Watch any network TV show and you’ll come across filler episodes. Most of the time, it’ll be an uninspired Case of the Week or Patient of the Week. Sometimes the show will sneak an important scene in at the end to make the episode still relevant in the grand scheme. Tonight’s Bulls-Sixers game was the NBA version of that.

There’s been some hand-wringing over the Bulls not putting away a Sixers team that played without Nerlens Noel or a point guard, but of all the lackluster Bulls efforts this season, this one was way down the list. Unlike other games, there was never a real sense the Bulls would choke this one away. Also, this Bulls team has established that they aren’t really into trying hard consistently. If they weren’t getting up for Miami right off the bat after flat-out giving away a game to Orlando, they weren’t getting up for the posterboys of tanking who were missing their best player.

There were only two meaningful takeaways from this game:

1. Thibs finished with Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson, mixing in Pau Gasol for a couple offensive possessions. The exact decisions between those three will likely vary game-to-game, but it appears Nikola Mirotic will not be a part of their closing lineups, unless it makes sense to slot him at small forward, where the results have been mixed.

2. Derrick Rose took over the end of this game. Attempting to describe the myriad of plays he made would be an injustice, so I recommend just finding the highlights. Driving into the lane, running back for a steal, a long-distance jump pass, he did it all. (Well, except shoot well from outside…)

He finished with 22 points on 8-19 shooting, six boards, eight assists, three steals and no turnovers in 28 minutes, a bump up from his first couple games back. The Bulls, still in the #4 slot because of Toronto’s win over Miami, have two games left to continue to reintegrate him.

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Continuing trends from their recent games, the Bulls played a ugly contest tonight with the Pistons in which they frittered away a large lead.

The game began with an unremarkable hour or so of basketball, only marked by Reggie Jackson suffering what looked like a scary injury as he peeled around a pick on offense, but it thankfully turned out to be that he was merely poked in the eye. Also, Andre Drummond (14 points, 22 boars, 6 blocks in 42:32) continued his strong play against the Bulls this season with a handful of early rebounds.

Chicago managed to build a 16 point lead early in the third, but back-to-back threes and a crazy, one-handed scoop shot from Jackson as the shot clock expired. Buckets from all five Pistons on the floor (Jackson, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Caron Butler, Anthony Tolliver, Drummond) cut the lead from 16 to three in just three minutes. By the end of the quarter, the game was tied.

Pau Gasol finished with 26 points and ten rebounds, yet another amazing statline in a bounce-back season for the ages, but the Bulls seemed to thrive a bit better with him off the floor. With Joakim Noah (six points, nine boards, ten assists), Gibson and Nikola Mirotic on the floor, the Bulls regained the lead. While Noah on the bench for just two and a half minutes, Detroit came back yet again to tie the game at 78 with 2:26 remaining.

At that point, Aaron Brooks, despite one of the most brutal performances of his season, put Chicago up for good on a three and then a difficult drive off of a pick and roll with Gibson. Brooks scored, but both possessions were very disappointing, as Jimmy Butler and Nikola Mirotic were relegated to standing on the perimeter while a dangerous but inferior driver handled the ball in sets involving Gasol and then Gibson.

The Pistons made one final push by stymieing Pau on one end and then having Drummond beat him back down the floor for a score, as seen here:

However, Pau redeemed himself by emphatically jamming a putback of a Gibson miss, plus hitting the free throw to complete the and-1, making it 86-82 with 5.7 seconds to play.

Toronto lost to the Nets, putting the Bulls back in the driver’s seat for the 3 seed, though this game showed signs that the Bulls still can be exposed, mainly with Pau’s defense and Tom Thibodeau’s confusing decision-making. By splitting 2-2 with Detroit, the Bulls have now split or won the season series with 26 teams. Only the Hawks have clinched over the Bulls, while Cleveland and Miami are yet to be resolved.

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He might not win Rookie of the Year or Sixth Man of the Year, but Nikola Mirotic is proving he will, given the opportunity, be a difference maker for a contender come May and possibly June.

