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They've had 54 games to do it, and now they have 28 to show they can put it all together in time to be ready for the likes of the Wizards, who have had their number going back to last year's playoffs; LeBron James and the ubertalented Cavaliers; a skilled and underrated Toronto Raptors team; and an Atlanta Hawks team that has beaten the Bulls twice this season while confounding pretty much the entire NBA.

There's nothing to suggest the Bulls can't beat any of those teams in the playoffs if they play the way they did in beating the Spurs, Mavericks and Warriors in a four-game span at the end of January or in the four games leading up to the All-Star break, including the win over Cleveland. The question now, beginning with the resumption of play Friday night in Detroit, is how urgently the Bulls perceive all this and how capable they are of doing something about it.

As has been the case for the past seven years, it all begins with Rose, who played far better through those first 54 games (appearing in 43 of them) than reasonable people should have expected. Rose shot too many 3s, turned the ball over too much and steadily increased his minutes, his impact and his understanding of how to incorporate Gasol and a dramatically improved Butler and how to play with another shooting point guard in Aaron Brooks, all the while figuring out what his knees will or will not tolerate after serious injuries and so much downtime.

The four-game stretch Rose just finished was probably his best since 2012. His per-game averages of 20.8 points, 48.6 percent shooting (26.7 percent on 3s), 78.6 percent foul shooting and 7.2 assists to 1.8 turnovers is close to ideal, particularly when you factor in the way he has figured out new ways to effectively attack defenses without returning to his reckless ways from 2008 to 2011. The Derrick Rose from 2011, who thrilled people to no end, is necessarily gone. The Rose we saw during the past four games picks his spots to blast to the basket since he is still capable of doing so, runs the pick-and-roll with Gasol, plays off the ball some with Brooks on the floor and gears down to let Butler take the offensive lead for stretches.

Expecting Rose to maintain those four-game averages is a bit much, but if he can remain healthy (has played 16 straight games and 27 of 28), his next 43 games, which would take him 15 games into the postseason, figure to be consistently better than the 43 to date.

DuckIII wrote:He is such a jock sniffer.

They are the team best equipped to make LeBron work overtime defensively in a series (having to guard Butler, Dunleavy and Snell). They are the team in the East best suited to exploit Atlanta's lack of size and a real rim protector.

NecessaryEvil wrote:43 out of 54 games on the season for D-Rose with no signs of slowing down. Kid is amazing.

Love Wilbon, wish he wrote more articles

Snell & McD are the x-factors of the next half of the season. If we can get the production we thought we would, we're sitting comfortably in the NBA Finals this season. I believe it.

10 mpg for Hinrich the rest of the season PLS. Matter of fact, sit him until the playoffs. I think we'd get one of his last good runs with the right recovery time.

malcrk wrote:I sorta agree but I feel like even if we won it all it wouldn't have felt like a special season. It's been too bordering on disaster for it to create that feeling. Special seasons are like when the White Sox won it all and you felt after two weeks it was their year. This year feels odd in the sense that no one would be surprised if we got swept in the first round but no one would be too surprised if we won the championship. We're sort of that team that's just there in the picture but it doesn't have a special feeling anymore. It'd be a lot more like that Dallas championship team if anything.

red222 wrote:

malcrk wrote:I sorta agree but I feel like even if we won it all it wouldn't have felt like a special season. It's been too bordering on disaster for it to create that feeling. Special seasons are like when the White Sox won it all and you felt after two weeks it was their year. This year feels odd in the sense that no one would be surprised if we got swept in the first round but no one would be too surprised if we won the championship. We're sort of that team that's just there in the picture but it doesn't have a special feeling anymore. It'd be a lot more like that Dallas championship team if anything.

malcrk wrote:

red222 wrote:

malcrk wrote:I sorta agree but I feel like even if we won it all it wouldn't have felt like a special season. It's been too bordering on disaster for it to create that feeling. Special seasons are like when the White Sox won it all and you felt after two weeks it was their year. This year feels odd in the sense that no one would be surprised if we got swept in the first round but no one would be too surprised if we won the championship. We're sort of that team that's just there in the picture but it doesn't have a special feeling anymore. It'd be a lot more like that Dallas championship team if anything.

If the Bulls won the championship this year about 0 people would care outside of Chicago except for the global fans who are still fans from the 90s. We're a **** and if somehow that resulted in a championship I'd be happy as hell but no one would look back at us as a great team, but rather opportunists.

malcrk wrote:

red222 wrote:

malcrk wrote:I sorta agree but I feel like even if we won it all it wouldn't have felt like a special season. It's been too bordering on disaster for it to create that feeling. Special seasons are like when the White Sox won it all and you felt after two weeks it was their year. This year feels odd in the sense that no one would be surprised if we got swept in the first round but no one would be too surprised if we won the championship. We're sort of that team that's just there in the picture but it doesn't have a special feeling anymore. It'd be a lot more like that Dallas championship team if anything.

If the Bulls won the championship this year about 0 people would care outside of Chicago except for the global fans who are still fans from the 90s. We're a **** and if somehow that resulted in a championship I'd be happy as hell but no one would look back at us as a great team, but rather opportunists.

red222 wrote:

malcrk wrote:

red222 wrote:

If the Bulls won the championship this year about 0 people would care outside of Chicago except for the global fans who are still fans from the 90s. We're a **** and if somehow that resulted in a championship I'd be happy as hell but no one would look back at us as a great team, but rather opportunists.

who the **** cares man

malcrk wrote:I sorta agree but I feel like even if we won it all it wouldn't have felt like a special season. It's been too bordering on disaster for it to create that feeling. Special seasons are like when the White Sox won it all and you felt after two weeks it was their year. This year feels odd in the sense that no one would be surprised if we got swept in the first round but no one would be too surprised if we won the championship. We're sort of that team that's just there in the picture but it doesn't have a special feeling anymore. It'd be a lot more like that Dallas championship team if anything.

malcrk wrote:

red222 wrote:

malcrk wrote:If the Bulls won the championship this year about 0 people would care outside of Chicago except for the global fans who are still fans from the 90s. We're a **** and if somehow that resulted in a championship I'd be happy as hell but no one would look back at us as a great team, but rather opportunists.

who the **** cares man

seemingly the entire premise of the article you didn't read.

BeatDaCavs420 wrote:

DuckIII wrote:He is such a jock sniffer.

Not Always

Wilbon always calls it like he sees it with the Bulls sometimes

As has been the case for the past seven years, it all begins with Rose, who played far better through those first 54 games (appearing in 43 of them) than reasonable people should have expected. Rose shot too many 3s, turned the ball over too much and steadily increased his minutes, his impact and his understanding of how to incorporate Gasol and a dramatically improved Butler and how to play with another shooting point guard in Aaron Brooks, all the while figuring out what his knees will or will not tolerate after serious injuries and so much downtime.

The four-game stretch Rose just finished was probably his best since 2012. His per-game averages of 20.8 points, 48.6 percent shooting (26.7 percent on 3s), 78.6 percent foul shooting and 7.2 assists to 1.8 turnovers is close to ideal

Expecting Rose to maintain those four-game averages is a bit much, but if he can remain healthy (has played 16 straight games and 27 of 28), his next 43 games, which would take him 15 games into the postseason, figure to be consistently better than the 43 to date.

malcrk wrote:If the Bulls won the championship this year about 0 people would care outside of Chicago except for the global fans who are still fans from the 90s. We're a **** and if somehow that resulted in a championship I'd be happy as hell but no one would look back at us as a great team, but rather opportunists.