Chicago Bulls
2 games and 2 wins for the Bulls including a dominant win against the previously undefeated Pacers. The Bulls kicked off the weekend with a road game against the Raptors minus Rose, but this team is far to familiar with that situation. The Bulls defense was out in full force Friday holding the Raptors to just 31 points in the 1st half. The entire starting lineup scored in double digits paced by Luol Deng who is finally showing signs of getting out of his early shooting slump. The Bulls did what they were supposed to do and walked all over a lesser Raptors team.
“We want to step away from that shadow as the ‘little brothers’ of this division,” George told NBA.com after a 97-80 victory over the Bulls last week. “[The Bulls’] success is the Michael Jordan era. This is a new age, this is a new team. It’s ours till they take it.”
Those were Paul George’s comments after the Pacers waxed the Bulls; maybe he should have waited awhile before claiming that there was a new era. The Bulls dominated the Pacers and Saturday and none of us should be surprised. Deng was on fire, Rose was raining 3’s, and Noah is starting to look healthy but there was a bigger key to this victory, and shockingly it was Kirk Hinrich. Hinrich and Rose were on the floor together and it completely changed the game. With Hinrich running the point it allowed Rose to attack from the wing and he looked so much better. Rose didn’t have to attack the rim and simply lit it up from outside. Rose drained 6 3’s and most importantly had 0 turnovers. This Bulls team has won 4 in a row and is starting to look like the team that we thought they were and I love it.
Chicago Bears
The rains came hard and fast but they didn’t hit as hard as the Ravens did in the 1st quarter. The Ravens jumped out to a 10 point lead before the rains came, postponing the game for 2 hours. The field was obliterated leading to Mud Bowl 2013. The Bears continued their trend of giving life to dead running backs, Ray Rice had more yards Sunday than he did in the last 4 games combined. The concerns about the defense are still valid but we now have no worries about our hero, Josh McCown. 216 yards, 1 TD, and no picks led to another victory for the former gym teacher. The Beas battled from behind and eked out huge win in overtime. McCown made the play of the game in OT with a monster 44 yard completion to Martellus Bennett which led the way to the game winning field goal. With the win, the Bears improve to 6-4 and remain in the playoff hunt. This was a great weekend for our teams and I look forward to some more victories in the upcoming week.
Baseline commentary 