<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">It was less than two weeks ago that Bulls general manager John Paxson said his team still lacked an identity. Considering the Bulls were well past the halfway point of the season, that was saying something. Since then, coach Scott Skiles' squad has elevated itself to the upper echelon of the NBA in a key defensive statistic: opponents' field-goal percentage. The Bulls have held teams to 43 percent shooting, which ranks fifth in the league behind the Los Angeles Clippers (42.7) and Indiana, Houston and San Antonio (all at 42.8). "If our identity gets too far away from being a very hard-playing, scrappy team, then we're not very good,'' Skiles said Tuesday after a two-hour practice, the team's first since the All-Star break. "We've got to stick with that. "We still foul too much, so our defensive points per game [97.7] isn't what it should be. We feel like offensively [97.4 ppg], we've come a long way. Last year, we were a poor field-goal shooting team in a lot of games, struggled to score 90. Now we're becoming a much better offensive team. "We have to be able to do that and not get away from who we really are, and that's a hard-nosed defensive team.'' Skiles' sentiments were backed by his team, which begins a stretch of three games in four days tonight against the Milwaukee Bucks at the United Center. "We've been playing defense pretty well, well enough to win ballgames,'' said center Tyson Chandler, who has an 11-game streak of double-figure rebounds. "I'm just trying to stay consistent out there, approaching each game mentally the same. The work just catches up. I'm putting myself in a situation to be successful.''</div> <div align="center"> Source</div>
