Dear Chicago Bulls, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

Before the season, in what would become a symbol of the state of the current Chicago Bulls, Bobby Portis smashed teammate Nikola Mirotic’s face. Mirotic just returned from recovery from that injury late last week. The Chicago Bulls have not lost since. They won three of their first 23 games without Mirotic, and three of their three games with Mirotic. Monday’s win was a 108-85 stomp job on the first-place Celtics, who were without Kyrie Irving and Al Horford.

That’s right: we have a Bulls winning streak that no one who does not wear a Bulls uniform wants.

Mirotic had 24 and eight, and he’s playing nice with the dude who caved in his face, which is something the Bulls really should not have forced him to do. It remains malpractice that Chicago didn’t trade Portis or Mirotic after the fight, or at least suspend Portis until Mirotic was fit to play. But the dudes combined on at least one high-low action and shared a low-five, and were referred to without irony as the Bulls’ “1-2 punch” in the postgame.

Meanwhile, Chicago had commanding control of last place in the entire league before this spurt. Now the Bulls are tied with the Hawks for last place, just a half-game worse than the Mavericks. If the misshapen Bulls front office really wants to clinch the worst record, don’t be surprised if John Paxson rolls up his sleeves and swings at Mirotic himself. We know he’s not above engaging in a brawl in the arena.

BOS 85, CHI 108
NOP 123, HOU 130
MIA 107, MEM 82
CHA 116, OKC 103
POR 104, GSW 111
TOR 91, LAC 96

I could watch James Harden and Chris Paul every night, y’all. What a dream pairing.

I dove deep into the Timberwolves’ fourth quarter woes. Turns out it’s probably due to the starters playing too many minutes.

The Mavericks’ sellout streak is aided by the regular practice of giving away tickets to community groups. This is fine. (No sarcasm: this is fine.)

Good news: Russell Westbrook dunked on four Hornets, which was cool. Bad news: the Thunder got smashed by the Hornets.

KAWHI LEONARD IS BACK and he knows karate now.

What Kevin Martin thinks about Lonzo Ball’s shooting stroke.

Shout out to Michael Beasley for fouling out in 10 minutes with one point and getting a standing ovation.

Tim Bontemps on how the NBA made reunion games a staple of the season. The next big one is Paul George in Indiana on Wednesday.

Kevin Garnett really wants to replace Glen Taylor in Minnesota.

The junior Ball brothers signed with a team in Lithuania! Here’s what we know about the team, Prienu Vytautas.

This kid going to the wall during the Grizzlies’ halftime kids game showed more life than the actual Grizzlies.

You may remember the San Antonio’s WNBA team moved to Las Vegas. They are the Aces, and this is their logo.

Four ways the Rockets could add LeBron James this summer.

We have seven games lined up for Tuesday, including an ESPN doubleheader: Lakers-Knicks at 7 p.m. ET and Sixers-Wolves at 9:30. Full schedule here.

Happy trails to Matt Barnes.

And finally: Trevor Ariza is talented at several things, but doing the Chewbacca voice is not one of them.

Be excellent to each other.