Looking Back and Looking Ahead For Da Bulls

Coming off last nights drumming for the 76ers, 122-90, the team is currently two games over the 500 mark with a record of 28-26 which currently has them as 6th in the East. They trail the 5th place Raptors by two games and lead the 7th place Heat by one game with the 8th place Bobcats just 1/2 game behind them.

I made a few predictions before the season which you can see here http://fanhuddle.com/chicagobulls/2009/10/29/my-predictions-for-da-bulls/

A few of them are coming out correct while others need a little more time to pan out. Check out 1,2,3, 5, 6, 12, 13 and 14.

With 55 games left in the season the Bulls have 27 games left with a very tough March schedule coming up. They have four games left in February, three against below 500 teams (Wizards & Pacers twice). Three is an interesting number because that is the same number of below 500 teams they play the whole month of March with two very important games against the Heat. Thankfully 9 of the 15 games are at home where they are 17-9 on the season. Besides playing the Heat they will have possible playoffs previews against Orlando, Atlanta and Cleveland.

And if you thought March is bad April isn't much better. With eight games, half on the road and against three sub 500 teams, that features them head to head with the Bobcats twice and Milwaukee, the team on the outside looking in, once. The Bucks are currently one of the sub 500 teams. And it also has it's share of playoffs previews with another game against Lebron and the Cavs, Boston and Toronto.

The upcoming schedule is why the Bulls must take advantage of the next 4 games against the lowly Wizards, pathetic Pacers and the very banged up Blazers. They could maybe push this win streak to eight going into their March 1 date against the Hawks at the UC.

But for them to keep up their strong play they must get Joakim Noah back and healthy. Thankfully he was able to play 7 minutes off the bench last night. Once they are able to combine Noah back with Drose, Hinrich, Miller, Gibson and Deng along with newcomers Warrick and Murray they will have a nice 8 man rotation that could make some noise come playoff time if they are able to hold off the teams trailing them.

Check out all my Bulls thoughts at www.chargingchicago.com