How the Bulls Bounce Back Against 76ers Game & Chicago’s Secret Size Advantage

How the Bulls Bounce Back Against 76ers Game & Chicago’s Secret Size Advantage

After taking their first L in the last game, the Chicago Bulls walk into the night taking on one of the most high-powered offenses so far in the NBA against the 76ers. What do the Chicago Bulls need to do to help guarantee themselves a win against the 76ers? We’re going to talk about that today. We’re also going to talk about one of the surprising ways and advantages the Chicago Bulls have had so far this season. We’re talk about all that, plus dive into the mailbag right after this. [Music] What’s going on, Bulls fans? Welcome to another episode of Chicago Bulls Central, your number one spot for everything Chicago Bulls related. I’m the Oster Hayes, but more importantly, you guys can follow the channel at Bull Central Pod on every social media platform we happen to be on. With that said, let’s go and get into this content for the day, y’all. I want to start off talking about this game against the 76ers. You guys know I don’t predict wins or losses, but what I do is I do look at the ways and what the Bulls need to do and take take care of in each game to help get themselves closer to a win. And the first thing is that of course uh IO Dumo is still listed as questionable for tonight as of right now. Kobe White is out with no timeline for a return as of yet. I would not be surprised on the Kobe front if we actually get a little news on more of a a expected timeline today. Kobe White has reached the end of the two weeks and six games that it was initially announced that he was going to be out with no return date set yet. We did hear last week though that Kobe White was painfree, but yet the fact that he’s not made a return as of yet. There’s been no real updates of course raises some concerns for Bulls fans. Actually dropped an episode on that specifically last night. I’ll try to put that in this one. So go and look at that if you want kind of more details on that, but I would not be surprised if we miss Kobe White for another couple of weeks. But I wouldn’t be surprised if something gets announced today. But as far for against the 76ers, I have a couple of keys laid out here, right? The first thing that we have to look at is the 76ers are averaging the second most points in the NBA. 25.7 points, 125.7 points per game. And that that’s a huge high-powered offense, right? And while the Chicago Bulls have really been no slouch offensively themselves yet to start the season, um we know that the Bulls like to get it done through defense and they like to get it done through attacking the paint, things like that. And this se this is a 76ers team that likes to score in a lot of the same ways. The Sixers, the 76ers take a number of three-pointers and they’re hitting them at a decent percentage, but they’re not the high volume three-point shooters that some of the other teams that we faced are. And so that’s going to Bulls really do look at. Now, for what it’s worth as well, the Bulls have been one of the best offensive teams in the league as well, averaging 121 points per game themselves. The 76ers come in here with the second best offensive rating in basketball. So, not only are they getting up a lot of points, they’re typically scoring them pretty uh pretty effectively, right, and efficiently. And they do that through points in the paint. About 46% of the of the Philadelphia East 76ers offense are scored in the paint or in the restricted area combined. And they’re averaging about 50.4 points per games in the paint. That’s something you got to look out for. So that paint defense, the thing that the Bulls have really not been great at this season, the Bulls give up for 57.7 uh points in the paint per game. So, when you look at that, the 76ers are going to be able to really kind of uh you they’re hoping to come into this game and feast in an area where they’re strong at and the Bulls defense has not necessarily been the strongest at. Now, the Bulls are really good at protecting the three-point line. We’ll get more in that in a second here, but that points in the paint total is going to be hugely important on how the Bulls keep that regulated without fouling as well. That’s been a thing that’s been difficult for the for the Bulls in the last two games against the New York Knicks. And, you know, the whistles officiating is going to be different each and every game. things like that. But they got to be prepared and looking out for that because this is going to be a a team that is going to try to attack the paint a lot. They’re going to try to attack the paint early. And if they can get the Bulls in foul trouble on top of stacking in those points in the paint, that’s going to be something that, you know, we could see the the it