With early production from Pau Gasol plus Jimmy Butler back in the lineup (and immediately back to playing 40 minutes), the Bulls controlled this one early. However, some uncharacteristically potent deep shooting from the punchless Hornets sent Chicago into the locker room actually trailing by one.

Chicago stemmed the tide in the third though, helped by Charlotte’s shooting falling back to normal. The game felt comfortably in control, though the Bulls weren’t quite putting their foot down to end the proceedings.

Here’s the part where things circle back to Mirotic, who, in Derrick Rose’s absence, has become the interim closer for the Bulls. He nearly matched his career high by pouring in 28 points, half in the final frame, marked by a three with just over 2:30 to play to put the Bulls up seven. Post-ups, fadeaways, it was all working. Even when it wasn’t, like when he missed a corner three, Gasol was able to grab the rebound and pitch it to Niko for a thunderous slam.

Chicago compensated for 3-16 shooting from downtown with just six turnovers, a season low, as the team improves to 14-4 when it turns the ball over ten times or fewer. Butler was just 6-20 but got to the line ten times, finishing with 19 points and nine boards. Aaron Brooks had one of his steadiest games of the year, posting 13 points and ten assists, while taking only ten shots and committing only one turnover.

Charlotte got 29 points out of Kemba Walker but the man who replaced him in his absence, a resurgent Mo Williams, was just 4-16 from the floor. Those two along with Gerald Henderson (11 points on 12 shots) were the only Hornets in double figures, as there was no miracle performance from Jason Maxiell this time around.

Getting a win while Joakim Noah rested was quite fulfilling, considering the organization seems to finally be preparing its higher gear for the playoffs, and with an ever-improving Mirotic leading the way for a deeper team it seems they might have the necessary talent as well.

The post Mirotic’s Big Fourth Quarter Clinches 98-86 Win Over Hornets, Playoff Berth appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

The Bulls already stole a game against Oklahoma City in thrilling fashion, and while they hung around in this morning’s game, there was never a sense that they were set to sweep the season series with a team that’s faced as many injuries as they have.

The first hour or so of action was par for the course of a Sunday morning contest, which is the NBA equivalent of Thursday Night Football. Combined, the two teams shot 0-14 from three in the first quarter. Pau Gasol was 6-10 in the opening quarter, with every other Bull combining to go 1-14. Chicago didn’t hit a three until midway through the second when Mike Dunleavy finally put one in.

All those misses provided ample opportunity for rebounding, and Enes Kanter gobbled up ten in the first, finishing with 18. Rebounding became a huge story, as the Bulls followed up getting demolished by a Charlotte team that was without Al Jefferson and Cody Zeller by losing the battle 52-33 in this game, despite OKC missing Serge Ibaka (and obviously Kevin Durant).

A flurry from Aaron Brooks and Nikola Mirotic earned the Bulls a tie going into the half. The third quarter was relatively even and the Bulls led by two with under ten minutes to play, but then Russell Westbrook returned and the game was effectively over. He shut the door on the Bulls with 14 points and three assists after re-entering, delivering the dagger on an assist where he found Anthony Morrow for an open triple, and for style points, rather than get intentionally fouled, he drove past every Bull coast to coast for a layup with such blazing speed that it looked like a slo-mo scene from The Flash. Continuing his amazing recent play, Westbrook finished with 36 points, 11 rebounds and six assists.

The loss was to be expected, so the story of the game turned into Tom Thibodeau’s quotes afterward, in which he again complained about minutes limits, this time about how it’s hard for him to manage minutes early for Joakim Noah while also wanting to use him to close the game. Noah’s minutes had been elevated, but now they are back in the low 30s, and to Thibs, a 32 minute restriction is like a 20 minute restriction.

The only real bright spot for the Bulls was Mirotic, who manages to score effectively even when his threes don’t fall thanks to his ability to get to the line. He was just 2-8 from beyond the arc but tallied 27 points on 8-18 shooting to lead the team.

