The Bulls still in first place in the Eastern Conference following a tough, overtime loss to the Toronto Raptors. Now, the Bulls look to rebound with a win over an Indiana Pacers team that has not played well overall and currently possesses a below-.500 home record (13-14).
Chicago leads the 2021-22 regular season with the Pacers 2-1 and this is how they can win the fourth and final game of this series on Friday night.
A balanced bench performance
It is quite obvious that with a team that relies on their starters as much as Chicago, bench contributions are vastly important to their success.
Coby White has been solid, if not streaky, as an off-the-bench scoring option but the Bulls are at their best when they can get some pick-and-roll production from Tyler Cook or a sporadic barrage of 3-point makes from sharpshooter Matt Thomas.
The Bulls don't need any one bench player to have a big scoring night, they simply need each member of the bench unit to turn in an efficient, turnover-free (as possible) performance.
Intense effort on the boards
The Bulls rebounding and size woes are a bit overblown, as the group mostly compensates with speed and effort. Chicago's effort will need to be at an all-time high on the glass against one of the worst matchups for them in a quite tall Pacers team.
Indiana's last matchup with Chicago saw them take a narrow two-point loss on an extremely impressive DeMar DeRozan buzzer-beating 3-pointer.
In that game, what many may not remember, is that the Bulls were beat up bad on the boards, losing the rebound battle 55-42. The Pacers finished the night with a whopping 171 offensive rebounds.
If the Bulls want to avoid another close loss or the possibly worse, overtime loss, like they suffered on Thursday in Toronto, then they will need to make sure the limit the Pacers 2nd chance scoring opportunities.
This is easier said than done for a limited Bulls team that is going through a tough stretch of four games in fives nights, but that extra, extra effort is what comes with the territory of being the top dog in the conference.
All-Star production from DeRozan
This has never really been an issue for the Chicago Bulls.
Despite our previous point about bench scoring, DeMar DeRozan's calm, scoring outbursts could be more crucial than ever on a night where a possibly tired Bulls team could be in for a lower-scoring than usual night.
DeMar is averaging 23 points per game against the Pacers, lower than his stellar season average of 26 PPG.
Indiana has guarded him well this season but a player of DeRozan's ilk is due for a big game against every team at some point and Friday night could represent the perfect sport for another "DeMarvelous" moment against Indiana.