get really away from the Bulls if they allow that to happen early on. So, you got to look out for that. Now, for what it’s worth as well though, the 76ers aren’t a team that’s necessarily getting a lot of free throws. Well, they’re getting 29 free throws per game, which is in the top 10 in the NBA. So, you know, you got to look out for that. And because they attack the paint so much and so much of their paint comes in the restricted area and in the paint, you got to look out for that. And so, this is going to be one of those games to see how well the Chicago Bulls counteract that. Now, Mis Buzzelis and his rim protection is going to be really important here. You know, blocks per game are something, right? But how many shots can you deter at the rim? And you’re really looking at Patrick Williams to do that. you know, uh, Nicola Levich, who’s played some solid paint defense so far this season. At a couple episodes ago, I talked about how he’s he’s increased his paint defense by huge, uh, margin so far this season based off what it was last season. And so, we’ll see that. Now, the Bulls still are giving up a lot of points in the paint. So, you know, it’s only been so good, but that’s something you have to look out for. And while the majority of the of the 76 or a big portion of the 76ers points are coming in the paint, they are still no slouch uh, from the three-point line. They’re still taking 38 three-pointers per game and they’re hitting it at the fourth best percentage in the NBA. They are shooting 40% from three as a team. So, while they may not be one of the top teams as far as three-point attempts per game, they definitely their their ability to hit it at a really good uh rate is what happens. They’re about around the middle of the pack as far as attempts per game. They kind of remind me of Chicago Bulls teams in the past in the sense that the Bulls were a team that didn’t take a lot of threes, but they hit them really well at at a good percentage, which kept them in a spot to where all right, you still have to respect their three-point shot. Now, for what it’s worth, like, you know, they’re shooting at a 40% uh clip. The Bulls are shooting their threes as a team right now as a 40.7% clip themselves. So, can the Bulls match that enough? Now, I don’t want to see the Bulls falling in love with a three-point shot like we’ve seen happen at other times in other games. They can’t do that. You still need to get into the paint. We’ll get more on the keys for the Bulls to attack the 76ers defense. But this is a team that does it in the paint and they shoot efficiently from three even though they don’t take a lot of threes comparative to the rest of the NBA. So, you got to look out for that. This is a team where their offense is legitimate and that is what you have to really look out for. And it’s really powered by the by the guards. The guards on this 76ers team are right now it’s crazy. They’re averaging 53 almost 54 points per game between Tyrese Maxi and rookie VJ Edgeham. Tyrese Maxi is averaging 33.7 points per game. Edgeham’s averaging 20.3 points per game as well. And so, you know, you’re not going to stop both these guys, but you got to make them have inefficient nights. You got to make these guys have difficult nights. If you do not, the 76ers get into that rhythm offensively and these two guards get to going offensively and at that point in time, it’s going to be a very difficult night for you if you don’t get that done. They only have one loss in the season. So, it’s not like we can take a lot of data from their losses and look at, well, in their losses, this is what you got to do. They’ve lost one game, and that game was to the Boston Celtics, and they lost that by one point. This is a team that’s coming at you fast and they’re and and they are going to be in attack mode all game long with those guards that they have there. It’s going to be a difficult matchup. You know that not only do you have that, you still have Kelly Ubé Jr. as another starter averaging 19 and a half points per game as well. And then while the 76ers don’t score a lot of bench points, they’re actually towards the bottom of the league as far as bench points scored per game, you still got to look out for them. Quinton Grimes is averaging 18 points per game um off the bench for them. So, they’re the third worst bench scoring team, but they’re still bringing some of that pressure coming off the bench as well that you got to look out for. Now, the benefit that you’re looking at is this is a really topheavy team. They don’t have a lot of depth as far as scoring depth. They do got defensive depth, which we’ll talk about here in a second as well, but you look at it, you know, VJ Edkham and and Tyresese Max accounting for the majority of their points. But Grimes as well, Joel Embiid, even though