NBA teams
Scoop Jackson, ESPN Senior Writer 9y

Bulls' midseason slide an eye-opener

Chicago Bulls

It was the Houston game. That's it. Go back. Backtrack. Research.

Right after that win -- the biggest one of the season for these Bulls -- is when this dissension began. The back end of a 15-game run where they'd lost only twice. Jimmy Butler already with an NBA Player of the Month under his belt and opponents publicly saying he should be in the early MVP conversation; Nikola Mirotic just being honored as the NBA Rookie of the Month; Pau Gasol outplaying his brother for the first time since 2010; Derrick Rose putting a string of 2011-type games together.

They were feeling it. Worse, they were possibly feeling themselves.

So what we have now, what this has reached, is more than a simple case of: be careful of what you ask for. For these Bulls never really asked to crown themselves in January. Statement wins during the regular season mean nothing. Been there, done that, got nothing to show for it. Motto. No, this here is about the other side of discovering the soul of a team.

They always say the character of a team can be determined by how it handles adversity. Well, the same can and is usually true about how teams handle success.

Go back. Backtrack. Research.

The apex of the Bulls' success began the instant the final horn sounded on Jan. 5. When they walked off the court and into that locker room and left the United Center crowd in a euphoric state of mind. James Harden, Dwight Howard, Patrick Beverley and Kevin McHale in their rearview.

After that ... something hit the fan, the AC and the vaporizer. And it was thick.

Since then: two wins over the last eight games; losses to all three teams they are going to have to go through to get -- at least -- to the Eastern Conference finals (the Hawks, the Cavs, the Wizards); going from fifth-best in the league in defensive FG percentage to fifth-worst; allowing teams to average over 106 PPG in those recent six losses, when only one team scored over 106 points on them in the 15-game stretch before.

So when Derrick Rose decided he couldn't breathe anymore because of what he'd been holding inside, it was a breath of fresh air that spoke exactly to what everyone on the outside looking in was seeing.

"I think communication is huge," Rose said. "We're quiet when we're out there, and it's leading to them getting easy baskets. We got to give a better effort. It seems like we're not even competing, and it's f---ing irritating."

The sentiment, both real and surreal. The timing, better than perfect. The bleeps, beautiful. The only thing missing was 17 "unacceptables."

Although coach Tom Thibodeau did drop one "not acceptable" in reference to his team's recent play, it was another quote that raised eyebrows and ire:

"Somehow there's the notion that, 'It's OK. We'll be all right.' No. No. It doesn't work like that,'' Thibodeau said.

Who on that roster feels this is OK?

Adversity in sports is easy. Nothing else but adversity is guaranteed to come with the territory at this level. Do the math: One team wins it all every year. Just one. That guarantees adversity for every other team at the end of every season.

Joakim Noah said it best when he told me in an earlier interview: "I know there's going to be hard times in the season. It's never easy; it's never going to be easy. This is one of the hardest -- look, I love my job, I love what I do, I play basketball for a living, which has been my dream since I was a little shorty -- but at the end of the day, it's really, really hard. This is no joke."

But let success come too early and it can expose a trait of a team that players never knew existed inside of them or the locker room they call home.

Did the Bulls' heads get big after the victory over the Rockets? Possibly. Did they unbeknownst to themselves get ahead of themselves, bypassing intricate parts of the process? Did they begin to believe what we (the media, the fans) were saying about them? The new hype? Had they fallen in love with themselves and the way they were balling, the way the entire city fell back in love with them and how they were balling?

Only they know. Only they know better.

At this point, with everyone from Thibs to Taj Gibson trying to figure out what went wrong and what they can do to solve it, every question is speculation, every answer uncertain. But the one thing the Bulls do have on their side is they aren't the only team at this midpoint in the NBA that has had stages of drastic underachieving.

The defending champ San Antonio Spurs lost 10 of 18 games in December; Toronto, since the beginning of the new year, has lost six of nine games; the Memphis Grizzlies have had one four-game skid and followed it up a week later with a 1-3 stint; the Los Angeles Clippers, after opening up the month of December with five straight wins, have lost nine and won 11; Cleveland went on a recent 1-9 ride (falling below .500 in the process) before finally winning their last three games. The only truism so far in the NBA this season is that the Golden State Warriors, Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks have been the only consistent teams the entire season.

Still ahead of the Cavs by 4½ games in the Central, there's enough cushion for the Bulls not to panic and for the Cavs to fall into another "discovery" period when no one on their team seems committed to winning and the media goes back on a "pink slip watch" for coach David Blatt. (The Detroit Pistons, the way they've been playing since the Josh Smith trade, is another story for Feb. 20 when they play the Bulls again.)

What's happening here -- and why Rose finally went vocal -- is that LeBron is becoming a problem again for the Bulls as Aaron Rodgers has become a problem for the Bears: LeBron has the Bulls' number. He psychologically has them beat, and they have to go through him in order to reach their destiny. Regardless of what team he's playing for.

And while going through a slight losing streak is frustrating for all involved, the "LeBron thing" is what will eat away at Thibs, Rose and Noah because they are the ones who have been dealing with this for five years.

Which may also be the reason why it appears the Bulls lost their focus, their energy, their passion, their way after game No. 35. Success is a helluva drug.

In every season, coaches and players will tell you about that "damn" moment. That moment where everything changed. Great teams usually have more than one. The one that almost ruined them and another when they found out who they were.

The Bulls are already down one moment. Damn. Hopefully there will be at least one more.

It's like the old saying about getting married to someone: Better to discover their flaws on a date than at the altar.

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