With only 14 games left in the regular season, the Chicago Bulls don’t have many chances to reach .500 this season. However, as All-Star center Nikola Vucevic shared, they’ll keep pushing for it. Vooch acknowledged that their dismal play at the start of the season put them right behind the eight ball. Although the Bulls have made their way to ninth in the Eastern Conference standings, they have yet to reach the .500 mark since they were 2-2 earlier this season.
Dug themselves a deep hole
After getting to 2-2, the Bulls took a downward spiral, losing 12 of their next 15 games to notch a 5-14 record at the end of November. Things went from bad to worse not long after that, as All-Star wingman Zach LaVine missed all their games in December due to foot inflammation. Fortunately for Chicago, Coby White hit his stride, and they managed to turn things around. Currently, the Bulls hold a 33-35 record following their 127-98 win over the Washington Wizards.
“It’s kind of the position we put ourselves in with the bad start,” Vucevic said.
“We definitely dug ourselves a hole, and we’ve been trying to find a way to claw our way out of it.”
Almost but not quite
The Bulls came close to reaching .500 when they defeated the Golden State Warriors last week to pull to 31-32. However, the Los Angeles Clippers defeated them 112-102 in their very next game, and the Bulls worsened their situation by losing three of their next four games.
“A couple of times, we’ve gotten to within a game of .500 and never been able to win that one game to get there. At the same time, we’re not going to stop fighting to get there. While there’s a chance, we’re going to continue and fight to climb up the standings,” Vooch remarked.
“It’s one thing with this team: We never stop fighting, we never stop competing. It’s a tricky spot we’re in when you look at the standings. It kind of feels like we’re stuck there. We’ll continue to fight to the end and see what happens.”
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