Doing work in NOLA.
When the New Orleans Pelicans‘ (27-24; 5th in Southwest Division) Anthony Davis fell late in the first half of last night’s game against the Chicago Bulls (31-20; 1st in Central Division), I immediately had two thoughts: 1) Please let this have just been a really, really, really scary fall and nothing more. 2) If Davis cannot return to this game, the Bulls are going to run the Pelicans out of Smoothie King Center (yes, that is really the name of the Pelicans’ home arena). Despite the fall, Davis remained in the game until the 4:16 mark, when Pelicans forward Ryan Anderson substituted in for him. That was all she wrote for the Pelicans. With the score tied at 35, the Bulls proceeded to go on a 13-4 run to end the half, which eventually turned into a 40-11 spurt that forced Pelicans head coach Monty Williams to call a full timeout with 3:56 left in the third and his team down, 75-46. The Bulls wound up winning, 107-72, behind strong efforts from PF Pau Gasol (20 PTS, 15 REB, 4 AST) and PG Derrick Rose (20 PTS, 4 AST).
After losing three consecutive games to the Lakers, Suns, and Rockets, the Bulls went into New Orleans not only needing a win, but a convincing win over a young, up-and-coming Pelicans squad that had just beaten the Oklahoma City Thunder the night before, 116-113, a game in which Davis hit a buzzer-beating 3 to seal the victory. In NOLA, the Bulls were downright impressive on offense, Davis or not, compiling a TS% of 59.6 and eFG% of 57.1 while shooting 51.2% (43-84) from the field and 45.5% (10-22) from 3. First-time All-Star Jimmy Butler scored 14 of his 18 points (6-14 FG, 6-6 FT) in the second half and reserve G/F Tony Snell had a great game off the bench (19 PTS, 5 REB, 7-10 FG, 5-6 3P). Rookie SF Doug McDermott (9 PTS, 3-3 FG, 1-1 3P, 2-2 FT) even got into the mix, scoring his first points since a November 28 road win over the Boston Celtics. As a team, the Bulls committed only 11 turnovers and posted an offensive rating of an astounding 121.9.
Defensively, the Bulls looked vintage, holding the Pelicans’ starting five to a combined 15-42 shooting, a mark most certainly aided by Tyreke Evans‘ 7-12 shooting night. Pelicans’ sharp-shooting PF Ryan Anderson struggled to the tune of 1-11 from the floor, and the Bulls’ D stepped up in each quarter, allowing 20 in the first period, 19 in the second, 17 in the third, and 16 in the final frame. New Orleans never got into a solid rhythm on the offensive end and finished the night with a TS% of 40.4, eFG% of 39.5, FG% of 37.2 (32-86), and 3P% of 23.5 (4-17). The Bulls posted a collective defensive rating of 82, easily one of their better defensive showings of the 2014-15 NBA season thus far.
Not to overlook Orlando and Sacramento, but…
It was January 13 of this year when the Cleveland Cavaliers (31-21, 2nd in Central Division) had just finished their sixth consecutive loss, this one coming at the hands of the Phoenix Suns. Two nights before, the Cavs fell to the Sacramento Kings by 19 and less than a week prior to that failure, suffered arguably the most embarrassing loss of the season by any team, a 95-92 road loss to the lowly Philadelphia 76ers. Fans, pundits, journalists, and seemingly everyone else with an opinion of basketball was ready to write off the Cavs, who were a stunning 19-20 at the time. It didn’t matter that LeBron James missed five of those games because of injury. The Cavs weren’t seen as a viable threat to win the title. And then, the Cavs basically flipped a switch.
Twelve wins in a row, with an average margin of victory of 12.75 points. 108.1 points scored and 95.3 points allowed during the streak. LeBron, averaging 30-6-6 while posting an ORtg of 116 and DRtg of 104 in the month of January to help right the Cavs’ wayward ship. Once essentially an afterthought in the chase for the division crown, now just half a game behind the first-place Bulls.
The Bulls and Cavs have already met twice this season, with the Cavs winning both matchups. Cleveland won an OT thriller in Chicago on Halloween night, 114-108, and easily handled the Bulls in Cleveland on 1/19, 108-94. Cavs PF Tristan Thompson was the difference in the first game, pulling down 12 offensive rebounds as the Cavs continued to gain opportunities for second-chance points. Thompson grabbed an impressive 6 offensive rebounds in their most recent matchup, but LeBron’s 26 and JR Smith’s 20 paced the Cavs in the 14-point victory.
For the Bulls, the Orlando Magic (16-37, 5th in Southeast Division) and Sacramento Kings (17-32, 4th in Pacific Division) are on deck, and I’m sure Bulls’ head coach Tom Thibodeau won’t allow his team to look past those two opponents. However, a home game that will serve as his team’s final game before the All-Star break, against their biggest challengers in the division (and possibly, Eastern Conference), will undoubtedly be a huge contest. The Cavs team that lost 9 of 10 earlier this season and featured a star PF trying to simply find his way in Kevin Love, is no more. Kyrie Irving‘s play has improved since December and guards JR Smith and Iman Shumpert, acquired in a January 5 trade with the New York Knicks, have thrived in new roles with the Cavaliers.
Even in the midst of the Cavaliers’ biggest struggles this season, I assumed they would eventually get back to being an “elite”-level team. Whether the Bulls, despite their own recent issues, are in the same class as a healthy, fully-functioning Cavaliers squad remains to be seen, but the vision will surely become a little clearer after February 12.
Note: TS% is True Shooting Percentage, a measure of shooting efficiency that takes into account 2-point field goals, 3-point field goals, and free throws. eFG% is Effective Field Goal Percentage, a statistic that adjusts for the fact that a 3-point field goal is worth one more point than a 2-point field goal.
Per Basketball-Reference.com
Full-Court Run 
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