The Chicago Bulls recent stretch has left fans with little hope about their postseason odds. The team is currently 0-18 against each conferences top three seeds and have had trouble against tougher competition all year. They have lost the season series to each of the top four seeds in the East, getting swept by Milwaukee, Miami, and Philadelphia.
And now, the Bulls will be stuck facing the defending champion Bucks in the first round of the playoffs.
This isn’t the first time that a Chicago basketball team entered the playoffs after a disappointing regular season, though. The reigning WNBA champion Chicago Sky faced a similar sense of uncertainty just last year.
The Sky managed to somehow win the WNBA Championship as the No. 6 seed, something that had never been done in the league’s 25 years of existence.
They were led by veteran Candace Parker and were pushed over the top by inexperienced young guard Kahleah Copper.
How does the Bulls’ season compared to the Chicago Sky’s championship run?
The Sky and Bulls both dealt with lack of key players’ availability throughout their regular seasons, whether it was injuries or Olympic obligations. The Sky entered the season expecting to compete for their first WNBA championship. They added a future Hall of Famer in Parker to an already established roster and had multiple players returning with playoff experience.
They opened the year strong, appearing to be one of the best teams in the league. They then went on an insane skid, losing seven straight games, which was their worst losing streak since 2012 when they finished six games under .500.
The losing streak wasn’t because of lack of firepower. The team had three All-Stars and four rising young stars. They were without Parker for a long stretch, but still had the strength of roster to be able to compete. But their poor play dropped them from first to sixth in the WNBA standings and the fanbase wasn’t too excited about their playoff odds. The team harped on their defensive identity, but it was no where to be found in that stretch.
To make matters worse, they couldn’t score to save their lives. They shot 38% from the field as a team while they spiraled and became iso heavy, with the role players struggling to make an impact.
Sound familiar?
If it did, that’s because the Bulls are going through the exact same problem — word for word, flow for flow.
The lack of consistency within the Bulls’ lineups has killed their offensive chemistry and forced the team into relying on isolation basketball. The role players are often standing around waiting for the stars to make something happen. The stars pound the ball until the shot clock runs down and then either force up bad attempts or kick it out for a rushed shot.
How did the Sky turn their play around in the postseason?
The Sky rallied together at the right time. The team locked in on defense, ending the playoffs with the best defensive rating, and found their offense when they needed to. Parker established herself as the team’s leader and did so through action.
She was everywhere on the stat sheet despite being a post player. She was in the top three for each major statistical category for the team and even stepped up defense even though she was coming off an injury.
By the veteran — without anything to prove — giving the ultimate effort, the rest of the team followed suit. Most of the women grew up watching and admiring Parker, so seeing her set the bar was all that was needed for the team to flip the switch.
The stars were first to follow Parker’s lead. Alex Quigley did something that hadn’t been done often in her career … she played hard-nosed defense. In their first-round matchup against the Dallas Wings, she took the challenge of defending scoring wizard Arike Ogunbowale. Courtney Vandersloot switched her game up, allowing Kahleah Copper and Diamond DeShields to initiate the offense and move without the ball. Both were more willing to share the ball earlier in the shot clock, allowing the role players to make a mark on the game early.
The role players weren’t timid about looking to score. The feeling of stepping on the stars’ toes was eliminated and the team became a lethal force.
How can the Bulls turn it around like the Sky did in the NBA playoffs
The Sky’s play wasn’t about future contracts or self narratives. They wanted to win it all for the city and each other. The team knew the narratives surrounding Parker, Vandersloot, Quigley and head coach James Wade. Even though they were young and playing underwhelming basketball, they were inspired to prove the doubters wrong and bring a championship back to Chicago.
The Bulls can have the same flip, and it will start with DeMar DeRozan. He’s the team’s vet with the most playoff experience. He played with champions and has suffered the heartbreak of being sent home early.
He knows what it takes, seeing it done to him firsthand, usually by the work of LeBron James. His leadership has given the team confidence most of the season, but it hasn’t been enough. His scoring is impactful, but he has to take his leadership to the next level and buckle down defensively.
The Bulls will not win a game in the first round if they continue to play defense the way they’ve been since the beginning of March. They need to up their intensity and make opposing guards work in the half court. DeRozan setting the tone will trickle down to the role players, the same way it did for the Sky.
More than anything, the stars have to be willing to get the ball to their role players. They have essentially been playing three on five for most of the second half of the season with the lack of involvement on that end. That will make winning a seven-game series nearly impossible.
The Bulls need to rewatch the Sky’s run to the franchise’s first championship and find a way to duplicate their turnaround because the parallel here with how they both ended the regular season is just too similar not to act on it.