NBA Early Preview – Los Angeles Lakers at Chicago Bulls (XMas)
The Chicago Bulls will be looking to give their fans a nice Christmas present this year when they clash with the Los Angeles Lakers at the United Center (8:00 p.m. Eastern).
At 19-9 on the year, Chicago is first in the Central Division, 1.5 games up on LeBron James and the Cavaliers. The squad is finally starting to get healthy and the results are rolling in; the Bulls have won eight of their last 11 games, with oft-injured superstar Derrick Rose playing in all 11.
Chicago boasts a balanced squad at both ends of the floor. Rose (17.5 PPG and 5.0 APG) spearheads an offense that has been bolstered by the breakout season of Jimmy Butler (22.1 PPG and 1.6 SPG), while Pau Gasol (11.5 RPG, 18.0 PPG and 2.0 BPG) and Joakim Noah (9.7 RPG, 1.4 BPG) hold the fort on defense.
Noah, last year’s Defensive Player of the Year, has missed seven games in total this season. But the Bulls depth has shone through, with the team going 5-2 without the 6’11” center.
Meanwhile, like last year, the Los Angeles Lakers are having a terrible season. Injuries have once again hampered the team, with Steven Nash being lost for the year prior to the start of the season, and first-round draft pick Julius Randle breaking his leg in his very first game.
Kobe Bryant is averaging 24.6 points per game – 12 more than anyone else on the team – but he’s also taken 316 more shots than anyone else on the team and is shooting just 37% from the field.
The Lakers are way down in the standings; at 9-19, L.A. is ahead of just the 76ers, T-Wolves, Knicks, and Pistons. However, the team was able to pull of a stunning victory over the league-leading Golden State Warriors on Tuesday. Making the win all the more shocking, the Lakers were playing without Bryant, who was given the night off to rest. The win put an end to the Lakers’ three-game losing streak.
Though the Lakers are likely riding high after dominating the Warriors, don’t expect the team to parlay that into a win streak when they face Rose and the Bulls.
(Photo credit: Keith Allison from Owings Mills, USA (Derrick Rose) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)
Zack is a tour guide whose favorite sports are football, baseball, and golf. He enjoys giving obnoxious commentary during games and hopes to some day write a book about sports. His favorite underdog victory was the Diamondbacks beating the Yankees in game 7 of the World Series.
