Chicago Bulls Win Squeaker over Philadelphia 76ers, 96-91

The Philadelphia 76ers have given the Bulls more trouble of late than any team other than the Miami Heat. Tonight, the Bulls got a hard-fought win over them, 96-91, ending their three-game losing skid to the Sixers. 

It was a back-and-forth game with Philadelphia ruling the roost most of the first half, but the Bulls coming back strong in the second half, racing out to outscore Philadelphia 41-22 through the third quarter and the first part of the fourth to open up a 13-point lead. 

Then Philadelphia fought back, cutting the lead down to two but never got closer. They had a chance to tie the game when Andre Iguodala missed a potential game-tying shot with eight seconds left, but it was an air ball.

This was a huge game by Derrick Rose who scored 35 points and had eight assists. He also had a huge bucket with 38 seconds left to put the Bulls ahead by five. He was highly efficient scoring tonight, taking just 23 field goal attempts to score his 35 points. 

Joakim Noah had another big game as well, scoring 11 points and grabbing 18 boards. The Sixers were without their starting center Spencer Hawes, and Noah took full advantage of it. In spite of Noah's prodigious numbers though, and Hawes absence, the Sixers through sheer effort and determination, out-rebounded the Bulls for the second time in a row. 

While the Bulls turned the ball over 27 times in their previous game, they only turned it over 12 times tonight. Of course, Philadelphia only turned it over five times. 

The Bulls also passed for only 21 assists tonight. That was in large part because of the ubiquitous defense the Sixers were playing,using their speed and athleticism to cut off the Bulls' passing lanes. 

The Bulls normal formula of passing plus offensive rebounding wasn't working tonight, but they got the win for two reasons. First, Derrick Rose happened. He simply refused to let them lose and every time it looked like the might, Rose would take over the game. 

The other reason is the Bulls did a much better job of sticking their shots. They had an effective field goal percentage of .518 compared to .397 for the Sixers. They simply took higher percentage shots and made them. 

There were some warts though. Joakim Noah was at times flustered in terms of what to do with the ball. Taj Gibson was reluctant to shoot as well and when he did, he wasn't effective.

I expect that some of this will work itself out as Richard Hamilton accrues more minutes and is on the floor at the end of games. Some will also work out with more practice and experience on running out of the set on Noah's part. 

This was another quality win over a quality opponent on the road. The Bulls are now 8-1 with their starting five playing, which is sadly a meaningless number because the sample size is so small. 

Another more startling number is this. The Bulls have now won 20 of their last 22 regular-season games where Rose and Luol Deng have played together. That's pretty meaningful. 

They have the league's best road record at 17-6 with only 10 road games remaining. They have the league's best overall record, and as a result of the Miami Heat losing today, they have a two-game lead in the Eastern Conference.

They also have the league's longest winning streak at six games—their longest streak of the season. Finally, they have the best margin of victory in the NBA, winning their games by an average of 9.46 points per game—the-eighth best in the history of the league. 

Another potential piece of history is creeping up on the Bulls. If the Bulls can win seven of their next nine, then Thibodeau will break Avery Johnson's NBA record for fewest games to get to 100 victories. Also, Thibs will tie Jerry Sloan for fourth in Bulls history with total wins with his next win.