PG: HOORAY for...WINNING!

[DRoseCantStop]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/McGrawDHBulls/status/558866558668120066[/tweet]

well this sucks

I'd welcome that kind of playoff run. Cavs/Wiz/Hawks please!! Then Golden State, Memphis, or San Antonio in the Finals.

[Stratmaster]

Yw

I also wouldn't rule out the Hawks falling off. I'm just not buying that they are such world beaters. Their pace just can't be sustained.

I think the Hawks WILL fall off. However, 7.5 games is a lot to make up. They would have to lose heavily, and the Bulls go on one hell of a tear, for the bulls to catch them.

I don't think its likely we over take them. Though I do think we will go on one hell of a tear in the second half of the season.

This team has been injured, hasn't been hitting its stride or playing D. I think things will come together once the schedule gets easier after the all star break, guys get healthy and things start to get serious. I would really be surprised if we weren't a 2 seed and maybe only a couple of games behind the hawks.

Me too. I think the expectations for this team were a little out of whack considering their health and the players they were having to get acclimated. Rose, Gasol, Brrooks and Niko were all new to the mix, and Brooks and Niko along with Hinrich were forced into significant minutes due to injuries.

[weneeda2guard]

The media can blow that 1-6 up but it has to be contextualized.

Without that terrible 4 pt play we beat cleveland even without jimmy and no rose to end the game

The 2nd loss to cleveland was while we were in our lazy slump

Both those Washington wins were in the midst of the slump when we played Washington for real we handled them pretty well

As far as atlanta. I just don't think they will maintain they level of play in the playoffs. I think what happened with us, when we were reg season warriors but looked so different in the playoffs , I think the same happens to atlanta. And lastly, we have a rose. And if rose is rose and gets hungry enough where he going ham in the playoffs I can't see atlanta dealing with us at all. I think pau jimmy noah taj and brooks turn it another notch in the playoffs.

[MC3]

Only team who has measure on us is Washington. Cavs are funny (Rose missed end of first game where he pretty much destroyed Cavs + refs robbed us win in that game, i still remember those not existent 2and1 for Irving at the end of game.) Hawks werent bad. But we would win that game if we werent in slump and if team didnt boycott Thibs.Even in that period when we played pretty bad they weren't really something special to be afraid of them. They didnt blow us, they weren't dominate or something like that. Same goes for second game against Cavs. Only team we have hard time are Wizards. They are our kryptonite. Nene always goes off against us and utterly destroy Noah's ass in offense, and now in defense he is destroying Gasol.

[Mech Engineer]

I wouldn't say Snell has only been playing hood by his standards. He's been getting us double digit points, solid defense, good ball movement, and he's been driving to the hold putting pressure on the D. I know it's the cool thing on this board to say Snell isn't NBA quality, but he's been playing very well recently, and deserves the credit for it.

I think Snells one on one defense has been decent to solid, but he still makes his share of mistakes on missing assignments.

I think what Snell has shown is that he is capable of giving the team 15-20 mins where Thibs can trust him and doesn't need to play Jimmy 40+ minutes every night. On top of that it should also limit Kirks minutes to around 15.

They all make mistakes but he helped the defense

Yeah....that's the bottom line. Jimmy has his share of mistakes on defense with him being an all NBA first team defense player. Snell's team defense was improved and is improving. That is something much easier to improve once he gets his reps especially he is not physically challenged for his position.

[Payt10]

We gotta beat GS in a few days. They are dangerously close to beating or tying the Bulls 72 win record. They still only have 6 losses.. I'm nervous.

[DRoseCantStop]

We gotta beat GS in a few days. They are dangerously close to beating or tying the Bulls 72 win record. They still only have 6 losses.. I'm nervous.

They're bout to have 7 losses.

