NEWSLETTER
The Bulls certainly know how to keep us coming back. The Bulls bookended the week with a hard-fought loss in Boston and a dominant, all-around effort in a 14-point win over last year’s champions, the Warriors. But wow, were those middle two efforts against the shorthanded Wizards and the tired-legs Thunder maddening. The Bulls are in Paris this week with just one game Friday against a league bottom feeder in the Pistons. What could go wrong?
Meet the Opponents:
Bulls Projected Lineup:
- Ayo Dosunmu
- Zach LaVine
- DeMar DeRozan
- Patrick Williams
- Nikola Vučević
Opponent Projected Lineup
- Killian Hayes
- Jaden Ivey
- Saddiq Bey
- Isaiah Livers
- Isaiah Stewart
Unavailable/Injured (at start of the week)
Pistons: Nerlens Noel DAY-TO-DAY (knee), Buddy Boeheim DAY-TO-DAY (toe), Cade Cunningham OUT (lower leg), Jalen Duran DAY-TO-DAY (ankle)
Four Factors
Bulls: 55.0 EFG% (11th), 13.4 TOV% (7th), 23.2 OREB% (28th), 22.5 FTA/GM (23rd)
Pistons: 52.5 EFG% (26th), 14.6 TOV% (17th), 29.0 OREB% (12th), 27.0 FTA/GM (1st)
What to Watch For …
Bulls: With DeMar being a late scratch Sunday against the Warriors, you would have to think with four days off before the Paris game he will be back in for that one (Update: He will!). Can DeMar and Zach pick up where they left off, combining for 71 in the Utah game? The last time the Bulls and Pistons played on December 30, it was a much closer game than it should have been headed into the 4th before the Bulls pulled away. Can we please just get a relatively stress-free win over a bottom-of-the-league team?
Pistons: Big men have been able to feast on the Pistons as of late. In their last 5 outings, we’ve seen Julius Randle drop 42 points, Jonas Valančiūnas put up 33 points, noted offensive juggernaut Rudy Gobert go for 16 & 14, Joel Embiid score 36 points, and Montrezl Harrell even had a 20-point game with Embiid out. Sunday we saw Vuc’s best game of the season offensively by far. Looking at those big-man performances as of late against Detroit, Friday has the potential to be another standout effort from the Bulls man-in-the-middle. Let’s make that happen.