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This certainly wasn’t a pleasant game to watch as a Bulls fan, but just about all of the bad elements were to be expected. Playing a Sunday morning game is hard and that’s before removing the extra hour due to Daylight Savings Time. The start time simply exacerbated issues like turnovers and transition defense that have plagued the Bulls all season long.

The Bulls appeared ready to get blown out early in the second half, but a flurry of plays from Nazr Mohammed (yes, you read that correctly) kept the Bulls hanging around and they kept it a 10-12 point deficit the rest of the way, with Tony Parker refusing to allow them to get any closer. Finishing with 32 points on 13-19 from the floor, Parker set aside some of the doubt that his lingering hamstring woes would derail San Antonio’s chances of getting to the Finals yet again.

Some Bulls had good stat lines, as Pau Gasol had 23 and 15, Aaron Brooks scored 22 on 7-12 shooting and Joakim Noah had his increasingly customary box score, this time with four points, 11 boards, nine assists and two steals. However, they scored just 39 points in the first half, and couldn’t muster the type of defense necessary to really make it a game despite a 38 point third quarter.

20 turnovers, with every key player contributing to the total, plus 5-15 shooting from three allowed the Spurs to wreak havoc in the open court, and they outscored the Bulls 35-9 in fastbreak points. While the Bulls were victims of some missed calls throughout the game, it really didn’t matter, as they were never a threat to win the game.

San Antonio made up for the first game without a field goal in Tim Duncan’s all-time great career with a balanced attack. Kawhi Leonard pitched in 20 on 9-20, and Manu Ginobili, Patty Mills and Danny Green all posted double figures.

The Bulls shooting over 50% obscures how sloppy they were offensively to go with their struggles on defense. The game stayed close for a while simply because the Spurs weren’t hitting shots. Nikola Mirotic got to the line nine times and scored 19, yet looked out of sorts and quite messy on the court. Doug McDermott had a nice three on an open look, but that was all from him. Kirk Hinrich again struggled with ball-handling. Tony Snell went scoreless in 29 minutes, missing all six shots.

The bad news is the Bulls play their fourth game in five nights tomorrow versus Memphis. The good news is that it is their last such stretch of the season, and they only have two back-to-backs after that for the rest of the season.

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When the Bulls mismanaged the PR portion of Derrick Rose’s meniscus injury and initially failed to note that it was likely just an expected maintenance procedure, the questions quickly turned from Rose’s career in a personal sense to “Can the Bulls trust Rose’s health enough to build around him going forward?”

After three games, the appropriate response to that question appears to be, “You got a better idea?”

The Bulls hung around for a while, even leading at times, thanks to what Mike Breen generously called a “defensive minded” first half, which was TV code for “it was horrendous.” It lived up to the billing of a Sunday morning contest, with both sides sleepwalking early, aside from Nikola Mirotic and DeAndre Jordan.

In the second half, Chris Paul got to the midrange jumper he loves time and time again, finishing with 28 points on 12-19 shooting, adding 12 assists and five rebounds. DeAndre Jordan had 26, yes 26, rebounds and managed to hit enough free throws to negate the effect of the “Hack-a” strategy.

Chicago’s offense again slogged their way through the entire game in Rose’s absence. Both Aaron Brooks (14 points on 17 shots) and Kirk Hinrich (0-7 from the floor, zero points, zero assists in 25 minutes) continued to be dreadful. Throw in Taj Gibson sitting with his ankle injury, Pau Gasol less than full strength after illness, plus Jimmy Butler leaving the game with a sprained elbow sustained during a hard screen from Jordan and it’s easy to envision an anemic attack. However, the decision making by Tom Thibodeau on how to support the offense continues to be puzzling.

Despite Joakim Noah having a strong game, Thibs left the ailing Gasol in during the final minutes and Mike Dunleavy was nowhere to be found in the fourth quarter even though the Bulls desperately needed shooting to make up the deficit.

The positives to take from this game were that Tony Snell continued to play well, making 3-5 triples to boost his percentage over the 40% mark. Noah had a strong performance (13/11 with six assists) and Mirotic had a career-high 29 points on 11-23 from the floor. Unfortunately, Niko was the only Bull to make a shot in the fourth quarter as the game slipped away.

