The Chicago Bulls returned to action on Thursday night, taking down the Atlanta Hawks at the United Center after a week off. But on Saturday, the Bulls found themselves once again on the losing end of a game against a top team in the NBA.
Ja Morant scored a career high and proved to be too much for the Bulls as the Grizzlies got the win on the road.
For Chicago, things don’t get much easier either as they have a pretty tough schedule to open up the final 20 or so games. Including a few against top teams in the league. The team might even be underdogs in a lot of these games as betting sites might suggest. However, we shouldn’t count them out as they look to make a push for the top seed in the Eastern Conference. If you enjoy betting on these kind of games, we highly recommend you to get into this site https://www.betpicks.ca/ which is one of the most popular sites out there, with great picks.
Going into Monday’s game in Miami, the Bulls are just one game back of the Heat for first place in the Eastern Conference. However, it’s pretty jammed up at this point of the season. Philadelphia is 2.5 games out, Cleveland is 3.5 games out and Milwaukee sits 4 games out with just two months in the season.
Looking at the Bulls schedule, it’s tough. I mean, really tough. Take a look at this stretch below:
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Feb 28th: At Miami
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March 3rd: At Atlanta
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March 4th: vs. Milwaukee
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March 7th: AT Philadelphia
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March 9th: AT Detroit
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March 12th: vs. Cleveland
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March 14th: AT Sacramento
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March 16th: AT Utah
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March 18th: AT Phoenix
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March 21st: vs Toronto
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March 22nd: AT Milwaukee
As it stands right now, 9 of those 10 games are against teams right there in the playoff race, a really tough test moving forward. The Bulls haven’t done well against teams like Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Phoenix, so these games are key for Billy Donovan and his success.
The other thing to note is that teams have made some moves in the Eastern Conference, particularly Philadelphia who landed James Harden to pair with Joel Embid. They also landed Seth Curry, giving them a legit outside shooting threat. The stakes are high in the Eastern Conference and with Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Brooklyn, Boston and Miami all playing well as of late, the Bulls are going to need to bring their A game.
And that starts with DeMar DeRozan.
The talented forward is on a hot streak of scoring 30+ points in 10-straight games for the Bulls this season and even broke a record set by Wilt Chamberlain. DeRozan and his teammate, Zach LaVine, have been fantastic but the team is going to need players like Nikola Vucevic, Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu to step up. Getting Alex Caruso, Lonzo Ball and Patrick Williams would also help as all three are recovering from injuries at the moment.
The 10 game stretch probably wont knock the Bulls out of the playoff race but it will be very crucial for seeding in the Eastern Conference. Now let’s see how they respond over the next three weeks.
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