Have the Chicago Bulls Made the East a Three Team Race?

This season the NBA Eastern Conference has been labeled a two team race but after Chicago defeated Conference leader Indiana on Monday night it’s anything but a two team race, at least according to Bulls center Joakim Noah that is.

 “We feel like we can go at anybody, we can beat anybody, when we’re hungry. Stay humble and keep grinding,” Noah said. “I said right after the game, ‘I’m excited about having an opportunity to play these guys again.’ ” (online source)

The Bulls are a bunch of over-achievers built for the playoffs and as they demonstrated on Monday night they fight until the final buzzer sounds. They seemed to have shaken off the effects of the devastating season ending injury to Derrick Rose and the controversial trade of popular forward Luol Deng and have put together a nice little run.

I suppose Noah is correct. The Bulls can beat anybody but the question I have is can they defeat the likes of Miami, Indiana or even Brooklyn in a seven game series?

The Bulls forte is defense and currently they are second in the Association in points allowed but dead last in points scored. While their defense will absolutely help them in the grind it out half court style the NBA playoffs produce, teams still need to score and this current Bulls squad at times struggles with putting points on the board.

One cause for concern is the Bulls’ transition game. Currently they are 28^th in the Association for fast break points scored and 9^th in fast break points allowed.  The Bulls are also ranked 13^th in opponents fast break efficiency and if Chicago has a defensive weakness its teams that run. While that might not sound like that big a deal against teams such as Brooklyn and Indiana, Miami (#15 in fast break points) and a healthy Dwayne Wade might take full advantage of this and run them out of the gym.

If the Bulls are to really make this a three team race it will be their ground and pound relentless half court defense that will have to show up night in and night out for 48 minutes otherwise this amazing group of over-achievers will be headed to the golf course while the rest of us talk about the only two teams in the Eastern Conference race.

On today’s Phil Naessens Show we spent the entire hour talking NBA basketball. We take a closer look at the Portland Trailblazers and spend the rest of the hour with a Western and Eastern Conference roundup. You can listen to the program on the player provided below or click the image directly underneath the player.