BullsEye Blog

* This contest will be a rematch of last season's Eastern Conference first round playoff series in which Miami won 4-2. * The Bulls have just three wins in their last 17 regular season meetings with the Heat. * In its first trip to the NBA finals last season, Miami rallied from an 0-2 deficit against Dallas to win the first title in team history. * Shaquille O'Neal currently has 24,764 career points, ranking him 15th all-time. He needs just 51 points to tie Patrick Ewing for 14th place. * Miami owns a 10-8 record in opening night games. Pat Riley is 6-2 in Heat opening night contests, and is 14-6 all-time. * Chicago has opened each of the last two seasons with overtime wins. * The Bulls are 21-19 on opening night, including a 9-9 mark when opening on the road. * Chicago has led the NBA in lowest opponent field goal percentage for each of the last two seasons. Last season, they held their opponents to just .426 shooting, while in 2004-05 they held their foes to .422.

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Posted by WGN Sports at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

New Bulls veterans Ben Wallace and PJ Brown know they are being counted on for big things. Both players talked about the season ahead after practice on Monday.

Ben Wallace and P.J. Brown on the new season - 10/30

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Bulls coach Scott Skiles met with the media on the eve of the 2006-07 NBA season and discussed the high expectations facing his team this year.

Scott Skiles on the start of the Bulls season - 10/30

Posted by WGN Sports at 5:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hi everyone,

As much as we'd all like the Bulls to get off to a great start this year, I think the key point to emphasize is patience. Number one - they have seven new players on the roster this year. Number two - Scott Skiles wants to play a large rotation of players this year and that rotation may be nine, ten, or even eleven different players on a given night who would be part of the rotation. This takes time.

When you consider that ten of the first fourteen games in the month of November are on the road, that compounds the potential problems. But this is a new team with half the roster brand new and definitely some exciting additions such as Ben Wallace and PJ Brown, veterans who know how to play and win on the road. They've got some great young talent as well - Tyrus Thomas is going to be an outstanding player. Thabo Sefolosha has really impressed with me with his ability to use his long wingspan on the defensive end. He could be the kind of guy who could develop into a defensive stopper, but right now he's playing like a rookie - a bit in awe of the situation and that's understandable coming from Europe where he played most of his basketball.

There's no doubt that this team has great ability. I caution patience only because we have a lot of road games, a lot of new faces, and because we have the the type of talent and depth that allows, and almost demands that Scott Skiles use a large rotation. It will take some time for the Bulls to pull all of that together.

Can they get off to a good start? Absolutely, because they have the talent and the ability to do so. But if by chance they don't, that's no reason to panic in the month of November or even December.. This team is going to be a much better basketball team regardless of their start when we hit January and February. That's when they can really hit stride and, given good health, they will be a very, very good basketball team heading into the second half of the season.

Wayne

Posted by WGN Sports at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Bulls held their annual team bowling party Monday night in Deerfield with the entire team and coaching staff in attendance at the Brunswick Zone. We sent the blog camera along to snap a few pics of the big guys hitting the lanes.

Bulls Go Bowling - October 23

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