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.
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