Next for the Bulls is a big game with Washington, but we’ll have to see if Butler or Gibson will be able to play.

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They were merely fine, then they were world-beaters, then they were the basketball version of a dog trying to walk around with a cone on its head, and now they seem back to themselves.

This All-Star break has been a nice respite from an emotional roller coaster of a season for the Bulls. Let’s briefly look back at the season thus far.

Team record: 34-20, .630 win %, third best record in the East and tenth overall. For context, their records at the All-Star break under Tom Thibodeau are 38-16 (2011), 27-8 (2012, lockout season), 30-22 (2013) and 27-25 (2014).

Best win of the season nominees:

October 29th- The 104-80 opening blowout in New York. It was a fantastic way to start the season, as the Bulls depth and weaponry were on full display in the Garden against a Knicks team that hadn’t yet been exposed as terrible.

November 17th- Coming back to beat the Clippers 105-89 in Los Angeles. The Bulls erased a 14 point deficit before halftime, despite Derrick Rose and Pau Gasol being in street clothes. Jimmy Butler played the entire second half, and countered his 6-17 shooting with eight assists, ten free throw attempts and smothering defense. Probably Kirk Hinrich’s best game of the year, as he hit 4-6 from three and added five assists in 34 minutes in Rose’s absence.

December 19th- Going into the Grindhouse on the second end of a back-to-back sans Rose and Taj Gibson and coming out of it with a 103-97 win. The Bulls got little offensively from their starters, as Gasol scored just six points, while Hinrich and Mike Dunleavy notched just five apiece. Picking up the slack was Butler, with 31 points and 10 boards in 43 minutes. This game is best known as Nikola Mirotic’s breakout performance, as he hit all six triples en route to 27 points, essentially rendering ground-bound Zach Randolph unplayable.

December 23rd- A night after handling the Raptors again, the Bulls had to travel to Washington for their first regular season meeting since their playoff series. Chicago tapped into their old emotional identity as opposed to their newfound offensive firepower, handling the Wizards most of the night until John Wall took over and had the place rocking. Rose tapped into his old MVP form and took the air right out of the building, famously strut-skipping back to the bench after a big basket.

The Derrick Rose Skip https://t.co/O7woag5hne

— Michael Lee (@MrMichaelLee) December 24, 2014

January 22nd- Having lost four out of five, the Bulls came out on national TV and steamrolled the defending champion Spurs, 104-81. There weren’t any virtuoso individual performances and the Spurs were somewhat flat, but this game helped quiet down the buzz that had begun to hover over the Bulls in their malaise to start 2015.

January 27th- With Jimmy Butler sidelined, the Bulls lived up to their Streakbusters moniker, snapping Golden State’s 19 game home winning streak, becoming the first team from the East to defeat the Warriors. It wasn’t pretty, as the teams combined for 17-62 from three, and the Warriors didn’t hit a single triple after halftime. It was an intriguing contrast of styles, as the Dubs were forced to go small in Andrew Bogut’s absence, so at times coach Steve Kerr doubled down, going super small against Thibs’ super big lineups with Mirotic at small forward. This one inspired a stats-versus-eye test debate, as Rose infamously posted 11 turnovers and didn’t tally an assist until a shocking Curry turnover led to Rose finding Hinrich amid the chaos for his only made three in six attempts. Just 13-33 shooting, Rose carried an ineffective Bulls offense and hit the game-winner in overtime with a difficult 20-footer over Klay Thompson.

The winner- It comes down to Washington or Golden State. The Warriors game relied on their opponent missing shots, but featured an iconic summation of the Derrick Rose Experience. The Wizards game saw an impressive and focused effort, plus heroics from Rose, however, it’s been retroactively tainted by the way Washington has trumped them since that night. The edge goes to the win in Oracle, buoyed by a sneaky 18/15/6 line from Joakim Noah and that one could sense Thibs flipping off every single hater as Kirk hit the pivotal shot after bricking everything all night.

