A History of the TNT Bulls
Game 0: The Last Loss
Basketball-Reference box score.
The Bulls were in bad shape. Lebron James and the Miami Heat were steamrolling them to a 86-67 loss and sending a clear message that LeBron couldn’t be touched in the East (some things haven’t changed). This game would end up being a season-low point total for Chicago and a season-high for turnovers with 27. They had lost four out of their last five, and it seemed as if the cloud of drama surrounding Derrick Rose’s injury would never be lifted from the organization.
Rose hadn’t been dealing with his ACL recovery in the most media-savvy of ways, having recently said that he wouldn’t be rushing back to the team even if he was cleared by doctors. Juxtaposed with Joakim Noah and Luol Deng gritting their teeth and putting their bodies on the line night in and night out, it wasn’t the best look for the former MVP. Fortunately for this team, they were only seven short days from the genesis of something bigger than all of them.
Game 1: It Begins with Noah
Basketball-Reference box score.
Since the 1983-84 season, only four players have ever recorded at least 20 points, 20 rebounds and 10 blocks in a regular season game. Joakim Noah is among them thanks to this game, the first of the streak. The Bulls beat the Sixers 93-82 on the back of arguably the greatest game of Noah’s career.
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It serves as a good encapsulation of everything that Noah was for Chicago this season. In the absence of Derrick Rose, Noah grew into a constant triple-double threat and a point-center before it was cool. The ball was going through him at the high post on almost every possession. He was an offensive force while also leading the race for defensive player of the year and race for who could potentially beat Tom Thibodeau in a shouting match. Read Robert Mays, then of Grantland, talk about Chicago and Philadelphia coming into the game.
"Both have spent this season without the star that was supposed to define their rosters. And both came into last night’s game mired in their worst stretch of the season. It was something, then, to watch how each responded at their lowest point. It’s not that the Sixers’ starters shared their apathy of their bench-dwelling teammates in their 93-82 loss; it’s that none of them were Joakim Noah."
Noah’s performance was so exciting that you could almost forget that he also tied a franchise record from 1977 for blocks in a single game. Thibs was asked about the showcase after the game and said, “His will from the start of the game until the end was just incredible. He was everywhere — blocked shots, switching, guarding everyone. Big-time multiple efforts.”
From Tom Thibodeau, “big-time multiple efforts” might as well equal “I love you.”