3. January 29 at Indiana
On the surface, it doesn’t seem like a January game against the Indiana Pacers would be the third-toughest game of the season for Chicago. But if you dive deeper, you’ll see that it is.
In the 2017-18 season, the Pacers went 3-1 against the Bulls and had an 11.8 plus/minus. In the 2018-19 season, the Pacers had a perfect 4-0 record against the Bulls. If you aren’t following along, I’ll help you out. Indiana is 7-1 in their last eight games against the Bulls, and all the Pacers did this summer was get better.
It’s important to mention that Indy did lose Bojan Bogdanovic – their best player post-Victor Oladipo injury – but they still got better overall. Adding Malcolm Brogdon was one of the most underrated moves of the summer. He provides them with a two-way presence on the perimeter that will carry them until Oladipo returns. And then when Oladipo is back and healthy, they’ll have one of the nastiest backcourts in the league.
The January 29th matchup between Chicago and Indy won’t be the first of the season between those two ball clubs, but it’ll likely be the first where Oladipo is healthy.
Indiana’s one of the most well-coached teams in the NBA, they play hard and they’ll be fighting for playoff positioning. That’s a bad combination for Chicago.