The Chicago Bulls Defensive Performance Key to Recent Success

The good results that the Chicago Bulls have recorded in recent weeks have been based, mainly, on their good defensive performance. In the current month of December they compiled a balance of 8-4 that has been accompanied by the seventh best defense in the NBA.

In this stretch they are conceding 113.4 points per hundred possessions, when until then they received 115.2 points, the eighth worst record in the competition. The Bulls already followed a similar upward trajectory last year, finishing with the quintet with the best defensive ratio, an achievement that Alex Caruso believes they are capable of repeating.

“This is the same trend we had last year,” the Bulls outsider told the outlet. NBC Sports Chicago. «There are many things we can control. Among them, closing the rebound. At the beginning of the year we saw in the video sessions how we had five guys in the paint trying to get the rebound and the ball went over our head. Then, control the fouls and take care of the ball. They’re just little things, that are pretty controllable and that we’ve done a good job on in the last month. It’s amazing what happens in basketball when you close the rebound well, control fouls, don’t lose the ball and defend in transition. “One tends to win games.”

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Caruso added that the Bulls have not changed their overall defensive philosophy from last year and shared the need to sacrifice for the good of the team. “At least you have to be smart and willing to do it,” said the outsider. «I think all the guys have sacrificed a little bit, whether it’s in how we want to play offensively or in the schemes, designs and roles we have on defense. It takes a lot of sacrifice from guys who have played more than ten years in the NBA, been an All-Star or scored 25 points per game a year. It takes a lot of sacrifice and contribution to the team. “It’s something that not everyone may see from the outside, but we appreciate the sacrifice they have made for us.”

Currently, the Bulls occupy tenth position in the Eastern Conference, although five games away from the positions that give direct access to the playoffs. Now, management will have to decide whether to maintain the core of the team or position themselves as sellers at the market close.

(Cover photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

2023-12-26 21:00:00
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