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Bulls player who was punched in the face by a teammate and missed the first 8 weeks has returned to the team and now they're on fire

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Kamil Krzaczynski/AP

• The Chicago Bulls are on a six-game winning streak that has coincided with the return of Nikola Mirotic.
• Miroti missed the first 23 games of the season after being punched in the face by teammate Bobby Portis.
• Mirotic is putting together a career year so far and has sparked a Bulls team that appeared to be tanking.

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The Chicago Bulls are one of the hottest teams in the NBA at the moment, riding a six-game winning streak that was extended on Monday with a 117-115 win over the Philadelphia 76ers.

The streak has coincided with the return of forward Nikola Mirotic, who returned to game action on December 8 and has been a catalyst since then.

Mirotic's season got off to a bumpy start when he got into an altercation with Bulls big man Bobby Portis. Portis punched Mirotic in the face, sending him to the hospital with a concussion and several facial fractures. The Bulls suspended Portis for eight games while Mirotic missed the first eight weeks of the season.

Everything in between the altercation and Mirotic's return was ugly. Mirotic's camp reportedly demanded the team traded him or Portis. As Mirotic, who signed a two-year, $27 million deal this offseason, returned to the team from the hospital, he was still not speaking to Portis.

However, once Mirotic got back on the court, something strange happened with the Bulls — they began winning.

Mirotic himself has been a spark, averaging 20 points and 7 rebounds per game on 52% shooting, 50% from three, all career-highs. Over that span, the Bulls rank 11th in offensive rating and fourth in defensive rating, outscoring teams by nearly eight points per 100 possessions, the fourth-best mark in the league.

Even more coincidental, the pairing of Portis and Mirotic on the court has been lethal for the Bulls, as they've outscored teams by 18.8 points per 100 possessions in 74 minutes together.

Both Portis and Mirotic are shooting career-highs from the three-point line. Put them on the floor together, and opponents have to deal with two pick-and-pop options.

The inside-outside versatility of both players works in some instances.

Head coach Fred Hoiberg praised the confidence Mirotic has brought to the Bulls.

"Niko has brought a confidence to this team," Hoiberg said. "You see our bench really rallying behind him when he's out there making plays. You see the guys on the floor celebrating together when he makes the big plays ... When you've got guys out there playing with confidence, that rubs off on the whole team."

Mirotic told reporters recently that he and Portis aren't speaking off the floor, though he publicly accepted Portis' apology when he returned to the team.

There are some who may not be happy about the Bulls win streak. The team clearly went into this season in rebuild mode, with the goal of getting a top draft pick. At 9-20, they're far from playoff contention in the Eastern Conference, but with several intriguing draft prospects this season, fans may not want the Bulls to climb too far out of the doldrums.

Mirotic's strong play only adds to a list of surprising developments for this Bulls team. The returns from the Jimmy Butler trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves look better and better with time. No. 7 pick Lauri Markkanen looks like a gifted scorer and Kris Dunn is putting together a solid second season at point guard after a miserable rookie year. The team is still waiting for the return of Zach LaVine from ACL surgery, but he figures to play into the team's long-term plans when he does return.

Suddenly, this Bulls team has a core of young, unique, and promising players to build around. Mirotic's scoring has suddenly given them something to rally around.

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THE FUTURE OF LIFE INSURANCE: How insurtechs are tackling this notoriously tricky area of insurance

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BI Intelligence

This is a preview of a research report from BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about BI Intelligence, click here.

Life insurance is a fundamentally hard product to sell, as it requires people to think about their deaths and promises no immediate rewards.

The way life insurance is sold makes it doubly unattractive, as consumers have to go through an paper-based, lengthy application process and a bothersome medical exam, with little guidance from their providers, and often at high cost. The problem is worsened by incumbent insurers' failure to innovate, even as personalized products and streamlined services proliferate in other areas of finance.

Now, though, a small yet growing niche of insurtech startups is now finding different ways to digitize life insurance to make it more appealing. Life insurance-focused startups are tackling a number of problems with the status quo, including a lack of consumer understanding of the product, inconvenient application processes, weak customer loyalty, and inefficient data management and processing. Some are focused on improving products for consumers, while others are helping insurers to modernize. These startups are giving incumbents a way to revamp this product, either by partnering these companies or using their technology.

But these life insurtechs are shaking up a strictly regulated and sensitive product, and their solutions carry regulatory and ethical risks. That means such companies, and any insurers using their solutions, must take measures to make sure these new services add value to the industry. Nevertheless, life insurtechs are likely to spearhead change in this space, with incumbents following suit. Such startups will set new industry standards and consumer expectations around this complex product. That, in turn, will serve as a catalyst for innovation among legacy insurers.

In a new report, BI Intelligence looks at the major players in the global life insurance industry, the problems (for consumers and providers) in the life insurance status quo, how insurtechs are revamping the life insurance space and giving the product a new lease of life, best practices for both startup and incumbent life insurance innovators, and what the future of the life insurance space will look like as fintech makes its presence felt in it.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• The need for innovation in life insurance has never been clearer — life insurance sales on the whole are slowing, and policy ownership is hitting record lows. A lack of consumer understanding, inconvenient application procedures, low customer loyalty, and old IT systems are denting providers' returns.
• Life insurtechs are looking to revamp the space in two key ways: Consumer-focused players focus on eliminating the pain points that put consumers off buying life insurance coverage, while insurer-focused startups offer ways to improve processes and operations for the providers that still dominate much of the market.
• There are some risks attached to bringing technologies not typically used in insurance into this tightly-regulated space, but life insurers can adopt best practices to mitigate them and reap rewards, like: getting full customer approval to use their data, hiring tech-savvy compliance teams, and prioritize customer education about the product. Startups, meanwhile, should pick incumbent partners carefully.
• Incumbents’ activity in life insurance innovation to date has been limited to implementing some shiny new technologies, largely on the front-end. If life insurance incumbents want to stay relevant, they'll have to invest in the core systems needed to give them the freedom to innovate and introduce changes on their own terms.

In full, the report:

• Looks at the world's biggest and most innovative life insurance markets, and trends they're setting for the space.
• Explains the major inefficiencies embedded in the life insurance status quo, and the problems they're causing providers and consumers.
• Outlines the two main strategies life insurtechs are adopting to drive change in this market, for the benefit of buyers and sellers of life insurance.
• Discusses the best practices life insurance incumbents and startups should adopt to steer clear of the risks still attached to applying emerging technologies to such a tightly regulated product.
• Gives an overview of what the rise of life insurtechs has in store for the life insurance space going forward.

 Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

1. Subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >> Learn More Now
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