With Jimmy Butler on the shelf for a month, the Bulls lost eight of the 11 games he missed, including four straight before Saturday night. Butler returned on Saturday, the Bulls won and the trajectory of the franchise appeared to change for an evening.
Whenever the Chicago Bulls play on national television — which, thanks to the NBA and a big market, that happens often — things get a little weird usually.
Even with Tom Thibodeau’s departure, the Bulls are almost a sure lock to win on national television and fool everyone into thinking that this franchise is a NBA Finals contender by beating a relevant name. Every time.
But, Saturday was a feel-good win for the Bulls.
Not only did the win end a four-game slide, the Bulls got Nikola Mirotic and Jimmy Butler back into the rotation. Mirotic was relatively quiet in over 15 minutes of his first game since Jan. 25, while Butler stole the show in his triumphant return.
Not only did Butler play around his usual minutes load (33:58), he looked great doing it. In all, Butler scored 24 points on 6-of-13 shooting, grabbed 11 rebounds and handed out six assists before fouling out for the first time in his career late in the fourth quarter.
“I was thirsty for steals,” Butler said with a laugh to sideline reporter Lisa Salters after the 108-100 win.
Despite the sometimes overly-aggressive defense that forced his first disqualification of his career on Saturday, Butler did the job once again on all-world scorer James Harden. When he was guarded by Butler, Harden only scored six of his game-high 36 points on 2-of-6 shooting with a trio of turnovers.
James Harden had 36 points tonight, but only 6 when guarded by @JimmyButler. pic.twitter.com/aX2euckCyF
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) March 6, 2016
“He’s huge,” teammate Derrick Rose said, via Sean Highkin of Bleacher Report. “Whenever he’s got the ball, you’ve got to stick to both of us. It’s hard to pay attention to both of us when we’re on the court. And we get to catch the ball with a live dribble, so that helps the team a lot. When we stop people, we’re very dangerous, with the shooters that we have and the way me and Jimmy put pressure on the defense.”
Rose isn’t wrong.
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Technically, the Bulls are a playoff team as of March 6, 2016. They currently hold the Eastern Conference’s eighth seed at 31-30 and have a slight half-game lead over the Detroit Pistons, who they have already lost twice to this season.
But, one game against a weird club in the Houston Rockets doesn’t change the fact that they were tailspinning out of control before Butler’s (and Mirotic’s) return to action.
The Bulls are healthier than the previous four games, yes, but they’re still not in a great position.
It’s hard to ignore the fact the Bulls had 25(!) turnovers on Saturday and almost blew a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter. Again.
If the season ended today, they’d be flying to Cleveland for another encounter with LeBron James — who they’ve never beaten in the postseason in four tries.
Three of the Bulls’ next five games are on the road, including premier matchups with San Antonio and Toronto. There’s certainly some winnable games ahead — Brooklyn on Mar. 17, Sacramento on Mar. 21 and a home-and-home with New York — which means the Bulls are going to need Butler at his best.
Next: Bulls Need Jimmy Butler for Any Shot at Postseason
Without him (and more consistent play), the Bulls are likely looking a 1.7 percent chance of winning the NBA Draft Lottery again.