{"id":712426,"date":"2026-04-17T12:36:48","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T12:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712426\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T12:36:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T12:36:48","slug":"when-the-bulls-were-fun-a-strat-o-matic-chicago-vs-chicago-simulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712426\/","title":{"rendered":"When the Bulls Were Fun: A Strat-O-Matic Chicago vs. Chicago Simulation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

IF I EVER wrote a book about the Chicago Bulls\u2019 franchise history without Michael Jordan \u2014 don\u2019t worry, I\u2019d never consider it, it\u2019s a horrible idea \u2014 I\u2019d call it something like Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda: Jerry Sloan, Derrick Rose, and the Unwinna-bull Chicago Bulls.<\/p>\n

To that end, let\u2019s travel back to the 1971-72 season, when a stacked Bulls team led by a scary backcourt of Jerry Sloan and Norm Van Lier and an equally scary frontcourt of Bob Love and Chet Walker racked up 57 regular season wins before getting swept out of the playoffs by Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, and the 69-win Los Angeles Lakers. (Yes, the Bulls were in the Western Conference. WTF.)<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2010-2011, when MVP Derrick Rose dragged his squad to 62 regular season dubs and the Eastern Conference Finals, where they were easily dispatched by LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and the evil-empire-era Miami Heat.<\/p>\n

Both of these Bulls units \u2014 which were super-easy to root for and uber-fun to watch \u2014 was sent to Cancun by a patently better team. No complaints. Just bad timing. Woulda, coulda, shoulda.<\/p>\n

Being that I dug the hell out of both of these iterations, I got to wondering how they\u2019d perform against one another. Would the deep 20th Century roster grind down their 21st Century counterparts? Or would Rose single-handedly drag Joakim Noah, Carlos Boozer, et al across the finish line?<\/p>\n

As is always the case when I have these sort of absurd space-time-continuum-busting questions, I turned to my pals at Strat-O-Matic<\/a> for answers, and much to my thrall, they simulated a series between these two great-but-not-great-enough squads. And similar to our recent Knicks vs. Knicks sim<\/a>, it was a beatdown for the ages.<\/p>\n

\"NBA<\/a><\/p>\n

After a 14\u20137 start, the 2010\u201311 Bulls ripped off 14 straight points to seize control and never looked back. Derrick Rose poured in 45 points, hitting 5-of-9 from distance in an easy wire-to-wire win<\/p>\n

\"Derrick<\/a><\/p>\n

The 1971\u201372 team grabbed a late 7-point lead after a 14-point fourth quarter surge, but their offense stalled during crunch time, as they failed to score after the 2:06 mark. Rose, who posted had a modest 12-11-10 triple-double, gave the 2010\u201311 Bulls the lead for good with 7 points in the final 1:36.<\/p>\n

\"Derrick<\/a><\/p>\n

Rose again led the way with 34 points, 10 rebounds, and 9 assists as the 2010\u201311 Bulls moved to the brink of a sweep. Bob Love poured in 23 points, leading six players in double figures for the 1971\u201372 team.<\/p>\n

\"Bulls'<\/a><\/p>\n

A Chet Walker slam gave the 1971\u201372 Bulls the lead with :38 seconds left, but Rose \u2014 who posted double-figures in points and assists for the fourth consecutive game \u2014 answered with a three-point bomb to put the 2010\u201311 team back in front for good, sealing the sweep.<\/p>\n

Game recaps courtesy of Strat-O-Matic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IF I EVER wrote a book about the Chicago Bulls\u2019 franchise history without Michael Jordan \u2014 don\u2019t worry,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,920,919,329,3824,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-712426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bulls","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bulls","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bulls","12":"tag-chicagobulls","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116420087644078185","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}