Did you know the Chicago Bulls are tied for the second seed in the Eastern Conference?

The numbers don’t lie, folks, but if I bet if you asked a casual fan, he wouldn’t have the Bulls as the second best team in the East.

Why? Simply put, because the Bulls have no stars on their team.

When you think of the best NBA teams, superstars come to your mind. Dallas has Nowitzki, Phoenix has Nash and San Antonio has Duncan.

Can you name the transcendent star on the Bulls? There isn’t one. It’s even hard for me, a guy who was weaned on teams with Jordan and Pippen to view this year’s version as a great team.

As the two seed in the conference, you’re expected to challenge for the NBA championship, but it will be a surprise if the Bulls make it to the Finals at all.

The Bulls are a collection of solid players that mesh well together. There’s no flash, antics or the drama that comes along with a superstar on this team.

The reason: G.M John Paxson, who was the ultimate team player in his playing days. Paxson, weary of the antics of past Bulls players like Ron Artest and Jamal Crawford, molded the Bulls into an image of him from his playing days.

The Bulls win because they work harder every game than most of other NBA teams – they have to. Hard-nosed Scott Skiles doesn’t play any favorites and isn’t afraid to let players hear it. Skiles’ approach works because the Bulls are a young team, and none of them have super-sized egos yet.

Their hard work translates to suffocating defense, as the Bulls are second in the NBA in opponent’s field-goal-percentage, rebounds and sixth in opponent’s points per game. The only facet in which they struggle is on offense.

The Bulls rely on their guards for most of their offense, meaning they have to work harder than teams who do have a post player they can give the ball to when they need an easy basket.

The Bulls are hoping, however, that Tyrus Thomas can continue to provide the spark that he has been lately, on both offense and defense. I haven’t seen a player score so many of his points on dunks since Shaq in his prime. But the difference between Thomas and Shaq is about five inches and 200 pounds.

Tyrus is a skinny 6-9, but he uses his freakish athletic ability to make plays happen, whether it is dunking on people or delivering a nasty block. He showed his potential by recently scoring 27 points against Cleveland. But he has only scored 26 points combined in the three games he’s played since.

The other rookie, Thabo Sefolosha, is also seeing increased minutes, and his production has also improved. The Bulls need these two to consistently score points to take the pressure off Ben Gordon, Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich.

One other hope is that Deng, who some say should have made the All-Star team, raises his game a level in the playoffs. Deng, at 21, has unbelievable potential, but he is reserved, and needs to develop a nasty streak in his game.

The problem is that the Bulls are maddeningly inconsistent. Take for example, when they were beaten by Toronto Sunday, after beating the No. 1 seed in the East, Detroit, twice in the previous five games.

The Bulls have a tough task ahead of them, as they will potentially have to battle Detroit, Toronto or a rejuvenated Miami (Wade is back), just to make it to the NBA Finals.

Only the Detroit Pistons have won an NBA Championship in a style similar to the Bulls in recent memory. All the other championship teams have had superstars on them. Ben Wallace was the heart and soul of that Detroit team, and that’s partly why the Bulls paid $60 million to bring him over.

But if Wallace can use his experience and style of play to raise the level of his teammates come playoff time, the Bulls will be right in the thick of things.

He’s already done it once. Who’s to say he can’t do it again.

Majesh Abraham is a junior in LAS. He can be reached at [email protected].