[kyrv]

Only team who has measure on us is Washington. Cavs are funny (Rose missed end of first game where he pretty much destroyed Cavs + refs robbed us win in that game, i still remember those not existent 2and1 for Irving at the end of game.) Hawks werent bad. But we would win that game if we werent in slump and if team didnt boycott Thibs.Even in that period when we played pretty bad they weren't really something special to be afraid of them. They didnt blow us, they weren't dominate or something like that. Same goes for second game against Cavs. Only team we have hard time are Wizards. They are our kryptonite. Nene always goes off against us and utterly destroy Noah's ass in offense, and now in defense he is destroying Gasol.

I agree with you. Washington today seems like a bad matchup. Not certain why. They certainly seem to play harder, not sure if it's just that.

[kyrv]

We gotta beat GS in a few days. They are dangerously close to beating or tying the Bulls 72 win record. They still only have 6 losses.. I'm nervous.

My fellow Bulls fan, to quote Rogers, relax.

[Axl Rose]

We gotta beat GS in a few days. They are dangerously close to beating or tying the Bulls 72 win record. They still only have 6 losses.. I'm nervous.

they wont beat it and honestly i don't see why they would want to

look at the mavs who came close then lost in the first round (to the warriors!)

it just adds a target and extra pressure

[Blaize4488]

The crazy thing is that outside a few different times in the 3rd the Bulls led by 7-11 points most of the game. Nice to see the bulls answer the Mavs' runs when it got tight. We were one less Kirk screwup away from sweeping a very good west team. Good game, I want that warriors game BAD!

[RememberLu]

We gotta beat GS in a few days. They are dangerously close to beating or tying the Bulls 72 win record. They still only have 6 losses.. I'm nervous.

My fellow Bulls fan, to quote Rogers, relax.

Don't quote Rodgers on a Chicago sports forum

[bullsRlife]

Snell has played better. He hasn't played well. Not good enough to start talking about him replacing MDJ in the starting lineup. We've seen this play before. It isn't like Snell hasn't had other decent games in his career. He just plays poorly 80% of the time.

No he cant play better than MDJ. But as I have said, what is the best way to use him and MDJ? Snell is playing better with the starters where he has a consistent lineup around him and he knows his role. Off the bench he has been hot garbage. Since we need to find wing minutes for somebody, why not continue like this with MDJ supporting a better bench mob the way he was always aquired to do? MDJ can still get his minutes and close games out.

Everyone plays better with the starters. Mirotic. Gibson. Hinrich. Snell. MDJ. You don;t take a poor player and insert him into the starting lineup because his performance is better with them. Eventually you would end up with Brooks, Hinrich, Snell, Mirotic and Gibson as your starting lineup.

Everyone puts up better numbers with more minutes. Snell scores 10 in 31 minutes, plays weak defense, makes a couple stupid plays, and he is "better with the starting lineup, so let's start him".

I don't mean that to belittle the idea. I get the thought process. We are desperate at the 3. We know that MDJ's role was originally intended to be off the bench, that is his ideal spot, and it would bring some offensive depth to the bench. But the Bulls are already doing what you are considering by starting MDJ. That being they are hiding a bench quality player in plain sight within the starting lineup. You can do that with a 6/7 guy in the rotation. You can't do that with an end of bench player. Not if you hope to win anything of significance.

We're a ton more athletic on defense, and offense. End of story. You keep calling Snell out on his mistakes, but I saw a lot of great rotations, and keeping up with his roll man that Kirk or Dunleavy simply couldn't, because they lack his athletecism.

He uses his length well on defense, and actually puts pressure on a defense with his ball handling, and dribble drive ability.

[JeremyB0001]

Mirotic has played defense really poorly and continues to do the same stupid pump fake and drive left right into traffic. For January he is shooting 33% overall and 21% from 3 while playing awful defense. He should have got the hook sooner. He is obviously hitting the rookie wall or maybe teams now have enough film on him that a lot of his stuff isn't working.

