Bulls at the Halfway Point

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Jan 28, 2005 4:15PM

Following last night's victory over the Charlotte Bobcats, the Bulls completed the first half of their season with a 22-19 record. Yeah, that's right... 3 games over .500! Of course, that means they've beena sizzling 22-10 since their 0-9 start.

While coach Skiles still doesn't want to discuss playoffs, Chicagoist does. The Bulls currently sit in 6th place in the Eastern Conference, which is actually the best spot of the lower seeds. Since the three division winners get a top 3 seed, the Bulls would face Boston, the leader of the "powerhouse" Atlanta Division despite a sub .500 record! The Bulls, while the lower seed, would actually be playing a worse team and get home court advantage in the series.

With the phenomenal play of the young Bulls team, one would think they'd be better represented on the rosters for the got milk? Rookie Challenge. Part of the All Star Game festivities, the game matches up 9 top rookies against 9 top second-year players.

Sure, the Bulls lead all teams with three participants in the game. Kirk Heinrich will suit up for the sophomores, while Luol Deng and Ben Gorden were selected for the rookie squad. However, Chicagoist thinks Bulls rookies Andres Nocioni and Chris Duhon was robbed.

We don't see how others got picked over them. Nocioni has averaged 7.8 points/game and 4.3 rebounds/game. Duhon leads all rookies with 4.9 assists/game and has started 31 of 44 games. Clearly, they've been more productive than Beno Udrih, Devin Harris or Tony Allen.

For those who want to show that they're already on the Bulls bandwagon, ChicagoBulls.com has some pretty cool desktop wallpapers. We've already added this one to our computers here at the Chicagoist sports bureau.

Photo via ChicagoBulls.com