So, we meet again, nemesis. The rest of the NBA might not know this, but the Chicago Bulls are the best team in the league. A fire breathing, near impossible to vanquish monster. Oh sure, the rest of the league might consider Chicago to be a team that’s spent the last few seasons self-destructing through the ranks of mediocrity down into the genuinely bad, dysfunctional lottery team that they are now. But we Raptors fans, we know better. The Bulls are to be irrationally feared and respected, because for whatever explanation that continues to pass beyond reason, the Raptors have been unable to smite this foe. Maybe, just maybe, this will finally be there time…
But seriously though, this has to be the time when the Raptors finally beat the Bulls, right? Chicago has been a poorly put together roster from the opening tip this season, and their complete lack of depth, shooting and chemistry has finally caught up to them. After spending most of the year complaining about the team to the media, Dwyane Wade has been shut down for the rest of the year with an elbow fracture. The Bulls traded Taj Gibson and Doug ‘Raptor Killer’ McDermott to the Thunder for nothing Cameron Payne. It seemed like a robbery for OKC at the time, but the Bulls did desperately need a point guard, so they must have thought they saw something in Payne that the Thunder, who had essentially stopped using him, didn’t. Having been on the team less than a month, Cameron Payne has now been sent to the D League. Nikola Mirotic has played this entire season like he’s only showing up to the games because someone has kidnapped his family and threatened them harm if he doesn’t arrive to the arena in uniform. He’s looked visibly off all year and has lost his shot. The Bulls are relying on Robin Lopez, whose fun personality and hard rebounding are wasted in Chicago, and Jimmy Butler, who is having an All-NBA season, as some of you may remember from the last time the Raps played Chicago and he lead them back from 19 points and then crushed us in overtime.
For their part, the Raptors have been playing excellent basketball as of late. Their last two games in particular since the team meeting following the OKC loss have been amongst the best all-around team wins of the season. Since the all-star break, the Raptors have sported a top-3 defense and posted the second best point differential in the Eastern Conference. If they play the kind of focused, enthusiastic game that they have lately then they should be in position to win.
There are several key matchups that favor the Raptors. Missing Kyle Lowry continues to be deeply unfortunate, but that loss is offset some by the fact that Chicago is leaning on a rookie at point guard in Denzel Valentine who was up until recently been relegated to deep bench duty. He’s backed up by Rajon Rondo, who at this point is better at playing the spurned ex-girlfriend card against Ray Allen than he is at basketball. When Cory Joseph and Delon Wright are advantages for the Raptors, they’re in good shape (on paper). Robin Lopez has become an underrated NBA player and will probably cause some headaches for the Raptors on the offensive glass. But his presence allows the Raptors to play Valanciunas without making any major matchup sacrifices defensively. Valanciunas has been a beast in recent games in which he’s shown great intensity. His scoring could be a huge boost to a Raptors team that’s been solid defensively but struggled a bit to score. Jimmy Butler has often given DeRozan trouble, but having Norm and PJ Tucker to consistently guard him should be a boost that the Raptors haven’t previously enjoyed.
The Raptors finally broke out of a team shooting slump from 3 in their last game, and that continued trend would be huge against the Bulls. The Bulls, on the other hand, take the fewest amount of 3s as a percentage of their offense in the league, and are the second worst 3-point shooting team in the league on the season. If the Bulls light up the Raptors from 3, it will be a sure sign of the fact that witchcraft and foul dark magic are indeed playing a role in the Raptors continued inability to beat the now actively tanking Chicago Bulls. Gather courage, friends, for this could well be the time when we rise up and finally don’t inexplicably lose to the Bulls again.