You can criticize Mirotic's defensive fundamentals to no end and I won't be able to show that you're wrong. But does it really matter? He's second on the team in defensive Real Plus-Minus behind Noah and the defense has been better during his minutes than everyone but Nazr and Moore, who hardly play. If we're defending well when he's on the floor, how can defense be a reason that he deserves to be pulled from the rotation? No one should get benched for something that's not a net negative for the team.

And I don't even know where to begin with the idea that you should remove a top rookie from the rotation because he has a shooting slump over the course of 230 minutes, i.e. the equivalent of about six games for a starter. Niko is fourth on the team in true shooting percentage. If he deserves to get benched for a shooting slump, who on the team doesn't deserve to get benched when he inevitably strings together some poor shooting games?

[Mr. Tibbs]

Really enjoyed this game, it had a little bit of everything. Some Rose domination, some Butler domination, a solid Snell cameo. Pau doing Pau things without having to stop the entire offense to watch him attempt to back down for 10 seconds. Noah with great activity and o-boards, Taj doing work around the basket on both ends. All this and a wire to wire victory, just fantastic.

Two great wins after the team meeting...Joe Cowley's probably so mad

[Stratmaster]

Mirotic has played defense really poorly and continues to do the same stupid pump fake and drive left right into traffic. For January he is shooting 33% overall and 21% from 3 while playing awful defense. He should have got the hook sooner. He is obviously hitting the rookie wall or maybe teams now have enough film on him that a lot of his stuff isn't working.

You can criticize Mirotic's defensive fundamentals to no end and I won't be able to show that you're wrong. But does it really matter? He's second on the team in defensive Real Plus-Minus behind Noah and the defense has been better during his minutes than everyone but Nazr and Moore, who hardly play. If we're defending well when he's on the floor, how can defense be a reason that he deserves to be pulled from the rotation? No one should get benched for something that's not a net negative for the team.

And I don't even know where to begin with the idea that you should remove a top rookie from the rotation because he has a shooting slump over the course of 230 minutes, i.e. the equivalent of about six games for a starter. Niko is fourth on the team in true shooting percentage. If he deserves to get benched for a shooting slump, who on the team doesn't deserve to get benched when he inevitably strings together some poor shooting games?

This is why advanced metrics were the death knell for any intelligent basketball discussion.

[Stratmaster]

No he cant play better than MDJ. But as I have said, what is the best way to use him and MDJ? Snell is playing better with the starters where he has a consistent lineup around him and he knows his role. Off the bench he has been hot garbage. Since we need to find wing minutes for somebody, why not continue like this with MDJ supporting a better bench mob the way he was always aquired to do? MDJ can still get his minutes and close games out.

Everyone plays better with the starters. Mirotic. Gibson. Hinrich. Snell. MDJ. You don;t take a poor player and insert him into the starting lineup because his performance is better with them. Eventually you would end up with Brooks, Hinrich, Snell, Mirotic and Gibson as your starting lineup.

Everyone puts up better numbers with more minutes. Snell scores 10 in 31 minutes, plays weak defense, makes a couple stupid plays, and he is "better with the starting lineup, so let's start him".

I don't mean that to belittle the idea. I get the thought process. We are desperate at the 3. We know that MDJ's role was originally intended to be off the bench, that is his ideal spot, and it would bring some offensive depth to the bench. But the Bulls are already doing what you are considering by starting MDJ. That being they are hiding a bench quality player in plain sight within the starting lineup. You can do that with a 6/7 guy in the rotation. You can't do that with an end of bench player. Not if you hope to win anything of significance.

We're a ton more athletic on defense, and offense. End of story. You keep calling Snell out on his mistakes, but I saw a lot of great rotations, and keeping up with his roll man that Kirk or Dunleavy simply couldn't, because they lack his athletecism.

He uses his length well on defense, and actually puts pressure on a defense with his ball handling, and dribble drive ability.

No, we are not a ton more athletic on offense and defense. End of story. OK, we have both ended the story now. But I will give you that we are slightly more athletic with Snell in the lineup. Worse at basketball, but slightly more athletic. Last I checked the goal was to win basketball games, not be the most athletic team.

