Chicago Bulls Thread

[benji]

hey guys its actually possible, if i saw right, for milwaukee to miss the playoffs. wouldnt that be sweet?

They'd have to lose every single game remaining, while the Bulls go 7-2.

I suppose it's technically possible. But unlikely.

[J@3]

Quite happy for the Bulls to continue losing, providing Toronto keeps winning. Pretty good season for the Bucks if they can wind up in the play-offs and take home the Bulls #11 pick. Admittedly not quite as good as Utah's season but still.

[NovU]

Quite happy for the Bulls to continue losing, providing Toronto keeps winning.

Yes, Jae. Everybody wants to see the Raptors overtaking 7th seed for Captain Jack to be at 8th. Especially shadowgrin will be happy to hear that.

[Andrew]

Rose: We'll be in the playoffs

"We're still going to make it," he told ESPNChicago.com after Tuesday morning's shootaround. "You can't think about stuff like [not making the playoffs].

"In my mind, we'll be making the eighth spot. We'll be playing LeBron [James] -- playing Cleveland. The closer we get, the [more] I'm going to think that. We can't walk around acting like we're not going to make it, because that's when things turn on you. Our biggest goal is to make the playoffs, and we're going to make it."

I'm not as confident of their chances, but I like his confidence and attitude nevertheless.

[George7]

maybe it's hard , but it's always nice to see that there's a sort of confidence from the team,and this will help then make the final push for the 8th seed

[Andrew]

At the very least it's the right kind of attitude moving forward, competitive to the end even in a season that's become a write-off before a free agent frenzy.

[NovU]

Last night's game against the Bucks(w/o Andrew Bugun), was a great chance to close the gap for the 8th seed, and guess who came to ruin it. John Salmons, who was the Bull only a few months ago. Given that the Bucks were without their best player and the Bulls are almost at full strength, the loss is somewhat inexcusable. Just a shame. The chance is still there with Bosh injured though, but very slim it seems.

[Andrew]

I'd have to agree with that. They've had a couple of winnable games go to waste and even though Toronto has just been dealt a big blow with Bosh's injury, I don't think it's going to help them much. Glancing at their schedule the rest of the way:

vs Cleveland
@ New Jersey
@ Toronto
vs Boston
@ Charlotte

I like their chances in two of those games, but I'm predicting losses in the other three games. Should they finish 2-3, the Raptors will need to finish 0-5 because they've already locked up the tiebreaker.

[Valor]

the Raptors will need to finish 0-5 because they've already locked up the tiebreaker.

They might just do that without Chris Bosh being available He's basically the sole reason why they've won 38 games so far

[George7]

Let's hope it
just 1/2 game behind Raptors!!

[puttincomputers]

i think the bulls will beat cleveland! charlotte is a possibility. boston is also possible. i wonder how much is left in kgs knee?

[Andrew]

the Raptors will need to finish 0-5 because they've already locked up the tiebreaker.

They might just do that without Chris Bosh being available He's basically the sole reason why they've won 38 games so far

The opportunity is certainly there. Here's hoping. LeBron is out of the lineup tonight as well, it'd be great if they could take advantage. We shall see.

[Andrew]

They almost choked it away with four missed free throws and they gave up a twelve point lead in the third quarter, but at the end of the day they came away with the win. As bad as they were from the line in the closing seconds they were pretty good defensively though; Noah was probably the hero of the game with the midrange jumper for a 107-106 lead, the tip in for the 109-108 lead and the backtap to run out the clock at the end. He had a pretty awesome dunk off a spin move late in the second quarter too, he was fun to watch in this one. Rose, Deng and Hinrich had their moments too but they all missed key free throws. Fortunate win, but I'm sure they'll take it.

[George7]

Big win for the Bulls tonight.
Altouh it was a big heartbeat with those missed FTs By Rose and Deng,but thanks to Noah's defensive and offensive clutch moments Bulls won

[NovU]

Big win for sure.

It seems the situation has been favoring the Bulls with Lebron and Bosh injured. Nonetheless, they played great last night against the best team in the NBA.

[Oskar]

A loss to the Nets would be completely uh.. Will stay up til' like 6 AM again to catch the game. Push it to the playoffs guys.. Rose said we'd be in the playoffs, he's got to back it up.

[Andrew]

And of course, they do indeed lose to the Nets in double overtime. Thankfully the Raptors lost as well, all they need is to be one win up on them and with any luck, that will come in the next game against the Raptors. They just blew a huge opportunity though.

[shadowgrin]

Andrew needs to do a reverse jinx!

[Andrew]

I already did that in the Raptors thread. Sadly, it appears I was just stating the facts.

[Valor]

And of course, they do indeed lose to the Nets in double overtime.

Wouldn't have been an overtime if the officials agreed to review the Lopez goaltend....that play drastically changed the outcome of the game and I can't think of a reason why they'd refuse to look at it via instant replay.

Still, we just got sloppy in the second overtime and got our ass kicked by the Nets

[Andrew]

True, though ideally you don't want to rely on an official's call to win the game.

[Oskar]

The game against Toronto will be epic, both teams are awful and neither one is deserving of the playoffs. The spot should be given to Memphis or someone instead. Either Toronto or Chicago is going to get embarrased today by losing to the other, atrocious team and the winner will go on to get embarrased by LeBron. Great going..

[Andrew]

Memphis isn't doing much better than the Bulls or Raptors, they're at .500, but that's only a couple of games better. They also just lost to the Sixers at home and could well finish under .500 with their last two games at Denver and Oklahoma City. It is what it is; the race for the eighth seed probably isn't going to be pretty and they're almost always overmatched by the first seed.

[Andrew]

Bulls in the eighth spot for now having defeated the Raptors. Celtics and Bobcats are their last two opponents though, if the Raptors finish 0-2 then there's obviously no problem but if ever there was a time to overachieve, that time is now.

[George7]

Very important win for the Bulls yesterday
I raptors have to win 2 of the 2 provided the bulls will win one
So ,with one win i believe everything is fine,believing that Raptors will lose,as it seems