Worst loss: In a category certainly not lacking for candidates, the loss in L.A. takes the cake. In the words of Stefon, this game had everything: Pau being lazy on defense, Rose taking awful threes, Kirk being useless and Thibs neglecting to play Mirotic, all in a super-sized portion as the loss came in double overtime, caused by a giant choke by the Lakers at the end of regulation and the Bulls repaying the favor in the first overtime.

The good, the bad, everything in between, it’s all in the rearview mirror now, just as it is for every team, contenders and tankers alike. Here’s what the homestretch holds for the Bulls.

Schedule:

The Bulls have defeated 13 of the 14 teams in the West that they have played. They’ve yet to play OKC and lost 99-93 to the Suns in Phoenix. By my count, the Bulls are one of eight teams still capable of notching victories over all 30 teams (ATL, CHI, CLE, DAL, GS, MEM, SA, TOR), something only Oklahoma City was able to pull off last year. To complete the feat, the Bulls need to win Saturday versus Phoenix, at least split against OKC and then win the regular season finale against Atlanta, who may have wrapped up the #1 seed long before then.

As for rest, the Bulls are done with road trips west of Texas. OKC and San Antonio are the only Western teams the Bulls have yet to visit. After having five back-to-backs in the month leading up to the break, only five back-to-backs await Chicago in the remaining two months of the regular season, with a four-in-five-nights stretch of OKC/@IND/off/@SA/MEM in early March representing the toughest stretch by far.

The Bulls have nine national TV games on tap, the first three at home, the last four on the road. All four Sunday games left for the Bulls will be on ABC.

The Players:

Derrick Rose- The restrictions have slowly been lifted and he’s answered the bell. In his last ten games, he’s averaging over 36 minutes, and it’s clear he’s only going to play under 30 minutes in absolute blowouts, such as the win over New Orleans. In the 2014 portion of the season, he scored 20 points on nine occasions and was inactive for ten. Since the calendar turned to 2015, he’s had 11 games with 20 points and missed just one contest.

Whether you believe the report or not, it’s pretty crazy to think back about the story that Rose had to prove to Carmelo Anthony that he was healthy during Melo’s free agent tour. Imagine telling someone a year ago that Rose would play more games by the All-Star break than Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Kawhi Leonard or Dwight Howard. It’s a good reminder that even with medical histories, predicting the health of athletes is nigh impossible.

Jimmy Butler- He’s not the MVP candidate he was to start the season, but he’s not the guy who struggled mightily after that either. He’s somewhere in-between, and that’s really all the Bulls need. He can still dial up the defense (ask James Harden), and he’s hitting enough threes (34.2%) to supplement his drives to the rim and the offense overall.

Joakim Noah- Appears to have been on point when he said he felt better. His points, rebounds and assists are up, and not just because of a slight minutes bump. If he’s right, all the concerns about the on-court chemistry will mostly solve themselves. A hampered Noah is a tough player to watch. A healthy Noah is one of the most valuable players in the sport.

Pau Gasol- At this point, we know what Pau is. He’s playing a ton of minutes for a seven-footer his age, but he hasn’t worn down as some expected, at least not yet. It sounds weird to say about a guy who started in the All-Star Game, but the Bulls season doesn’t really hinge on Pau. By that, I mean he’s not as important as Rose and Noah, and arguably Butler, and conversely, while there are times Taj Gibson or Mirotic should be playing instead of him, Pau being on the floor isn’t going to cost them games in the way Carlos Boozer could.

Mike Dunleavy- His absence showed all of the areas he shores up for Chicago. He’s easily the most threatening shooter on the rosterm and by always moving around the floor he churns the offense, preventing it from getting stale as things often can under Thibs.

Taj Gibson- For whatever reason, he just hasn’t been the destructive, game-changing force we’re used to seeing as recently as the Wizards series. Could be his continued sixth-man role finally getting to him, or more likely that his continual ankle injuries have him hobbled. The Bulls need more out of Taj, but I’m not overly concerned about him.

