It was a little more than eight months ago, but it seems like yesterday. The Bulls barged into Boston for a first-round playoff series and took the highly favored Celtics [team stats] to seven games.
Even the fact the Celts were without Kevin Garnett didn’t diminish the Chicago accomplishment. The Bulls lost a series but won praise and the feeling they were very much an up-and-coming entity in the Eastern Conference.
With Rookie of the Year Derrick Rose expected to be even better, it was presumed the Bulls would take another giant step in their development this year.
But as they stepped into the Garden last night, they were a team that has endured the defection of Ben Gordon, losing streaks and frequent speculation surrounding the employment of coach Vinny Del Negro.
“It is kind of strange, when you think about it like that,” said Rose before the Bulls turned the lights out on the sleepy Celts, 96-83. “But right now we’re just trying to get back to ourselves. Everybody is healthy now, and we’re just trying to find our identity.”
Rose acknowledges that when he left here last spring, he was looking for a whole lot more than what’s happened thus far.
“When we made it hard for them in the playoffs and played the way we did, we definitely thought we were going to come back this year and do well,” he said. “We started off well, and then we had that fall where we lost (9-of-10 games). That really hurt our record, and now we’re just trying to get over it.”
Did the loss of Gordon mean this much?
“At first it did because we were used to having him and having what he did for us,” Rose said. “We had to figure out who was going to score the ball, and it put me in a strange situation where I had to be more aggressive and shoot the ball more. Now I’m getting used to it and it’s coming easier.”
Ray Allen thinks Gordon’s departure was big.
“I think it’s a trickle-down effect,” he said. “When you have him coming off the bench, you know, every coach in the league talks about bench production. He was a guy that gave them a lot of muscle coming off the bench, they had five legitimate players in the starting lineup. You look at San Antonio; they still brink (Manu) Ginobili off the bench for that reason.”
Perhaps the most encouraging thing for the Bulls right now is that they had the same 16-20 record they took into last night’s game last season. But in the previous case, they acquired John Salmons and Brad Miller and went on a late-season run to the playoffs.
Rose thinks there is time.
“We’re definitely not happy with where we’re at right now, but we still have a lot more games to play,” he said. “We’re not worried about our record right now.”
Added Allen: “I think they’re going to rear their head toward the end of the season. I think they’re going to start going. When they start seeing the end of the tunnel and knowing what they have to do, I think they’ll put it together.”
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