I cannot for the life of me figure out this Bulls team. I really can't.
After producing arguably their ugliest performance of the season on Saturday night against the 76ers in arguably their biggest game of the year, the Bulls bounced back to beat the scorching hot Nets 104-101 last night. Can someone explain how these frantic mood swings work, please?
I just don't get these guys. At tipoff, when I saw Luol Deng, Chris Duhon, Eric Piatkowski, and Darius Songalia all lined up in suits on the bench, I figured we were about to embark on one of the Bulls ugly performances. You know, one of those games in which they're down by about 20 in the third quarter and Scott Skiles is frantically changing lineups at a maddening rate as if seeing how Randy Livingston and Luke Schenscher play at the same time on the floor is going to change anything. It would have been understandable. But instead, the Bulls pulled it together and beat a team that had won 15 of 16. They're crazy.
Ben Gordon scored 21 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter and Andres Nocioni had his seventh consecutive double-double, meaning things continue to look much like last year. The Bulls have won seven of nine and travel to Atlanta tonight.
I'll be honest. This game with the Hawks scares me. It would be just like the Bulls to follow up a great win with a clunker against an also-ran. Hopefully, Luol Deng is back because, I swear, I saw Skiles crack a smile late in the win over the Nets. I'm not kidding. It was small, and, in fact, one could probably argue it wasn't really a smile at all, but I thought it was, and I like the good vibes. I don't think Skiles has smiled since he lost his hair.
We're coming for ya, Pistons, we're coming for ya.
Here we go now.
