It’s fairly big news that Joakim Noah had only seven rebounds in the Bulls’ 120-90 blowout of the Warriors last night.
Why? Because over the first six games of this season, Noah had averaged 15.7 points and 15 rebounds a game. There are only two players in NBA history who had done that before Noah — Kevin Garnett and Shaquille O’Neal, pretty heady company to be in. Noah’s rebounding skills are a big reason the Bulls are now in first place in the Central division.
But another big reason is the balanced scoring attack. In addition to Noah — now averaging 15.9 PPG after scoring 17 in last night’s win — three other Bulls are averaging 15 or more points per game: Taj Gibson (15), Luol Deng (20.3) and Derrick Rose (23.6). Rose is 10th in the NBA as of today. Deng led the Bulls with 26 last night, but five other Bulls scored in double figures.
All of this is why Bulls fans shouldn’t be too unhappy that LeBron James “took his talents to South Beach”. All those “talents” have produced a record that is currently behind 12 other NBA teams.