he’s only played four out of their six games, he’s still averaging 17 and a half points per game, but that’s it. They have five players averaging in double figures and other than that they don’t have any other player really close. The next player after Joel Embiid is Dominic Barlo who’s not playing in this game and he’s averaging seven and a half points per game. But reinforcements may be coming because Jire McCain is listed as probable to return tonight which is going to add even more perimeter pressure from from uh the 76ers that the Bulls are going to have to contend with. This is a night where Isaac Aoro, Trey Jones, Iodumu if he plays Patrick Williams, right, their perimeter defense is going to be so important to slowing this 76ers team down and let’s hope that the Bulls are up for that test to get that done. Now, as far as the Bulls on the offensive side of the ball, where do they need to attack the 76ers defense? The 76ers are giving up 118 points per game. And when you look at it, they are the 19th ranked defense in the league as far as defensive effic def defensive rating. And so because of that, this is a team that is susceptible defensively if you play your sound offense. Again, the Bulls have to be efficient, take smart shots, and we look at the way that the Bulls pass the ball around and their assist percentage and how well we stay connected as a team. As long as we’re moving off the ball consistently, we can get we can get some things going against the 76ers. In no way am I coming in here saying that this is going to be easy game. the the 76ers have the fifth best net rating in basketball and that’s with having the second rate uh rated offense and the 19th rated defense, but we know our Bulls the Bulls are coming in with the seventh best net rating in basketball and we’re top five in offense. I’m sorry, top 10 in offensive rating and top 10 also in defensive rating. So, the Bulls are really doing it as a team. These are two of the teams that are shooting the best true shooting percentages in the league. The Bulls are shooting a 61.5% true shooting percentage and the 76ers at 60.7. So efficiency is going to be the name of the game tonight, but also rebounding. How well are you rebounding? That’s going to be a key part in this. The 76ers, for what it’s worth, are the are are getting 49.1% of rebounds. That puts them at the 17th ranked rebounding team in the league. Whereas the Bulls are getting over 50% of their total rebounds at 52.6, putting them as the seventh best rebounding team in the league. The 76ers are a terrible defensive rebounding team. They’re 25th in defensive rebounds, whereas the Chicago Bulls are ninth in defensive rebounds and 16th in offensive rebounds. So, what does that mean? The Bulls are going to have to attack the glass on both sides of the ball like we have every single game, but we’re going to have to get that done. V’s uh offense in the keys. Scoring is going to be key in this game. You have to take advantage of it. Now, Joel Embiid, I think, is going to play today, which means you’re going to have Embiid, you’re going to have Maxi. Uh if they need to, they can play Andre Drummond. They got rookie Johnny Brome down there as well. So, you got to look out for that one. The 76ers defense isn’t great by any uh any imagination, but they are near elite at guarding the three-point line, surprisingly enough. So, that’s another thing that you have to look out for. Now, the Bulls, we know I and we don’t want them to fall in love with the three-point shot anyway, right? That’s not something that we want to see the 76ers fall in love with. I mean, what we don’t want to see the Chicago Bulls fall in love with in the game is shooting threes. We want them to be moving off the ball, cutting, all those type of things. But with the 76ers already being one of the league’s best at guarding the three-point line, they are only giving up 30.9% on three-pointers in this season. Now, the Bulls for themselves are giving up 33.9%. But, um, you know, this is going to be a test of how well do you take away what the other team’s trying to do consistently? And if you can do that, what what then does that look like for you? So, this is going to be an interesting game for the Bulls. Um, this is going to be probably their toughest test yet. No slight to the to the to the New York Knicks. It’s just how the strengths and the weaknesses match up on either side uh of of the ball for either team. That’s going to be the important part of it. But I guess we’ll see how the Bulls come out of it. Got things that they can do to work on. Going to need to attack it as a team. Of course, you know, uh Josh Giddy being on the on the near triple double pace that he’s been on is going to be huge. And if I does miss this game, does somebody actually step up and give us a little bit