Jan. 29--The Bulls improved to 26-19 with their road victory over the Lakers on Thursday. Here are three observations:
The Lakers are awful
The Bulls trailed the 76ers by 24 points this season before rallying to win in overtime. So it's not like a matchup against a bad team is a slam dunk.
But the Bulls stepped on a bad team from the start and never let up. They got strong contributions from their stars in Derrick Rose, Jimmy Butler and Pau Gasol, scoring off the bench from Doug McDermott and strong contributions from new starter E'Twaun Moore.
Sunday against the Clippers is a stronger test. The next step for the Bulls is stringing wins together, something they haven't done consistently since December's six-game win streak.
Rose and Butler played well together
As opposed to the "my turn, your turn" play that has defined some of their shared performances, there was more of a flow to their game. Rose even hit Butler on a lob.
Both players said they talked recently about how little they've still played together. They both sound excited about what they can become.
"I love playing with him," Butler said. "He's super aggressive. He's taking great shots. That's what we need. As long as I follow his lead in that attacking style, we're going to be really good."
Rose and Butler endorsed Moore as starter
This is a fairly significant subplot to the victory. The stars both basically admitted they're done with the Tony Snell experiment by saying first Moore needs to play more and later that they "like the spot he's in."
Of course, that would change if Mike Dunleavy returns from offseason back surgery as he's the starting small forward. But until then, having Butler and Rose in your corner is a good way to go for Moore.
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