Best in the East
The Bulls had five players out due to the National Basketball Association’s health protocols yesterday, but they weren’t looking for any excuses on the road, and on the second night of a back-to-back set. Admittedly, missing vital cogs isn’t new to them (as, to be fair, with the rest of the league); the new normal has franchises leaning on hardship signings on 10-day contracts, with G-League mainstays and previously mothballed veterans getting significant on-court burn in the face of the continued shortage of warm bodies.
It bears noting that the Bulls have more than been able to make the most out of their situation. And it isn’t as if they’re just getting by. Forget that they had three games postponed in December; since the middle of the month, they haven’t been on the wrong end of final scores. They’ve made short work of the Lakers, Rockets, Hawks (twice), and Pacers (also twice), and if they’ve been affected by their tighter rotation, they haven’t shown it. Quite the opposite, in fact; they’ve been uniformly solid in the crunch, with yesterday’s second straight last-second win underscoring their poise under pressure.
Certainly, the Bulls relied on a concerted effort to steal a win at the Capital One Arena. To argue that the Wizards gave the game away would be to ignore the absence of seven rotation regulars under quarantine. That said, they did lead for most of the outing, and looked well on their way to starting 2022 with a bang in front of 19,043 fans. Instead, DeMar DeRozan spoiled the party, just as he did at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in becoming the only player in NBA history to inflict buzzer-beating backbreakers on otherwise-hostile hosts.
After a frenzied offseason that saw the Bulls claiming solid contributors, a high seed in the playoffs appeared to be a sound objective. Instead, they find themselves on top of the Eastern Conference, in the process keeping such notable contenders as the Nets and Bucks at bay. Whether they are able to maintain the pace remains to be seen. In any case, it’s clear that they will not beat themselves. Complete or not, they’ll leave nothing in the tank as they forge ahead. Which is to say they’ll never stop trying to prove true to their name and its championship legacy.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
