Chicago Bulls Weekly: Preparing For 1st-Round Matchup Against Washington Wizards

Monday, April 14: Chicago Bulls 108, Orlando Magic 95 (United Center)

The Bulls hosted the Magic at the United Center in their last home game of the regular season, and did so with a slightly different look to their bench rotation.

D.J. Augustin missed the game due to personal reasons, but that didn’t stop the Bulls from cruising to a 108-95 victory—their 48th win on season.

The contest was close early on as the Bulls took a 26-21 lead after the first quarter and stretched the lead to 57-44 at halftime.

But if you thought the Magic would simply roll over in spite of their woeful 4-37 road record, you would be mistaken.

Orlando trimmed the deficit to 67-64 with a little over three minutes left in the third quarter, which led to Tom Thibodeau calling a timeout for Chicago.

Coming out of the timeout, the Bulls responded with a rally of their own.

Thanks to a pair of 3-pointers by Mike Dunleavy and a three-point play by Jimmy Butler, Chicago finished the period on a 14-6 run to take a 81-70 lead into the fourth quarter.

From that point, the rest of the game was merely a formality as Magic head coach Jacque Vaughn opted to sit his starters for the entire fourth period.

With the win, the Bulls remain tied with the Raptors for the No. 3 seed with one game left to play for both teams.

Stat of the night

Seldom-used point guard Jimmer Fredette had played a total of just 25 minutes coming into this contest.

With Augustin out though, Fredette played 31 minutes in his first extended action since joining the team in early March and he made the most of that those minutes.

More on Fredette’s production from this game in a moment.

Game MVPs

This award could easily go to Joakim Noah almost every game because of his all-around great play night after night.

Once again, Noah flirted with a triple-double, scoring 18 points, pulling down 10 rebounds and handing out eight assists.

The MVP could also go to Mike Dunleavy, who lead all scorers with 22 points to go along with five assists.

However, I decided to give the award to two players who will not see a lot of time in the playoffs—Jimmer Fredette and Tony Snell.

Fredette scored 17 points on 7-for-14 shooting from the field. And although his shot from the three-point arc was a bit off (1-for-5), he filled in quite well in Augustin’s absence.

Snell also chipped in nicely with 13 points on an efficient 5-for-8 from the field, including nine points during a six-minute stretch in the second quarter.

Despite seeing limited playing time in recent weeks, both Fredette and Snell provided the Bulls with solid offense off the bench.

And as Sam Smith of Bulls.com reports, here is what Tom Thibodeau had to say about each of their performances:

"He and Tony Snell did a great job filling in. I thought that was a big plus for us. That tells you that they are staying ready and they are prepared. The first part of that is knowing what your job is, and the second part is that when you are called upon to go in there and do it. We are counting on everybody. I thought Jimmer was very good and Tony was as well. That is a good plus for us."

As I stated before, neither player will see a lot of minutes in the postseason unless some kind of injury situation arises.

But based on this outing and their approach to each game, Thibodeau will have no problem calling their numbers if the opportunity presents itself.