Good news, Hawks fans! The Chicago Bulls don’t score 37 points in a quarter!

Bad news? We won’t, either!

After a late fourth-quarter collapse against the red-hot Golden State Warriors, the scene shifts from chilly ATL to the downright glacial Windy City, as the Bulls await the Atlanta Hawks for a tilt at the United Center (8:00 P.M. Eastern, SportSouth, WGN).

D Rose! And then D Fell, again. Sadly, Chicago’s hometown Rated-PG Superstar could only grace the NBA with his presence for 10 games this season. After he exited stage left once with another right knee injury, the Bulls went reeling, losing 11 of their next 14 games. But they may be righting their ship, winners of four of their last six.

With the combo of Marquis Teague (24.2 FG%, 1.5 APG, 0.9 TO/G, assigned to the D-League), Mike James (no stats worth mentioning, waived) and ex-Hawk Kirk Hinrich (4.8 APG; 33.5 FG%; 28.1 3FG%) bordering on abject failure, the Bulls went after Toronto castaway D.J. Augustin, and so far his approximation of Rose is working just fine (9.8 PPG, 5.7 APG, 1.5 SPG, 91.3 FT%). How long D.J. can keep playing that song remains to be seen.

No matter the weather outside, Head Coach Tom Thibodeau’s bullish bunch knows how to put opposing offenses on ice. Chicago gives up just 92.5 PPG (2^nd lowest in NBA), opponents shooting just 43.1 FG% (4^th lowest in NBA), with the pace of Bulls games slowed to just 90.9 possessions per 48 minutes (3^rd slowest in NBA). The United Center can be a House of Horrors for the Atlanta offense, but only a few Hawks (Jeff Teague, Lou Williams, Kyle Korver, Mike Scott) return from last January's 97-58 stifling at the hooves of the Bulls.

Toss aside yesterday’s back-and-forth breakneck tempo with the Warriors, as this will be a lot more like the New Year’s Eve game (92-91) against the Boston Celtics, except against a team with vastly superior skill. The same Celtics team that was a wayward Jordan Crawford shot away from Iguodala’ing the Hawks in Boston traveled to Chicago and got thumped on Thursday (94-82), shooting just 39.1% from the floor.

The Bulls defense tries to shoo players off of that 3-point line (17.5 attempts per game, 3^rd fewest in NBA), where talented opponents can proliferate (37.9 opponent 3FG%, 3^rd highest in NBA), and drive the ball toward their Vitamix of interior defenders, Luol Deng, Jimmy Butler, Carlos Boozer, Taj Gibson, and Joakim Noah all lying in wait. Boston only got off 12 threes against Chicago, nailing just two of them.

Can Atlanta find cracks along the perimeter and use their three-point bombardment (9.4 threes made per game, most in the East) to get them over the hump? Chicago is 3-13 when they give up seven or more treys, 10-5 otherwise.

With apologies to Mike Dunleavy, Jr., Bulls fans are quite fond of what they’ve been missing ever since Korver (1-for-5 on threes vs. Golden State, a pedestrian 8-for-25 since Horford exited with his pec injury) was allowed to skip town two seasons ago. Korver is a tad bitter that he couldn’t match the Warriors’ late-game production from the perimeter to keep last night's lead out of reach. He and LouWill must at least match the offensive output of Mike Dunleavy (team-leading 38.6 3FG%) and D.J. Augustin (1.5 three-pointers made per game).

Korver's former coach, Thibodeau, has his Bullseye dead-on the Hawks’ recently-dull sharpshooter, particularly making it a goal to stop the Threak. “Well, I don’t like to give up threes to anyone, so that’s the way we’re going to approach it,’’ Thibodeau said to the Chicago media yesterday. “You’ve got to get out to his shot. You’ve got to have the ability to run him off his shot, then you have to do that without being undisciplined, where you’re just giving wide-open shots to other people. So it requires you to be very disciplined and have an awareness of where he is at all times, and he moves great without the ball. If you turn your head on him, he knows how to find an open area. He’s clever.’’

Gibson, who was limited in practice yesterday, may get promoted to the frontline tonight. Boozer (24.3 Defensive Rebounding %, 18^th in NBA) strained his hamstring in Thursday’s game and was held out of Friday practice and this morning’s shootaround, his status a gametime decision for this evening’s matchup. Boozer’s absence would force Noah (12.5 Offensive Rebounding %, 10^th in NBA) to play the full court rather than customarily splitting up the rebounding chores.

Thibodeau also has a mystery player on a minutes-restriction, in addition to ironman Luol Deng (37.7 MPG), and my money is on Noah (31.2 MPG; 17 points, 11 rebounds, and 9 assists vs. Boston). Knowing Al Horford isn’t around to bother them, look for a boost in activity for ex-Hawk Nazr Mohammed.

Doses of Gustavo Ayón and Elton Brand on the offensive glass will help draw defensive help for Noah further in, straining their ability to clear open shooters from the 3-point arc. The Hawks’ last six games have finished within a margin of under ten points, and Atlanta hasn’t lost by 10+ points since November 27. Some timely three-point bombs could break the ice and make the difference against a low-scoring (91.4 PPG, last in NBA; 42.2 FG%, 28th in NBA) Chicago team.

Go Hawks!

~lw3