There isn't a whole lot going on in Bulls-land, the losses are piling up and the team is simply inconsistent from one game to the next. Scottie Pippen returned against the Pistons on Tuesday, yet Tyson Chandler is still sidelined. I didn't get to see the Detroit game until the 4th quarter when they were down 20. While the Bulls did string together a nice rally to cut the lead to 7(with the ball), Detroit plays the kind of style that is tough to come back on. Plus they're simply a better team. In fact I projected them to win the East.
But then again, I projected the Bulls to finish 6th. Now after a horrendous start, players being traded, and coaches being fired, the preseason goal of making the playoffs looks bleaker by the day. And the thing about bad starts is that you have to play better the rest of the year to catch up. Not around .500 which they have been lately. So how well do the Bulls' have to play for the rest of the year to even sniff a playoff spot? I was going to do these projections during the all-star break, but since there's little going on I'll put up this chart now:
notes: Bulls' current record: 12-26 (.312)8th seed last year(Orlando): 42-40 (.512)
W(total) L(total) RestofTheWay: W L % 30 52 18 26 0.409 32 50 20 24 0.455 34 48 22 22 0.500 36 46 24 20 0.545 38 44 26 18 0.591 40 42 28 16 0.636 42 40 30 14 0.682 44 38 32 12 0.727 46 36 34 10 0.773 48 34 36 8 0.818 50 32 38 6 0.864
So, even in the meek Eastern Conference, to match the record for the 8th seed last year the Bulls' need to play .682 basketball. Pretty much twice as good as they're playing now. Now that cutoff mark may be a little lower (or higher) this year, but safe to say the Bulls' will have to run off a string of victories. The kind of streak such as 7 in a row, or 10 out of 12, etc. to get back in the race. A return of Tyson Chandler could be the kind of thing to spark such a run, but by then the hole may be even deeper.
Note: I changed the settings on the blog to make the table actually look right. Unfortunately that means that most of my previous posts have messed up line breaks. from now on they should be alright though :)