Friday, January 26, 2007

"Friday morning wake-up call"

The Chicago Bulls.

About a month ago I thought they were awful. Despite the signing of Ben Wallace during the off-season, this team couldn't score. And its defense wasn't even that good. It seemed locked into mediocrity, maybe heading for a first-round playoff exit in the anemic Eastern Conference at best.

I have changed my mind.

On Thursday night the Bulls defeated the Dallas Mavericks 96-85 to snap the Mavs' eight-game winning streak. Chicago improved to 25-19 and is just one game behind Detroit in the Central Division.

The Bulls have found their identity on the defensive end. They're giving up just 93.9 points per game, third in the East behind the Pistons and Orlando. Whenever a team plays defense that well, they're going to be in games, and that's when Chicago's streaky shooters such as Kirk Hinrich and Andres Nocioni can be deadly - in close, defensive games.

Another huge reason for the Bulls' turnaround has been the play of Luol Deng. The forward is averaging a career-high 18 points per game (second on the team to Ben Gordon's 21.3 ppg) and he's shooting a blistering 52.8 percent from the field. On a team that in recent years has settled for way too many outsider jumpers, Deng is beginning to show off that ability to not only get to the basket, but post up as well, which will create open shots from the outside.

He'll be very key in any run the Bulls make in the playoffs.

Just the fact that I'm talking about the Bulls and the playoffs is remarkable right now. A month ago they were nothing more than a middle-of-the-pack bunch of jump-shooters in a terrible conference.

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