extra because we were missing that last game. And do we have the energy in this game after suffering our first loss? That’s going to be the things I’m looking for for the Bulls in this game, but you guys can let me know how you feel on that down below. With that said, I want to talk about a surprising advantage that the Chicago Bulls have had so far this season, and it’s one that we don’t talk a lot about, and that is the Bulls size. The Bulls right now, when you look at it, Trey Jones is the smallest starter that we have at 61. Josh Giddy, we have a 68 point guard in there, and when Kobe White returns, he’s going to be our our our smallest our shortest starter at 65. And we have already talked about Kobe White isn’t a small guard even though he has the small wingspan, right? When you look at it, we have 6’10 Manus Buzzel, 610 Nicola Vousvich. Um, we do have 6’5 Isaac Aoro out there as well. Um, and the Bulls have really good length and really good size and that has really helped the Chicago Bulls and what they’ve tried to do in regards to positional versatility and how we switch on defense. Right, the Bulls used to run a very switch heavy defense. We don’t do that as much. we run more of a hybrid zone and zone defense out there straight up, right? And part of the the the reason why the Bulls have been such a strong rebounding team is that we have positional rebounders and size at every at every position, right? Except Trey Jones, but then again, I I could say that Trey Jones rebounds pretty well even despite his size limitations at times. Right now, when it looks at it, the the place that the Bulls don’t excel even with size is rim protection, right? Um, we rank 19th right now in offensive rebounds and blocks per game, which, you know, isn’t necessarily the best use of your size, and that’s where it goes to skill set, right? Um, but the Bulls offensive rebounding, it’s it’s fluctuated, right? We’re actually right now we’re 16th in offensive rebounding, uh, percentage- wise, right? So, that’s where you have it with the Bulls. But the Bulls advantage a lot has been connected in playing as a team, but it also has been the fact that we are able to play a more modern style without small for so long. What have we talked about with Billy Donovan? Small ball. The Bulls are playing anything but small ball. Probably for the first time in Billy Donovan’s career, right? And so when you look at it as well, unlike other teams in the NBA that do have really big like that have big lineups, the Bulls aren’t sacrificing pace. They’re not sacrificing uh uh play style as far as being able to to go out there near the perimeter and shoot threes. We’re not sacrificing any of those things while still having a really big lineup overall. And I think that that has been a really big benefit for this Bulls team as well. Now, is that going to help tonight against the 76ers? We shall see, right? But the but the positional versatility that the Bulls have, we knew coming into the season could be a weapon for this team. But they’ve been using even more than I think we’ve realized when you look at the number of players that play multiple positions. Trey and Josh Giddy, who’s playing the point, who’s playing the shooting guard could depend on the on on the situation. P Will the three or the four? Mismalis the three or the four, right? You’re doing that. Isaac Aoro is lined up anywhere between shooting guard to power forward as well. Kevin Herurder. So the so the versatility that we’re bringing off the bench has been really big and huge for the Bulls. And I think that that’s an advantage that we can look at how they play and when Kobe White comes back is going to add even more to that the positional versatility. So that’s been a big key for this Bulls team is positional versatility. I think that they’re using it really well. But with that said, before we get out of here, let’s go ahead and dive into the mailbag. We got a lot of voicemails because the Bulls were winning. Um, so we got uh two that we’re gonna play today. This first one, this one’s from Immortal Beast. What’s good? Hey, it’s Tyrone aka Immortal Beast all the way from CT. I’m just calling in to give you my thoughts on the bulls right now. Basically, the most I can say is this team is just beautiful to watch because this dinner like how I will play anytime I’m playing basketball at 24 years old. Youthful, they play hard, they hustle, they give 110% effort on both sides of the ball. And even the best way about it, they playing unselfish as a team. Everybody is getting a chance to eat and contribute to one. Even players like Isaac Coro and Jaylen Smith who yes, has their ups and downs offensively, they would have their moments at times to make the most out of it. And so far, I’mma give my credit to Billy Donovan for coming into this season