Trueblue must be on vacation or something. But the schedule is finally out. (As a side note, does the NBA have to put so much production into everything these days? Does the schedule have to come out over a week?) Bulls again have a brutal league high number of back-to-backs, this year it's 23. Fortunately, so does their only competition in the division, Milwaukee. The schedule starts off even more brutal than usual with home games against OKC and Portland and three back-to-backs on the circus trip. If they make it through the first 20 games at .500, I think they'll be in good shape to win 50. If that's the case, they should be in the neighborhood 19-12/18-13 by Jan 1. On the high side I could see them winning 54-55 games. If Noah/Deng/Boozer gets hurt they should be in the 46-48 range. I won't even mention any other possibilities. Bulls only play Miami three times, two in Chicago. Those should be pretty big as regular season games go, veritable "measuring sticks".