Kirk Hinrich-Needs to be a limited minutes guy, solely at backup point sharing minutes with Aaron Brooks. However, despite numerous ways of examination showing Kirk having one of the worst offensive seasons in recent memory, it appears it’ll be business as usual upon his return from injury. In a way I feel bad for him because we know that he knows he’s not meant to play as much as he does, if nothing else because his body can’t handle it at his age. Unfortunately, he plays for a coach who believes injuries are for the weak and that fatigue sliders can be turned off.

Tony Snell- He’s obviously not going to maintain the play that inspired me to make this:

GIVE THIS MAN A STATUE pic.twitter.com/iE7DkFJZRQ

— Trenton Jocz (@TrentonJocz) February 13, 2015

However, there’s not a single reason imaginable to relegate Snell back to the bench. If Thibs does, it’ll be the most egregious offense of his entire tenure.

Nikola Mirotic and Doug McDermott- Though Niko plays much more than McDermott, I’ve grouped them together because it just seems clear that Thibs isn’t going to use either of them come playoff time. The 96 big man minutes will get absorbed by the Noah/Gasol/Gibson trio, leaving Mirotic fending for small forward opportunities that Thibs would prefer to give to Snell. What a shame.

Playoff Outlook:

Best case scenario for the Bulls is to get into the 2-3 matchup with the Raptors, the contender they’ve had the most success against. Predicting their first-round opponent is a fool’s errand, considering it could be determined by the health of Dwyane Wade and Paul George. Their returns for Miami and Indiana would make the Bucks the most enviable 6-8 seed to play, rather than the least, as they are at the moment. Getting the Raptors while the Hawks, Cavs and Wizards duke it out on the other side of the bracket would be a dream. Anything short of the conference finals would be a huge disappointment. I still trust their size and experience to get them to the Finals, where I think a better coached, more complete team will defeat them in a tough series.

The post Bulls Season Reset: What’s Happened and What Lies Ahead appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

The Bulls have made a habit of losing the games they should win, while winning the games they should lose, but they went against the pattern last night, mounting another improbable comeback that came up short.

Until a miracle three by Isaiah Thomas at the very end, the two sides played to a draw in the first quarter. Chicago managed to keep it close despite going 1-4 from three and 0-7 from the line (five from Pau Gasol, the others from Jimmy Butler).

Where the Bulls lost this game was in the second quarter. A lineup of Brooks/Hinrich/Snell/Mirotic/Gibson got absolutely smoked, giving up a 14-0 run, book-ended on both sides by lay-ups from Brooks, who had one of his stronger games of the season.

An example of how brutal the Bulls spacing can be when Kirk and Snell share the floor, which has become much more common in Mike Dunleavy’s absence:

Butler and Derrick Rose combined to go just 16-41, but those two and Brooks were the only scorers for Chicago from midway through the first until a Joakim Noah dunk just before halftime. They were putrid from three point range (Rose 0-6, Jimmy 1-6), making up for it by getting to the line 17 times, and, frankly, they earned even more than that.

Just as with the Laker game, they climbed out of a 15 point deficit, taking a one point lead on Hinrich’s lone basket of the game. However, Phoenix scored the final basket of the third to retake the lead and they never looked back, with Eric Bledsoe rendering Brooks’ one-man comeback moot via the basket seen in the header photo in the final seconds. Bledsoe and Goran Dragic led the Suns with 23 and 21 points respectively, each on 50% shooting, overcoming foul trouble all night for the Alex Len-Markieff Morris frontcourt pairing.

Four positives from this game:

1. Rose was consistently attacking the basket, a very good sign, especially on their third road game in four nights.

2. For the third game in a row, Noah looked more spry. The finishing at the rim still isn’t great, but his mobility is getting there. He had 9/10/5 and a pair of blocks.

3. Kirk’s struggles are so pronounced that Thibs is finally noticing. He played just 11 minutes, the first time Thibs has ever played him under 17 minutes when healthy. In his last 11 games, he’s averaging under four points per game on 30% shooting in over 25 minutes.