with a new mentality and just making the most out of everything he’s able to get out of this team. And all you can do right now as a Bulls fan is just appreciate, enjoy every minute of it. And the best part about it, this team is only going to continue to get better. It’s gonna continue to grow and all the haters or anybody that doubts how good this thing can be. All I can do is just watch behind a little corner and just try to put out negative energy. And right now we just tuning ass out. We ain’t worried about them. But in the meantime, that is my thought. Peace out. Haze. Have a good day. And see red. Yeah. Yeah, to watch a team like the Chicago Bulls that have discovered like the edge like and I know that’s you know for lack of a better term there. The way how connected this team is on both sides of the ball. The fact that you know you have the assist percentage that we do with everybody getting involved and we play defense really truly as a team. When you’re a coach and you’re strategizing and you’re looking for angles against the other team and things like that. The thing that’s most difficult is that when you have a team when you’re facing off against a team that’s truly unselfish that you have a bunch of players that will give up a good shot for a great shot, right? Of course, you have your players like Josh Giddy and Nicolus and Mannis Bzelis and Kobe once he does come back that are going to carry kind of the the larger part of the scoring loads, but even those guys are willing to give up that good shot for a great shot. And so it it just makes it difficult when you don’t know exactly what angle you’re going to take it from. We don’t play heavy isolation. The bull the ball moves around and so that’s going to continue to be an edge for the Bulls. And then defensively like like the Bulls going to that zone, that hybrid zone, that kind of creative zone that we do now to where it keeps your help defender always close to you and you know that the Bulls have struggled in pick and roll defense. Now we’re still giving up a lot of points in the paint, but you know, we’ve gotten better at just the toughness part of that as well. So these are all things that just make it really difficult to guard a team like the Chicago Bulls and strategize against a team like the Chicago Bulls. And I got to love the way that they’ve been playing so far. And to your credit, what you said, Billy Donovan has been coaching his ass off. Like, and you know, I’m I’ve been a critic of Billy D a big critic of Billy Donovan over the last couple of years. And even I’ll tell you like Billy Donovan is coaching. He is really getting in his coaching bag and getting it done for the Chicago Bulls over the last, you know, o over since the start of the season, really since dating back to the the trade last season. Like once we made that trade to Zack Lavine, it put this team in a position where they played more like what Billy Donovan wants this team to play like. You also gave him a point guard like Josh Giddy and another one like Trey Jones to help run their system. It it really makes things that much easier on Billy and West Unselled and what they’re doing both defensively and stuff like that. Like this is a team that has it, man. Like they have that part of it, that edge right now. We got to see how successful they’re going to continue to be with that edge. But they do have that and that’s a really good thing to see with this team and they’re going to continue to grow in those areas. So, no knocks. Great voicemail there. Now, let’s get into this next one. Man, this one was left a little while ago. Again, I’m catching up. This one’s from Brian Washington. Yo, what up? Hey, this is Brian Washington from the West Side. I just want to say, man, I’m loving the way the Bulls playing right now. I’m loving everything about him. I’m loving the way the season going, man. And, you know, I left a message a while back about on a subject about whether I should come off the bench or start. You know what I’m saying? I suggested he come off the bench because it make our team deeper. It make us have a a deep team. You know what I’m saying? I love him to start and he deserve that. But you know what I’m saying? I love him coming off the bench. I love Patrick Wood coming off the bench. He plays better, you know, and we have a deep team and we doing this without Kobe White. You know what I’m saying? And when he come back, it makes us even deeper. The only thing I just hope when Kobe White come back, he fit right in the flow of things. You know what I’m saying? He don’t up little chemistry that we had going on. Cuz I’m loving everything about it, man. You know what I’m saying? And I give props to, you know, Billy Donovan right now. You know what I’m saying? For now, doing a good job. You know what I’m saying? I’m giving his