NP: party shuffle

I was all set to post about how this year's Bulls team seem to have exposed their Achilles Heel in three losses this week, but then they went and came back to win by shutting out the Wizards 16-0 in the final minutes.

My concern right now is that the team has gotten off to good starts penetrating the lane -- particularly on Monday against the Mavericks and last night against the Wizards -- only to have their opponent wise up at halftime, close down the middle, and force the Bulls to the outside, where they can live or die by whether or not someone can find the hot hand. To be fair, that's sort of what happened in the win last night, with Chris Duhon shooting out the lights while Ben Gordon continues to nurse an injured knee. It's just not a good recipe for success.

More heartening last night was the defense by the smallish lineup in the stretch that had offseason acquisition Darius Songalia as the big man. That's not going to work against guys like Shaquille O'Neal or Yao Ming, but it gives coach Scott Skiles an interesting option with his raft of power forwards in Songalia, Michael Sweetney and Othella Harrington while center Tyson Chandler gets his shit together.