4. Brooks continues to not cool off. He had 21 points in 32 minutes on 8-13, and this time did so without a turnover.

The post Bulls Comeback Falls Short In 99-93 Loss To Phoenix appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

Last night’s loss to the Lakers was just the Bulls loss to [INSERT LOTTERY TEAM HERE]. It included:

-A lazy start (L.A. had  59 points on 58.7% shooting in the first half), this time one they never really snapped out of, as they trailed by 15 in the second half and wouldn’t take a lead until the first OT

-Pau, in his Staples Center return (well, second return since they played the Clippers too), neglecting to do much of anything effort-related regarding defense or rebounding

-Derrick settling for awful threes on a night where they just weren’t falling. He was 1-7 from three and 7-26 overall.

-Kirk playing as a complete zero on offense for considerably longer than Thibs should have allowed him to

-Nikola Mirotic getting buried on the bench despite doing nothing to merit said treatment

-Random Opponent X going bonkers against a formerly-dominant defensive front line (Jordan Hill in this case, posting 26 and 12)

This one was worse for two reasons: After subbing Kirk out for Aaron Brooks with a minute and a half left, the Bulls promptly scored nine points in 70 seconds, thanks in part to the Lakers crumbling under ball pressure and coughing the ball up a couple times. That sent it into overtime, where the Bulls led by five midway through with the ball, then by three under a minute, until Noah, after grabbing an offensive rebound, panicked and threw a bad pass to Rose that went into the backcourt. They were still up one with under 45 seconds and the ball, but Pau split a pair at the line, opening the door for the Lakers to send it into double overtime, where the Bulls instantly fell behind and never recovered, becoming the third team (Spurs, Suns) to lose two multiple overtime games this season. So, while still tallying one in the loss column, they added enough minutes to push Butler to 49, Pau to 44, Rose to 42.5 and Noah to 42 on the first end of a road-road back-to-back.

The second: Jimmy injured his knee near the end of the game. He appeared to tell former teammate Carlos Boozer “I’m alright, man” after the game, but he admitted feeling pain after the game, per Nick Friedell.

The two bright spots: Noah again looked closer to his normal self (9/17/9) and Jimmy was terrific (35 points on 9-17, plus 16-18 from the line).

A smart team would take it easy tomorrow, especially for a non-conference opponent, but after the Warriors game, I predicted the Bulls would lose to L.A. and then win in Phoenix, and I’ll stick to that, because it’s just how this team operates.

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OK, with a night to think, the question becomes: Did that really happen? Did the Bulls, down both starting wings, win a road contest in potentially the best home court in the league against the prohibitive title favorite?

Nothing can be considered surprising anymore for a team that has woeful losses to Orlando, Utah, Boston, Indiana and Brooklyn but has also registered road wins in Washington, Dallas, Memphis, Los Angeles and now Golden State.

It certainly didn’t look promising early. The Warriors were going full Showtime, with Klay Thompson continuing his molten-lava-hot shooting (he followed up his 37 point quarter against the Kings with 31 on 11-19 against Boston) and Steph Curry flashing his playmaking ability in the open court with a halfcourt lob. The Warriors in general crushed the Bulls in transition, holding a 23-2 edge that finished at 31-8. Clearly looking for his shot with Jimmy Butler and Mike Dunleavy in street clothes, Derrick Rose hit two triples right off the bat, but any Bulls fan knows his shooting can come and go.

At one point in the first half, the Warriors were shooting 55% to Chicago’s 35%, and also outproducing them from beyond the arc, yet the Bulls remained within six. Aaron Brooks scored seven points during his first half stint, but that was countered by a flurry from Harrison Barnes, and usually it’s the Bulls making ground with their bigs off the bench, however David Lee provided his best game of the year (24/9/6 on 10-17) for Golden State in Andrew Bogut’s absence, while Taj Gibson was rather poor for Chicago.

Down 49-39 halfway through the second, Rose and Pau Gasol returned and, along with Nikola Mirotic, promptly spearheaded a 10-0 run. While the Warriors regained the lead going into the half, that stretch was huge in preventing the game from getting out of hand.