Tony Snell did rotate better last night than in the past. Which is like saying I got more votes for Senator the last election than the zero I had ever received before. He by no means was making "great" rotations, and i don't know when Tony Snell suddenly obtained elite ball handling skills.

[bullsRlife]

Everyone plays better with the starters. Mirotic. Gibson. Hinrich. Snell. MDJ. You don;t take a poor player and insert him into the starting lineup because his performance is better with them. Eventually you would end up with Brooks, Hinrich, Snell, Mirotic and Gibson as your starting lineup.

Everyone puts up better numbers with more minutes. Snell scores 10 in 31 minutes, plays weak defense, makes a couple stupid plays, and he is "better with the starting lineup, so let's start him".

I don't mean that to belittle the idea. I get the thought process. We are desperate at the 3. We know that MDJ's role was originally intended to be off the bench, that is his ideal spot, and it would bring some offensive depth to the bench. But the Bulls are already doing what you are considering by starting MDJ. That being they are hiding a bench quality player in plain sight within the starting lineup. You can do that with a 6/7 guy in the rotation. You can't do that with an end of bench player. Not if you hope to win anything of significance.

We're a ton more athletic on defense, and offense. End of story. You keep calling Snell out on his mistakes, but I saw a lot of great rotations, and keeping up with his roll man that Kirk or Dunleavy simply couldn't, because they lack his athletecism.

He uses his length well on defense, and actually puts pressure on a defense with his ball handling, and dribble drive ability.

No, we are not a ton more athletic on offense and defense. End of story. OK, we have both ended the story now. But I will give you that we are slightly more athletic with Snell in the lineup. Worse at basketball, but slightly more athletic. Last I checked the goal was to win basketball games, not be the most athletic team.

Tony Snell did rotate better last night than in the past. Which is like saying I got more votes for Senator the last election than the zero I had ever received before. He by no means was making "great" rotations, and i don't know when Tony Snell suddenly obtained elite ball handling skills.

Lol, and we've won 2 in a row. Seems like you watch him for all his mistakes.

[DuckIII]

We gotta beat GS in a few days. They are dangerously close to beating or tying the Bulls 72 win record. They still only have 6 losses..

Which still puts them behind the 72 win pace. They'd have to got 38-3 the rest of the year to beat it. In the West.

[Stratmaster]

We're a ton more athletic on defense, and offense. End of story. You keep calling Snell out on his mistakes, but I saw a lot of great rotations, and keeping up with his roll man that Kirk or Dunleavy simply couldn't, because they lack his athletecism.

He uses his length well on defense, and actually puts pressure on a defense with his ball handling, and dribble drive ability.

No, we are not a ton more athletic on offense and defense. End of story. OK, we have both ended the story now. But I will give you that we are slightly more athletic with Snell in the lineup. Worse at basketball, but slightly more athletic. Last I checked the goal was to win basketball games, not be the most athletic team.

Tony Snell did rotate better last night than in the past. Which is like saying I got more votes for Senator the last election than the zero I had ever received before. He by no means was making "great" rotations, and i don't know when Tony Snell suddenly obtained elite ball handling skills.

Lol, and we've won 2 in a row. Seems like you watch him for all his mistakes.

Where did I point out a Snell mistake? I have no clue where you are coming from with that. Snell just isn't a quality rotation player and the Bulls aren't in a position to throw him in as a starter, or even give him significant minutes once MDJ is back, just to see if he can turn that around. Just like they aren't in a position to do that for McD or Mirotic. They are trying to compete for a title. the best thing that could happen for all involved is for Snell to be moved with pieces to a weak team where they can play him and give him one last chance to see if he can be a 7th/8th man in a rotation; and maybe the Bulls get a rotation guy at the 3 back in return.

But yes, Snell is obviously why the Bulls won 2 in a row. SMH