The Chicago Bulls are enduring another up and down season, never getting too high or too low. For every two or three game winning streak, an equivalent losing streak follows. Like clockwork. As we near the homestretch of the regular season, Fred Hoiberg’s crew sits at 31-32, tied for 7th in the East and clinging to a 1.5 game lead over Miami and Milwaukee for the final playoff spot.
It’s not that strange to see the Bulls in this position. Most intelligent pundits had them somewhere between 38-42 wins before the season started, and they’re right in line to hit that gap. What is strange is to see exactly how the Bulls are hitting that mediocre mark: by losing to the bad teams in the league and beating the good ones.
Playing With the Cool Kids
The Bulls are 15-14 this season against teams sporting a .500-or-better record. Even more impressive, they’re a combined 11-6 against the top four teams in each conference. Chicago is 8-3 in battles against Cleveland, Boston, Washington and Toronto, and a respectable 3-3 against Golden State, San Antonio, Houston and Utah. Count Chicago and Memphis as the only two teams in the league to have wins over the Cavs, Warriors and Spurs.
As impressive as that is, it also means Jimmy Butler & Co are only 4-8 against the second tier of winning teams in the league. If the Bulls are capable of having nearly twice as many wins as losses against the best teams, why can’t they duplicate that success against their slightly above average foes?
But wait, it gets worse.
Sinking To Their Level
After their loss to the Pistons on Monday night, the Bulls are just 16-18 against sub-.500 teams. Within those games, they’re 12-8 against the ten worst teams in the league. That’s not horrible, but it’s certainly not the kind of success Hoiberg is looking for against the bottom feeders. If his team managed to win a few more of those very winnable games, they could be fighting for homecourt advantage in the first round right now instead of fighting to keep the 8th seed.
However, it’s the not-quite-awful teams (just like the slightly above average teams) giving the Bulls the most trouble. Against the teams currently ranked 15-20 out of 30, Chicago is just 4-10. Five of those ten losses have come against Central Division rivals Detroit and Milwaukee, two teams currently battling Chicago for the final playoff spot in the East.
Why does this happen? Don’t bother asking Hoiberg or Butler, or Dwyane Wade, for that matter. None of the “leaders” of this team can explain why they play up to the level of the league’s best and follow those performances with duds against the duds. In Hoiberg’s defense, though, Bulls fans saw similar patterns when Tom Thibodeau was in charge. The odd trend just happened to continue in the new regime with a largely different roster. Go figure.
Now here comes the fun(ny) part.
Making History
If the Bulls continue this trend of losing to losers and beating the winners, they’ll make history. As ESPN’s Marc Stein pointed out in his latest edition of the NBA power rankings, Chicago would become just the second team in NBA history to finish a full season with a winning record against .500-or-better teams and a losing record against sub-.500 teams.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, only the 1955-56 New York Knicks finished a full season the same way. In what was just an 8-team league, those Knicks went 35-37 in a 72-game regular season. They went a combined 17-16 versus Philadelphia, Boston and Fort Wayne, the teams with winning records that season. But against Syracuse, Minneapolis, St. Louis and Rochester the Knicks were just 18-21. Sound familiar, Bulls fans? Those now-deceased or since-moved franchises might not ring a bell, but the Knicks’ strange trend sure does.
The Bulls have 19 games remaining in the regular season. 11 come against teams currently below .500 and 8 versus teams sporting winning records. Can they buck this awkward (and somewhat embarrassing) trend in the final five weeks? Can they prevent themselves from becoming an uninspiring footnote in the NBA record books?
We’ll have to wait to find out. But beating the 23-41 Orlando Magic on Wednesday would definitely be a good start. Surprisingly, the Bulls actually beat Orlando both times they faced them earlier this season. Doesn’t it seem like too much to ask of this up-and-down bunch to beat a bad team three straight times?
The correct answer is yes. Yes it does. Prepare for another “L” in the “losses against losers” column, Bulls fans. Just trying to save you from disappointment. If they shock us with a win, it will be a nice perk in a mostly frustrating season.