The second half evolved into a much a much uglier half of basketball. In a game of limited whistles, Chicago was hardly getting any calls on contact near the basket, save for the flailing arms from Pau, who the refs respect more than Rose, Taj or Noah, because apparently they fall for the RINGZ argument just like the more simple-minded corners of the internet.

As each team grew more tired from the pace, Rose racked up turnovers, 11 in all, and the Warriors did not hit a three after the intermission, going an astonishing 0-13. After getting smoked earlier, both Rose and Kirk Hinrich stepped up their level on defense, sticking tight to Curry and Klay, who began launching more threes out of desperation and exhaustion, and those factors also contributed to all of those shots failing to go in.

The latter stages of the game produced an interesting stylistic clash. Golden State, sans Bogut, utilized smaller lineups and even tiny lineups with Green at center. Meanwhile, Tony Snell and Hinrich’s atrocious shooting submarined Chicago’s spacing and Thibs has no interest in playing Doug McDermott at the moment, so he went back to super-big lineups with Mirotic at small forward, which he had completely abandoned after limited looks at it. Gasol did not play physical on either end, resorting to fadeaways against Draymond Green and failing to box out on defense. However, he hit more than one of those fadeaways and tallied 18/16/8 and 4 blocks in 41 minutes. Somehow, Pau always fills the stat sheet. Meanwhile, Noah had possibly his best game of the year, really rounding into form in the second half. He finished with 18/15/6 and two steals on 7-12 shooting, plus 4-4 from the line. Most importantly, his mobility and athleticism looked better than it most of this season.

Brooks drove the length of the floor for a layup to end the third and stay within two, though Lee immediately put the Dubs up by double digits again early in the fourth. Rose bounced back from a cluster of missed shots and turnovers to score three baskets in the lane. The Bulls were running out of time to catch up, as Golden State managed to offset two great plays from Pau to Noah with baskets of their own. The game really should have been over when Hinrich passed up an open three created by Rose down by one, but with the win nearly locked up, Curry gacked the pass trying to get the ball upcourt. Rose drove into the lane and amid the chaos found Hinrich, who hit his only three in six attempts, because Kirk Hinrich lives to troll us all. The Warriors, however, sent it to overtime when Green climbed over Gasol for a tip-in.

Both teams were gassed, leading to just one bucket apiece in the first three minutes of the extra frame. A Noah tip-in, another welcome sight after his recent play, gave the Bulls the edge, only for Curry to answer with an absolutely sublime reverse baseline layup off the glass.

After Thompson failed to make the Bulls pay for a Hinrich turnover, Rose went full HeroBall to nail a step-back deep two with Thompson’s hand in his face. It wasn’t a particularly good shot, but he made it. After the Bulls used their foul-to-give on a play where the Warriors believed Andre Iguodala was in the act of shooting (though he’s declined into a horrific free shooter, so they were likely better off), Thompson ditched a three pointer in the face of Gasol, blew by him and missed a midrange runner off glass as time expired.

Rose has caught a lot of crap for 13-33 shooting, paired with 11 turnovers and just one assist, but don’t let the box score fool you. The Bulls would have been absolutely blitzed without him in a game that he set the tone and carried the offensive burden. He had some sloppy giveaways, the bounce-off-his-leg types that have plagued him at times this year, but he shared the floor with Kirk, Snell, Pau and Noah, at least until Mirotic supplanted Snell. That’s about as horrid as floor-spacing gets for a good NBA team, plus the Warriors were allowed to get away with a Seattle Seahawks-esque level of physicality.

Playing inefficiently does *not* necessarily equate to playing the wrong way. If every game were like this for Rose, it’d be a discussion, but each game its own entity. Sometimes a quarterback is going to throw three picks because he has to attack downfield to give his team a chance to win. There’s a middle ground between the “LOL one assist, he was terrible” and “WINNING is the only stat that matters” crowds. Last night, Derrick Rose found that middle ground by doing what was *necessary* for his team to win. The final shot was not a validation of that, as it would have been true whether he hit the last shot or not.

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