The only shots Nate Robinson fears are the kind he takes at the doctor's office. He doesn't like needles. He welcomes crunch time. Robinson showed no fear down the stretch, scoring 12 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter, and Luol Deng finished with 19 after a slow start to lead the Chicago Bulls to an 87-86 victory over the Orlando Magic on Friday night.
Oh, and this wasn't like most of the Bulls' recent victories...heroic efforts by an overmatched team. Depleted as they were, the Bulls had better talent on the floor than Orlando did.
On one hand, I'm glad the team is showing the resolve it has and is finding ways to grind out wins. On the other hand, I'm reminded of John Hollinger's observation that wins and losses are a noisy statistic and aren't always indicative of how well a team is playing. We're getting by on the skin of our teeth, and are probably not a very good team right now despite our W-L record. On the other other hand, we're playing very well considering all the injuries we've had. On the other other other hand, I'm beginning to lose my optimism that our injury situation is going to remedy itself before the playoffs start.
As you may know, the Hollinger crowd takes out that "noise" with their "Expected Win-Loss" (formerly "Pythagorean Win-Loss"). Though the Bulls are 9 games over .500 in the record book, their Expected W-L record is only 39-36. Hate to say it, but as a fan, they feel more like a 39-36 team than a 42-33 team this season. Edit: Another reason why the Bulls record seems better than our perception of the team's quality is that the team reached its high-water mark of 10 over .500 on January 25. They've been a sub-.500 team since then.
By the nature of the EC, the Bulls' strength of schedule should help them out. However, their schedule sure seemed especially soft early in the season and then they hit a stretch against the major league franchises and their record took a beating. A team with Deng, Noah, and Boozer as the front line should really be a .500 team at least. I think I wrote that before the season. I still think they should have tanked for a pick, given the horrible roster moves they made.
IIRC, we were 10 games above .500 in January and in the hunt for the third pick before the team got a serious case of the injury bug. It's been tit-for-tat since then. For the moment that's how I'm attributing our team's lackluster performance.
February 5-8 Fri, Feb 1 Brooklyn Nets @ Brooklyn (27-19) L 89 - 93 Sat, Feb 2 Atlanta Hawks @ Atlanta (26-19) W 93 - 76 Mon, Feb 4 Indiana Pacers @ Indiana (28-19) L 101 - 111 Thu, Feb 7 Denver Nuggets @ Denver (31-18) L 96 - 128 Fri, Feb 8 Utah Jazz @ Utah (28-22) W 93 - 89 Mon, Feb 11 San Antonio Spurs vs San Antonio (40-12) L 89-103 Wed, Feb 13 Boston Celtics @ Boston (27-24) L 69 - 71 Tue, Feb 19 New Orleans Hornets @ New Orleans (19-34) W 96 - 87 Thu, Feb 21 Miami Heat vs Miami (37-14) L 67 - 86 Fri, Feb 22 Charlotte Bobcats @ Charlotte (13-41) W 105 - 75 Sun, Feb 24 Oklahoma City Thunder @ Oklahoma City (40-15) L 72-102 Tue, Feb 26 Cleveland Cavaliers vs Cleveland (18-38) L 98 - 101 Thu, Feb 28 Philadelphia 76ers vs Philadelphia (22-33) W 93 - 82 March 7-7 (3-6 until the Indy game on Mar 23) Sat, Mar 2 Brooklyn Nets vs Brooklyn (34-25) W 96 - 85 Sun, Mar 3 Indiana Pacers @ Indiana (37-22) L 92 - 97 Wed, Mar 6 San Antonio Spurs @ San Antonio (47-14) L 83-101 Fri, Mar 8 Utah Jazz vs Utah (32-29) W 89 - 88 Sun, Mar 10 Los Angeles Lakers @ LA Lakers (32-31) L 81 - 90 Wed, Mar 13 Sacramento Kings @ Sacramento (22-43) L 79 - 121 Fri, Mar 15 Golden State Warriors @ Golden State (37-29) W 113 - 95 Mon, Mar 18 Denver Nuggets vs Denver (45-22) L 118 - 119 Thu, Mar 21 Portland Trail Blazers vs Portland (31-36) L 89 - 99 Sat, Mar 23 Indiana Pacers vs Indiana (43-26) W 87 - 84 Sun, Mar 24 Minnesota Timberwolves @ Minnesota (24-43) W 104 - 97 Wed, Mar 27 Miami Heat vs Miami (56-14) W 101 - 97 Sat, Mar 30 Dallas Mavericks @ Dallas (35-37) L 98 - 100 Sun, Mar 31 Detroit Pistons vs Detroit (24-49) W 95 - 94
This is a decimated team. I give Thibs a lot of credit on these wins. He manages to get a lot out of the guys he has. Vlad plays 23 minutes?!?!?! Nazr 31!?!!??! What the hell is going on around here? A win is a win. I respect Thibs a lot more after this one. Vlad seemed in the "doghouse" all year. Given Thibs seems to play everyone at some point, it was curious that this guy never got *any* burn. But, when push comes to shove, Thibs puts stubbornness aside, plays the guy and, despite this obvious shortcomings, hits some big shots for the team and does all right. Thibs even said he played well in the new conference. Thibs is a GREAT professional basketball coach in many, many ways. Won't be "GREAT" GREAT though until he wins a title as a head coach.
