Chicago Bulls Back @ United Center to take on L.A. Clippers
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 | Atlanta Hawks, Miami Heat, NBA, New Orleans Hornets, Philadelphia 76ers, Sports
The Chicago Bulls are happy to be back at the United Center despite their recent road success. The bulls finished up their 7-game road trip with an amazing 5-game winning streak over 5 Western Conference teams with winning records. Not sure if the Bulls have ever done that before, but it is shocking to think that Head Coach Vinny Del Negro was able to orchestrate that feat. The Bulls got a little lucky on Friday night against the Hornets in New Orleans, as David West threw an errant pass to Chris Paul with less than 10 seconds to play that gave the Bulls another shot at tying the game to force overtime. After Derrick Rose’s shot was partially deflected, Luol Deng knocked home a “putback” with just 0.2 left on the clock, and the Bulls took care of business in overtime. Deng led the Bulls with 26 points; Rose chipped in 18 of his own; Joakim Noah scored 13 points and grabbed 18 boards, while rookie Taj Gibson scored 8 points with 8 rebounds to boot. Del Negro continues to get a balanced attack out of all of his players each and every night.
Deng summed up the Bulls renewed sense of urgency and confidence best: “When you’re winning, everything is positive. We’re going into games expecting to win. A game like that, if we had lost four in a row, we might have lost it. But the mentality right now is we can win every game.”
The Bulls are back home for a game against the Clippers on Tuesday night at the United Center. They go back on the road for quick trips to Philadelphia and Atlanta after that, but then return home for a big game against the Miami Heat on Saturday night. Four games in 5 days is never easy, especially with travel mixed in there, but if the Bulls can go 2-2, that will keep them over .500 as the All-Star break approaches. I’m not quite sure how Del Negro is doing it, but he appears to have his team focused and ready to take their play to the next level. Let’s just hope they can keep it going for the final 2+ months of the season!
