.

Dec 25, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose (1) shoots the ball past Los Angeles Lakers forward Ed Davis (21) during the second half at the United Center. The Bulls won 113-93. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

The Chicago Bulls look to continue their winning ways on Saturday when they square off against the.500 New Orleans Pelicans.