Dec. 30--The Bulls improved to 22-9 with Monday's 92-90 road victory over the Pacers. Here are three observations.
Jimmy Butler is getting superstar calls.
Twelve more free-throw attempts for Butler, who now is tied with James Harden for the league lead with 13 games of double-digit attempts. Butler seemingly has mastered the art of initiating the contact but selling the move to the officials and drawing the foul.
Butler is fifth in the league with 8.3 attempts per game.
Derrick Rose needs to stop settling for 3-pointers.
Rose has enough talent that he will get hot from that distance occasionally. But defenses are going under screens for a reason: Rose shooting a 3-pointer is less dangerous than an attacking Rose.
Rose missed six of seven attempts versus the Pacers and is now shooting 27.4 percent from 3-point range. He's a career 30.7 percent 3-point shooter.
The Bulls can't forget about Pau Gasol late.
Coach Tom Thibodeau preaches playing inside-out, and the Bulls do a good job of establishing Gasol early. But too often in the final 6 minutes, 15 seconds after Gasol entered, the Bulls settled for jump shots. This was even though Roy Hibbert sat out as the Pacers made their run with a smaller lineup.
When the Bulls did find Gasol, he scored on a short jumper and later drew a double-team and fed Butler for his go-ahead 3-pointer. Those were the Bulls' only two field goals of the fourth.
