The Bulls are Barrymore, a team that has no identity and has to constantly be reminded by Adam Sandler, or in this case head coach Tom Thibodeau, of who they are: a title contender.

Up to this point however, coach Thibs hasn’t been as successful as he’d like to be. In the past the Bulls have been the hard-nosed defensive team that wore teams down and fought until the end.

That killer instinct has faded many times this season as they are giving up 99.1 points to opponents and the only consistency we’ve seen from them as a unit is their inconsistency. One night they’re beating the feared Golden State Warriors on the road in double overtime and the next they’re falling apart against a lowly, Kobe-less Lakers squad.

Some may argue it’s the injuries as the Bulls have gone through stints, some short some long, missing guys like Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, Mike Dunleavy, Jimmy Butler and the list goes on. In fact, they’ve only had their starting five together for 20 games this season.

Yet, even when healthy the Bulls seem to lack the killer instinct and toughness that had propelled them through playoff runs as underdogs in the past. Nazr Mohammed disagrees however and thinks grittiness is still there, “We got us a dog. We got us a couple of dogs…There’s nothing in particular that we need. It’s more of us not having focus and desperation, along with the understanding of what it really takes to win a championship.”

We have seen Tony Snell step up as of late and Derrick Rose continues to show more and more flashes of his glory days. Noah has been on the ups and Pau Gasol continues to have what may be the best year of his career. First time all-star Jimmy Butler has been a treat to watch besides a slump in January and Aaron Brooks is the latest piece of evidence that proves any decent point guard can succeed in Thibs’ system.

So fine, maybe they do have some “dogs” but what’s scary is that Mohammed mentioned the Bulls not having focus. With only 28 games left in the season the Bulls must get focused immediately if they’re serious about bringing a title back to the Windy City.

Finishing the first half on a four game winning streak with a huge win against division rival Cleveland, who had stolen the first two of the season series prior to that Bulls 113-98 victory, was a very necessary step in the right direction.

Now well rested after the all-star break and seemingly healthy the Bulls will have to put it all together in the final months. They start the last stretch on Friday at Detroit before heading home for a big seven game home stand.

The pieces are in place to succeed. If they really want this all they need to do is focus.

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Whether it’s the fact that he’s played a total of 54 games out of a possible 242 games since the start of the 2011-12 season, him making questionable comments about sitting out so he won’t be walking with a limp at his son’s graduation or the fact that he doesn’t recruit top players to join the Bulls.  But the fact still remains, if the Chicago Bulls want any chance at a championship, they need Derrick Rose to be healthy when it really matters, in the playoffs.

Rose hasn’t played in the postseason since his MVP season in 2010-11, aside from Game 1 against Philadelphia when he tore his ACL), and as a result the Bulls have won 1 playoff series in that span.  That is why the Bulls and Rose are being smart by holding Rose out of games unless he is completely healthy so far this season.

After two knee surgeries, a sprained ankle, and now a hamstring injury, Rose needs to get all the rest he can to limit the risk of him going out with yet another serious injury and missing the biggest games of the season for the Bulls.  Rose has played in 5 of 13 games so far this season, and has missed time with ankle sprains, and recently an aggravated hamstring.  The added rest that he’s getting now may even help him be more fresh than many other players in the Playoffs.

Now, that’s not to say it isn’t annoying as a fan.  I will admit, watching the Bulls with Derrick Rose in the lineup is much more entertaining than watching a team with Kirk Hinrich running the point.  I myself have not watched a couple of the games with Rose on the sideline because they aren’t as exciting.  Maybe that makes me a bad fan, but let’s all admit that without Rose, the Bulls are a pretty boring team filled with mostly a high effort, scrappy group of players.

But Rose makes them a watchable product, he adds to their offense in ways that few players can.  Not only does he score around 20 points a night, he opens up the floor to get guys like Pau Gasol, Jimmy Butler, and Taj Gibson more open looks.  I’m sure I can speak for most Bulls fans when I say that seeing Derrick limp off the court last Thursday in Toronto produced eerie flashbacks to last year’s game in Portland or Game 1 of the 2012 playoff series against Philadelphia.  At least this time Rose escaped with a minor hamstring injury.

Now the other argument here is that Rose hasn’t shown that he has been able to handle the rigors of an NBA season since his MVP season.  Many proponents of this argument will point to the fact that the year he tore his ACL, he never was consistently in the lineup, playing in only 39 of a possible 66 games.  He then missed the entire 2012-13 season, and played in 10 of the first 11 games last season before injuring his knee, causing him to miss the final 71 games.

