Chicago Bulls vs. Philadelphia 76ers: 3 Takeaways
The Chicago Bulls capped off the final game of the final Circus Trip with a big win against the Philadelphia 76ers and their process. After Friday’s win, the Bulls are 10-6; tied for fourth in the Eastern Conference.
Jimmy Butler and the Chicago Bulls put an end to the Circus Trip tradition with a confident win against the Joel Embiid-less Philadelphia 76ers. After starting off with an 8-0 lead, the Bulls were never really in danger of losing this one, and the victory pushed them to a 4-2 record on their annual November road trip.
Butler and Dwyane Wade led the team as usual with 26 points apiece; this being Butler’s 10th game in a row with at least 20 points. Taj Gibson chipped in his usual 12 points, and Rajon Rondo spread the love to everyone with 10 assists.
Bulls fans who were excited about seeing NBA phenom Joel Embiid were disappointed to learn that the embodiment of the process would be sitting tonight’s game out in order to keep his minutes low. As a result, the Sixers trotted out a rather unimpressive display, leading to the Bulls big win.
With 14 other games happening on the same night, it’s hard to keep track of everything, so let’s go over the three biggest takeaways from Friday night’s win.
Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Circus Trip Review
It’s no secret that the Circus Trip doesn’t always bring about the most shining Bulls basketball (this year is only the third time that they’ve gone over .500 on it since the days of Michael Jordan).
But, this year was a very different kind of trip.
The Bulls took down the Blazers, the Jazz, the Lakers, and now the Sixers. While they fell to the Clippers and the Nuggets, both games were close and the Bulls had a good shot at victory. Whether you see that as good or bad is up to you.
There were several good highlights among the six games. Jerian Grant had maybe the best game of his career against the Blazers, and Jimmy Butler put up a casual 40 points against the newly frisky Lakers. While we might be tempted to see the Nuggets loss as a hearkening back to last year’s Bulls, who had a penchant for losing to teams with less talent, I would argue that we’d be talking about that game and four others just like it last year.
Be thankful it’s only the one.
The 4-2 record for the trip means the Bulls are 10-6 on the season, markedly better than many predicted they would be.
Let’s look closer at how they won the game tonight, and a bit at how they’ve won the other nine.
Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
A Pattern Emerges
The Bulls won tonight in the same way that they’ve pulled out most of their wins: dominating the offensive glass, getting to the free throw line a lot, and shooting passably enough from the field. The Bulls grabbed 11 offensive and 51 total rebounds in Friday’s win; pedestrian numbers for them.
They shot 11-for-26 from the charity stripe, with Jimmy Butler shooting 5-for-6 by himself (he’s averaging 9 attempts per game so far this year). Finally, the Bulls shot 44.4 percent on Friday night, almost exactly hitting their 44.3 average for the year (league average is about 44.7 percent).
Before the season, critics from across the basketball universe talked about how a lack of spacing would suffocate the Bulls offense, and a lack of defensive energy would keep them from making it up on the other end.
But, those critics are holding their tongue as of now because after 16 games, the Bulls have the seventh-best offense in the league and the ninth-best defense, with an offensive rating of 107.0 and a defensive rating of 102.1.
Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Jimmy Butler: #2 in the East?
It was yet another impressive game for Jimmy Butler.
With 26 points on 10-for-15 shooting, Butler is making these extraordinary performances seem matter-of-fact. This is the 10th game in a row that Jimmy has scored at least 20 points; a career best streak for him, and the league has taken notice of Butler’s greatness. Butler was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week last Tuesday.
The question has been floating around the NBA ether for a couple weeks now, starting as just speculation but leading to a fairly solid consensus: is Jimmy Butler the second best player in the East?
No one is unseating LeBron James obviously, but Butler has played clearly above the level of Paul George or John Wall. An argument could be made for DeMar DeRozan, but Jimmy has matched DeRozan’s play offensively and no one would argue that DeRozan’s can match Butler on the defensive end.
Butler has improved despite remarks that he’s reached his ceiling every year. Who knows what we’ll see next season.
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