February 1, 2005 – The NBA announced today that Chicago Bulls Head Coach Scott Skiles was selected the Eastern Conference Coach of the Month for games played in January. Skiles is the first Chicago Head Coach to claim Coach of the Month honors since Phil Jackson in April of 1996.

Skiles and his staff guided Chicago to an NBA-best record of 13-3 (.813) in January, the team’s highest win total for a month since the Bulls won 13 in March of 1998. For the month, Chicago posted winning streaks of seven and five games. The Bulls’ seven-game winning streak was their longest since the team won 13 straight in 1998 (03/14/98–04/07/98).

Chicago highlighted the month by holding its opponent to under 100 points in 26 consecutive games, doubling the team’s previous franchise record of 13 games. The streak began on December 4 at Washington and came to an end on January 25 versus Denver, a 111-107 Chicago win.

The run was the longest in the NBA this season and tied for sixth-best in League history, since the advent of the 24-second clock in 1954.

The Bulls have now posted back-to-back winning months (8-7 in December) for the first time since March and April of 1998. Chicago currently leads the NBA in opponents’ field goal percentage at .412, and ranks among the top 10 in opponents’ points per game (5th, 91.6 ppg), opponents’ turnovers per game (6th, 16.0 topg) and opponents’ three-point field goal percentage (9th, .345).