The Chicago Bulls lost to one of the worst teams in the NBA on Monday night as the Washington Wizards came into the United Center and got a win. On Wednesday, the Bulls hosted one of the better teams in the NBA, the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers are the highest scoring team in the league, but on Wednesday night in Chicago, they failed to reach 100 points for the first time all season. The Bulls won 125-99.
After losing to the Wizards on Monday night, the Bulls needed to get a bounce back win, and they did in a big way. They improved to 3-1 over the Pacers on the year, and their defense was masterful in holding Indiana to their lowest point total of the season.
“I thought that we were really connected defensively, there was really good communication,” Bulls head coach Billy Donovan said to the media after the game. “I thought we were on point when we needed to switch, we were on point when we needed to stay in coverages and stay with our man. The only way that happens is through communication. I really thought that the way they helped each other was really important. Their a hard team guard offensively and all the points they score, I give our guys a lot of credit. …I felt like the way responded coming off of our last game against Washington, it was good to see them do that, and they did it as a team, they did it collectively as a group.”
The Bulls needed this win bad
The Bulls needed to get a win for a lot for reasons on Wednesday. Coming into the week, nobody expected Chicago to go down at home against the struggling Wizards, but it happened. With the sixth best team in the Eastern Conference coming to town on Wednesday, it looked like Chicago might lose their fourth game in a row, and if they did, they would be very close to falling back into 10th place in the East. This was a big one.
Chicago is battling with the Atlanta Hawks for the nine seed right now, and that seeding is crucial as whoever finishes in ninth will host the play-in tournament game between the two. It's very unlikely that another team finishes in ninth or 10th. The Hawks beat the Portland Trailblazers on Wednesday night, so if the Bulls had lost, they would be only .5 games up on Atlanta. That would not have been good.
Instead, the Bulls got the win, and they left no doubt. For the first time in awhile, it looked like Chicago played a complete game from start to finish, and it resulted in a 26-point win against an Eastern Conference playoff team. Now, the Bulls just have to find a way to play like that consistently into the postseason.
Follow Us
Subscribe