By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)
Following a close defeat at the hands of the hands of the Orlando Magic Saturday, the Philadelphia 76ers enter a tough stretch of games this week, beginning with tonight’s matchup with the Chicago Bulls. In case you haven’t been paying attention to the happenings in the Windy City, these aren’t your slightly older brother’s Bulls.
Chicago has slid out of the top-10 in defensive rating (all the way to 12th), a fact which I think the team would currently be running suicides for under former head coach Tom Thibodeau. First-year coach Fred Hoiberg has moved Nikola Mirotic and Doug McDermott into the starting lineup in an effort to goose up the outside shooting for his preferred offensive system. While they do sport the second-best 3PT% in the league at 37.9%, the Bulls are only 23th in the NBA in offensive rating. Although that initially seems counter-intuitive, it’s due to the fact that the Bulls do not get to the line (fourth-worst in free throw attempt rate) and they don’t create second chance opportunities (second-worst in offensive rebounding percentage).
If there was any doubt coming into the season that Chicago is now Jimmy Butler’s team, those questions have been fully answered. Last year’s Most Improved Player award winner, Butler has continued to dominate, averaging 20.1 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 2.1 steals per game through the first seven games.
In addition to his lock-down defense, Butler has become about as versatile an offensive weapon as you’ll come across. He has continued to imrove his outside shot, currenty shooting 42.9% from three on the season, while being one of the few Bulls to attack the basket and get easy points at the charity stripe (making over 5 free throws per game). Nik Stauskas will have his hands full with this defensive assignment, while the Sixers will hope Jerami Grant is good to go after suffering a corneal abrasion Saturday, just to have one more perimeter defender to throw at Butler.
On the interior, nicest man in basketball Pau Gasol laughs at Father Time for yet another year, putting up averages of 13.6 points, 9.0 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks. His crafty offensive game will be a huge test for Sixers rookie Jahlil Okafor, while Nerlens Noel is stuck chasing Mirotic around on the perimeter.
As for the rest of the Bulls, those Sixers fans who clamored for Dougie McBuckets a couple draft nights ago will shout that he’s shooting 59.3% from three on the season. What they may fail to note is the Bulls have a minus-22.0 net rating when McDermott in the game, as he brings almost literally nothing else to the table. Chicago has been considerably better on both sides of the ball when Tony Snell is on the floor in his place.
It’s also a sign of the changing times that we’ve gotten this far without mentioning former NBA MVP Derrick Rose. Basically, the Sixers just to need to do everything possible to cut off Rose from gettingt to the basket and hope he settles for jump shots. Rose is shooting a paltry 7.7% from three on the season and just 36% from the field overall. If Rose is trying to dominate the action, rather than Butler getting his fair share of possessions, the Sixers will have their best chance to prevail.
Although they are at home, the Sixers are catching the Bulls at a bad time in the schedule. Chicago is rested and only plays two games this week. With their next game not until Friday, there’s every reason to think their starters will play heavy minutes and going full bore to secure a win tonight. It’s likely Philadelphia will have to wait another couple nights in search of their first victory on the season.
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