The Chicago Bulls seem like a whole new ball club after some very impressive performances on their recent 7-game road trip against some strong competition in the Western Conference.  They dropped the first two to the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Clippers, but went on to win the next five games against the Phoenix Suns, Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder, and the New Orleans Hornets to finish the road trip at 5-2 and bringing their season record to 23-22.  That is good enough for the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference at the moment, but it is only 1.5 games back of the 5th spot which is currently held by the Toronto Raptors.  If the Bulls continue their winning ways, they will definitely get that 5th seed come playoff time, and possibly even better.  Derrick Rose has been playing great, and he has been getting great support from his role players, but head coach Vinny Del Negro deserves a lot of credit.  After rumors were swirling that Del Negro would be fired only a few weeks ago, he has gotten this young Bulls team to play great.  Analyst and Hall-of-Famer Charles Barkley agrees, saying “Vinny has done a good job,” and that he thinks the Bulls disrespected him for not backing him up amongst the firing rumors.  He has turned the Bulls into a dangerous team.