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The regular season ends tonight, and with the Bulls having already clinched home court in the first round, the only real question is who, exactly, they will play. As of now it looks like Milwaukee, though it could still be Washington if the Bulls lose this game and Toronto wins theirs. Other than that, not much else to worry about tonight. Atlanta looks like they’ll be playing most of their guys (including Paul Millsap), but they locked up the #1 seed a few days ago and have been coasting ever since. Despite being one of the most overlooked #1 seeds in history, it’s unlikely that they’ll play their best players crazy minutes in an effort to make some sort of statement against a Bulls team that isn’t nearly as much of a threat as most pundits seem to think. That’s not how they operate.

On the Bulls side, Joakim Noah is out again, though he says he’ll be available for Game 1 on Saturday or Sunday. While if the Bulls have any real aspirations of a title run this year, they absolutely need him at his peak (which he’s been at for maybe 5 games this season), he’s probably not necessary against Milwaukee, and we all know what happened to him last year against Washington. So take your time, Jo.

Key Matchup(s): Derrick Rose vs Derrick Rose.

He’s looked very good the last couple games, albeit against the Sixers and the depleted corpse of Deron Williams. This is one last chance to tune up a bit against a playoff caliber team before the playoffs themselves and Rose’s first postseason game in nearly 3 full years. It was a rocky road, but this team finally has that mythical thing they’ve been waiting three years for: Healthy Derrick Rose. Long may he reign.

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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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Here are some facts about Nikola Mirotic:

Fact: Nikola Mirotic has done wonders for the Chicago Bulls’ offense this season.

Fact: Nikola Mirotic has not shot well at all this season (41% from the field, 30.6% from three), despite his reputation as a shooter.

Conclusion: Shooting is not the only important quality in a successful stretch four, as Niko’s quickness and ballhandling ability make him a significant threat regardless.

Still with me? Good. Let’s try another.

Fact: Doug McDermott has struggled this season while playing strictly as a wing.

Fact: Doug McDermott has not shot well at all this season (40% from the field, 31.7% from three), despite his reputation as a shooter.

Fact: Doug McDermott checks many of the same boxes Mirotic does on the stretch four checklist: Size, quickness, intelligence, ballhandling and shooting.

Conclusion: Doug McDermott should be emulating Nikola Mirotic more than Mike Dunleavy.

This screenshot, taken from a game in February, just before Derrick Rose had surgery, shows exactly how powerful Mirotic’s floor-spacing is:

Tony Snell has just entered the ball into the post and made a cut down the middle of the floor. Nikola is spotted up on the opposite wing with Dunleavy in the opposite corner. In that precise moment, Jared Dudley, helping on Snell’s cut in the lane, realizes he left Mirotic open in much the same way you suddenly realize that you left the oven on. Both he and OJ Mayo (Dunleavy’s man) start scrambling toward Mirotic, leaving Snell wide open under the basket for a layup. Here’s an overhead view:

Here’s the thing: teams respect McDermott’s shooting, even as he’s hoisted up bricks all year, just as they respect Mirotic’s shooting, even as he hoists up bricks. But Doug isn’t really quick enough to beat wings off the dribble and his defense on wings isn’t great either. Put him against bigs, however, and the equation changes. He can absolutely beat big men off the dribble from the perimeter, especially if they’re already running at him to contest a shot. And we know that pulling a big man out to the perimeter is much more valuable than pulling a wing out there, even if nothing else about the situation changes. Witness the difference between Niko playing alongside two other bigs and Niko playing with just one.

So. We pretty much know that expecting Doug McDermott to contribute meaningfully this year is a lost cause. But the Bulls are pretty well committed to him down the road, and with Joakim Noah’s contract expring after next season, Pau Gasol getting older, and Taj Gibson’s long-term Bulls future uncertain for a variety of reasons, the Bulls would be well-served to train Doug as Mirotic Lite for the future.

Imagine it: 48 minutes with a stretch four always on the floor. What a world that would be.

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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.

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