Before the team’s charter left Chicago, the Chicago Bulls beat the Detroit Pistons 126-108 126-108 Thursday in Paris, center Nikola Vucevic began imagining the possibilities.
Not even a dominant home win over the defending champion Golden State Warriors in their previous outing can negate what has been a bumpy season for the Bulls. But an almost week-long trip to France? Well, that would certainly break the monotony and perhaps serve as the catalyst that frees Chicago from inconsistency.
“Winning matters everything,” Vucevic said after Sunday’s win over the Warriors. “The mood changes. Whatever it is, you could be on a 10-game losing streak and win one game. It just changes everything. You always feel like you can start something. And it could be for us when we go on that journey if we use it to really connect together.” And continue to build our chemistry.”
The bulls in Paris. 26 years apart 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/BouctHjpyp
– Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) January 19, 2023
With all the power of the NBA behind them, the Bulls and Pistons put on a great show for the people in France. Legendary players from both franchises and the host country were paraded. Four-time NBA champion and French legend Tony Parker welcomed the crowd inside the Accor Arena, along with Vučević and Killian Hayes, the starting point guard for the Pistons and a native of France. With Fashion Week also in Paris, Magic Johnson sat next to producer, rapper, and songwriter Pharrell Williams, who was not far behind legendary supermodel Naomi Campbell.
The pomp and conditions felt closer to the All-Star Game than regular season competition.
Meanwhile, the bulls did everything they could to turn the trip into a family affair. Players were allowed to take a plus one, and many went further and used this opportunity as a family vacation. Before the crowd rejoiced with four dips, Derek Jones Jr. proposed to his girlfriend Sherri at a group dinner. Video shows Vucevic sitting at a table in the background, smiling from ear to ear while applauding the newly engaged couple.
She works in Paris ❤️💍🇫🇷 https://t.co/cRboBaP2oy pic.twitter.com/9Yy9g5eN2G
– Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) January 18, 2023
“It’s been a great trip for us going forward, and obviously going into the second half of the season,” Bulls guard Zach LaVine told reporters after the game. “Spending a lot of time together. Bonding a little bit. Everyone sees each other’s family. Who they brought with them and who they care about too.
“It was a great experience overall. I don’t think it would have been worth it if we came here and didn’t get the win back home. So it was all great. Now we have to go home and continue that same little bit of chemistry.”
It promises to be a compelling case study. With only nine games left on the Bulls’ schedule before the February 9 trade deadline, the team has reached a tipping point With only nine games left on the Bulls’ schedule before the February 9 trading deadline, the team has reached a tipping point. The Bulls (21-24) will come back from France just three games under .500. , a record they have not held since November 7. They are ranked 10th in the East, just 1 game ahead of Toronto and 3 1/2 games behind Miami for sixth, which is just shy of the Play-In Championship.
Will the Bulls continue with the status quo, believing their chemistry can pair with regular starting point guard Lonzo Ball heal and rejoin the lineup? Or would it be wiser for the bulls to start selling assets and retooling the existing ones?
It seems like the worst thing that could happen to Taurus, and the rest of the way is to maintain blind faith in a transformation that may never come. If they ignore the team’s inconsistency and allow the kickers a chance to get right hits, what will happen if it never happens?
Against the Pistons, owners of the worst record in the Eastern Conference, the Bulls put together a systematic wire-to-wire victory that was expected, if far from guaranteed.
One of the biggest problems for the Bulls this season has been their split personality. They managed to go 7-3 against the top four teams in the Eastern Conference while being 0-3 against Orlando, Houston, and San Antonio, for a combined 40-94 teams. Chicago also swept Oklahoma City and lost to a Minnesota team without Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Goubert, as well as Washington without Bradley Bell and Christaps Borzies.
This level of unpredictability is not an elite team. If the Bulls aren’t good enough to compete for a championship this season, and because they don’t have their own draft pick, which makes getting to the bottom pointless, the question becomes what do they do? What exactly is the goal in the latter half of the season?
If the Bulls don’t make improvements and the ball doesn’t return, Chicago will likely land where no franchise should voluntarily choose: in the middle. It puts undue pressure on players to outperform to a level they have yet to prove they are capable of.
“Now is the time,” DeMar DeRozan told reporters after the game. “Every game is so much more important. Now it’s about getting it together every night no matter who we play because those games we can’t go back to. Every game is just as important as the next. And as long as we have that mindset and understand the importance of the game, we have a chance to put ourselves in a good position.” “.
(Top photo by Dalen Terry: Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)
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