props on that. I’m just loving everything about it. And everybody saying all this we got to play this way, that way, they they they only won because of this. It I don’t give a damn. As the Super Bowl saying, I don’t give a damn how we get the win. A win is a win. We just want the W. And this, you know what I’m saying? It’s been too long. So, I’m accepting all the success they may have. You know what I’m saying? And I’m wishing them for the best. She read I just want to say that, man. The Bulls bench depth is crazy. And to think that Zack Collins and Trey Jones have not been off that bench yet because Trey’s been a starter and Zack Collins has been out injured. Like, this bench can get even better. Already a bench that is towards the top of the league in bench production and bench scoring. Like, and it’s not even just about the scoring. So often we talk about things in the sense of scoring. It’s the balance that you have here. You have, you know, a wing, a point of attack defender in IO, you have a a solid, not he’s not a great one-on-one defender, but just in Zack Collins, just a sound, good player that knows what to do defensively in Zack Collins. Be willing, the way that he’s been playing, you got to give him credit for. Kevin Herder has been given really good effort defensively as well, 101, like the way that this team has been playing again as a team, this bench is going to be a huge strength for the Bulls as the season goes on. We just got to make sure that we’re going to be able to stay healthy once Kobe gets back. Isle gets back. I want I hope that this team has relative health as it goes on over the season and we’ll see. And as far as Kobe, man, I listen, I’ve said it many times. I have a video on it. The people that worry and concern about Kobe fitting in when he gets back. I just don’t know what you’ve been watching. I think like there’s all of a sudden this view on Kobe that’s just that’s never who Kobe White’s been. Like Kobe White plays really connected as well and he’s not this, oh, I need to go heavy isolate. That’s not been Kobe White ever. So, I don’t know why people have that concern, but you know, it’ll be okay. It’ll all come out in the wash, and I think, you know, this team is going to show who they are as the season goes on. And let’s hope that they continue to do that tonight against the 76ers. But that’s my time for today, guys. You know, I appreciate you guys so much, man. You guys are the most amazing part, right? That’s it for today’s episode. Man, tonight’s matchup is going to tell us a lot about how this team not only responds to adversity and whether that defensive effort tightens up for the team as well. When we look at IO and Kobe and them both potentially being out, we’ll see what happens there. It’s going to be good. 76ers play a their elite guard play, their high level offense, their tough three-point uh shooting defense, and you know, the Bulls bring in their size, depth, and versatility. We’re gonna see how everything shakes out, man. But make sure you drop your predictions down below. Who’s going to be your axe factor for tonight for the Chicago Bulls? Let me know that. As always, thank you guys for tuning in. Make sure you guys are following us at Bull Centralod. You can send us any feedback, questions, comments, concerns. Bulls central.com. Lastly, if you want to leave a text message and our voicemail for the mailbag, the number to do so, 773-270-2799. We are the number one spot for everything Chicago Bulls related. But that is thanks to you lovely and beautiful people. And like I like to end every episode on be safe out there. Go Bulls. See red as always, man. Love you guys. Peace y’all. This has been a presentation of the break medium. [Music]

The Bulls finally took their first L of the season… but hey, it happens. The real question is: how do they bounce back tonight against a Philly squad that’s been lighting the NBA on fire?

On today’s episode, I’m breaking down everything Bulls fans need to know before tip-off:

✅ Ayo might play… or he might not

✅ Coby is STILL out (and it’s getting annoying)

✅ Maxey is dropping 30+ like it’s nothing

✅ VJ Edgecombe looks way too comfortable for a rookie

✅ And Philly’s defense? Mid. But elite at guarding the three. Weird combo.

We’re talking all the keys to the matchup — how the Bulls slow down those guards, why Vooch could be the secret weapon tonight, and why Chicago’s SIZE is quietly one of the biggest advantages in the league right now. Seriously, when Josh Giddey is your 6’8 point guard and your “smallest starter” is 6’5… that’s wild.

Plus, we listen to some voicemails from the Bulls family.

Shoutout to Immortal Beast and Bryan Washington for keeping the energy right.

Tap in, Bulls Nation. Let’s talk bounce-back vibes. 🐂🔥

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