Call ‘em the Cardiac Bulls. Well, that doesn’t really fit, but that’s how the Bulls have been playing just about all season, particularly on the circus trip.
They let the Sacramento Kings — who were off to a horrible 4-10 start and had lost nine of their last 10 games — get off to a first-half lead. The Kings led by 13 at halftime.
Then Rose and Co. turned things on. They outscored the Kings by 24 in the second half, 27-9 in the fourth quarter alone, and won going away 96-85. Is this the way they’re going to do things all season? Does coach Tom Thibodeau need to get his team focused on getting early leads?
Maybe not. You only need to go back to last year when the Bulls blew a 35-point lead at home and lost to those same Kings; that game might have been the beginning of the end for coach Vinny del Negro. If this team knows how to put itself together and come out of a hole and win, why mess with it?
Luol Deng added 22 points and Joakim Noah had 17. Noah had only eight rebounds, snapping a five-game double-double streak.
The Bulls wound up 4-3 on the circus trip — the first time since 1997-98 they had done that. They’ll have a well-deserved three days off before taking on the Magic at the United Center on Wednesday.