Bulls Charging Towards First In East
Now just one-and-a-half games back of the Boston Celtics, and with a favorable schedule to close out the season, potential MVP Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls are honing in on the number one seed in the Eastern Conference.
At 7-2 since the All-Star break, and having won four straight contests, the 45-18 Bulls have already clinched the Central Division title. Chicago is right on the heels of Boston for first place in the East, and has a fairly soft schedule leading into the postseason.
Just eight of Chicago’s final 19 games of the season are against teams that currently sport a winning record, and there will be a huge matchup between the Bulls and the Celtics on Apr. 7 that could decide who will have home court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs. But former Boston assistant coach, and now head coach of the Bulls, Tom Thibodeau refuses to let his team start looking ahead.
"For our team, we don’t want to skip any steps," Thibodeau said. "So we’re just focused on improving each and every day to get ready for the next game."
Arguably the best defensive team in basketball; Chicago allows just 91.4 points a game, 42.9 percent shooting from the field and out-rebounds their opponents by an average of 5.4 rebounds per contest — all NBA-bests. Fully healthy for the first time all season — pending Carlos Boozer’s return to the lineup from a sprained left ankle — Chicago seems ready to take that next step into the NBA’s elite.
Leading the Bulls from the point guard position is Rose, who, at just 22-years old, is already getting MVP endorsements — one from arguably the greatest basketball player of all time.
"MVP of the season," Charlotte Bobcats’ majority owner Michael Jordan told a group of reporters outside the visitors locker room in Charlotte after Wednesday’s 101-84 loss to the Bulls. "He deserves it. Without a doubt, and if he doesn’t get it, now he’ll see how I felt a lot of years."
{AUTHOR_BOX}Certainly on the short list of MVP-candidates at this point of the season, Rose is averaging 24.5 points and 8.1 assists per game to lead the Bulls this season. However, Rose was visibly stunned after he was relayed what NBA and Bulls’ legend Jordan had said about him.
"For him to say that, it’s unbelievable," Rose said. "It’s an honor and I’m speechless right now."
Never one to hog the spotlight, Rose insisted on praising the team rather than relish in his own possible individual accomplishments.
"Our biggest thing is playing together," Rose said. "Without my teammates I wouldn’t be playing [this] way and I know they’d say the same thing about everyone else on the team."
Earlier this week, Bulls’ owner Jerry Reinsdorf suggested that his team could win multiple titles by the time it’s all said and done. While that seems like a hasty prediction to most, Coach Thibodeau said he likes his owner’s enthusiasm, and knows Reinsdorf is willing to do whatever it takes to put a championship-contender on the court.
"We know we have great ownership with Jerry. I think it’s championship ownership," Thibodeau said. "Our team management is outstanding, I think it’s championship-caliber. We have an excellent group of assistant coaches, we’ve got a great group of players and we’re hoping to be a champion-caliber team. That’s what we’re striving for.
‘We feel like we have all the pieces necessary to move in that direction."
Nearly 13 years after the Jordan-led Bulls were dismantled following their sixth NBA title in the span of eight seasons, Chicago may finally be nearing the Beast of the East status that the team enjoyed for so many years throughout the 90′s. This will be no easy task — with teams like the Celtics, Miami HEAT and Orlando Magic all gunning for a trip to the NBA Finals — but this Bulls team appears focused and ready to bring the glory days back to Chicago.
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