This year, he has only played in 5 of 13 games so far, and has not been able to finish 2 games in a row yet, which is concerning.  However I believe, perhaps wrongly so, that Rose has matured and learned from previous experiences.  It’s safe to say that even last year he probably would’ve tried to play through his sprained ankle that caused him to miss four games and perhaps would have played in last night’s game in Sacramento, but he has learned that not every game matters (contrary to what his coach believes), and that he needs to save himself for the postseason.

Bulls fans are probably tired of hearing “will he/won’t he?” regarding Derrick Rose’s injury status prior to a game, but as a Bulls fan, it’s much better to be talking about this now than in the playoffs.  Without Derrick Rose the Bulls are still a playoff team, but with Derrick Rose the Bulls are a legitimate championship contender, and the Bulls are being smart by holding him out in November so they can (hopefully) have him healthy in April.

The post Like it or not, Bulls doing right thing with Rose appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The Chicago Bulls accomplished something last night that they had not done since the 2006-2007 season; they advanced to the second round of the playoffs.

The Bulls won the first three games of the series in extremely close contests before losing game four in Indianapolis, 89-84. Bulls superstar and MVP candidate, Derrick Rose suffered a sprained ankle in the first quarter of game 4 before returning later in the game. An MRI showed no structural damage and despite wearing a walking boot on Monday, Rose said he would play in game 5.

The atmosphere at the United Center was electric as 22,822 fans packed the Madhouse hoping to see for the first time in the series, the Bulls get out to a fast start and put the Pacers away early.

The Bulls came out of the gates firing on all cylinders, jumping out to a quick 10-point lead.  Making things even better, Rose showed no signs of having ever sprained his ankle.

Joakim Noah was playing with extra motivation as his grandfather, who had never been to an NBA game, was in attendance last night. Noah certainly brought the intensity last night getting into the paint, drawing fouls, rebounding the ball, blocking shots, and more importantly, getting into the Pacers’ heads.

An extremely physical series, in which the Pacers seemed to get away with murder, it was Indiana, not Chicago that finally snapped in game 5. After a missed 3-point attempt by Rose late in the 3^rd quarter, Noah ran into Pacers forward Josh McRoberts. McRoberts proceeded to throw a punch at Noah, which is a flagrant-2 foul and an automatic ejection from the game. Noah was fired up and so was the crowd. Bulls forward Taj Gibson tried to throw gasoline on the fire, visibly laughing at McRoberts as he walked off the court. Noah knocked down the two free throws and the Bulls entered the 4^th quarter with an 84-65 lead.

The Bulls refused to let up in the 4^th, dropping an additional 32 points on the Pacers. The Bulls bench and Luol Deng led in 4th quarter scoring. Noah was pulled early in the quarter finishing with 14 points, 8 rebounds and 4 blocked shots, receiving a standing ovation in front of his grandfather.

With 3:31 left in the game, Ronnie Brewer and Rasaul Butler, the only two Bulls to not have a point in the game, were brought in for Gibson and Deng. With just over a minute left, the Bulls flew down the court, finding Brewer for an alley-oop, getting him on the board. Now it was time to get Butler on the stats sheet. The Bulls had the ball on the side with 26.3 seconds left, meaning that they would have to take one more shot. The Bulls found Butler behind the arc who drained the 3-point shot, giving everyone on the team points in the game.

The Bulls finally looked like the team they were all season with the dominant win over Indiana. Carlos Boozer continued to under-perform, getting in foul trouble early again and finished with just 2 points and 5 rebounds. Derrick Rose showed no ill-effects from his ankle injury leading all scorers with 25 points adding in 6 assists and 2 blocked shots, one of which electrified the crowd pinning a Roy Hibbert dunk attempt to the rim.  Luol Deng continued to shine with 24 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds.

The bench also added 36 points of their own with big time performances from Taj Gibson and Kyle Korver. Gibson gave Bulls fans something to think about with 10 points and 7 rebounds, looking more effective in one game than Boozer did in the entire series. Korver, better known to Bulls fans as “Hot Sauce” thanks to TV broadcaster Stacey King, added 13 points of his own.

The Bulls will now have a little time to rest after a physical series as they await the winner of the series between the Orlando Magic and the Atlanta Hawks. The series moves back to Atlanta on Thursday as the Magic fought off elimination last night with a 101-76 win over the Hawks.

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