Following yet another key win for second-year head coach Billy Donovan and the Chicago Bulls on the road on the night of Nov. 19 over the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena, this team is starting to really establish itself as a postseason contender in the Eastern Conference. The Bulls are now sporting a record of 11-5 after a 114-108 win over a Nikola Jokic-less Nuggets team entering the weekend.
That 11-5 record is good to tie the Bulls for second-best in the Eastern Conference standings as of the early afternoon of Nov. 21. And that could change further for Donovan and the Bulls as the team gets set to take on former Chicago head coach Tom Thibodeau and the New York Knicks on Nov. 21.
Which Eastern Conference teams would Billy Donovan and the Chicago Bulls have an advantage against?
There is already an emphasis being placed on the Bulls’ rise as a true postseason contender in the East early on this season. If the Bulls keep getting this insane production from the star duo of shooting guard Zach LaVine and shooting guard/forward DeMar DeRozan throughout the season, there’s no reason why this team shouldn’t be a top contender in the East heading into the postseason.
The Bulls were just able to make it through one of the most challenging phases of the regular season schedule in the past couple of weeks. Making it through that should put the rest of the NBA on notice that this team is for real. We’ll see if the Bulls can parlay this momentum to find more success as roughly 20 percent of the season is now in the rearview mirror.
With that in mind, here’s a look into three teams in the Eastern Conference right now that the Bulls could crush in a playoff series later on this season.