Another ugly one.
In their Saturday night loss to the Charlotte Hornets, the Chicago Bulls combined for 60 points in the second, third and fourth quarters. Instead of shaking off the poor offensive performance, they scored just 14 points in the opening quarter against Boston, and 33 in the first half.
The Bulls put together a late fourth-quarter surge, cutting what was once a 23-point deficit to 10, but they can’t just decide to try when the game is already out of reach. In the end, they lost to the Celtics 115-101 in what can only be considered a non-competitive effort.
The Bulls are still missing some key bodies — Jalen Smith (concussion) joined Josh Giddey (hamstring) and Zach Collins (toe) on the sideline. However, the Bulls welcomed Coby White (calf) back, who returned after just five days, despite having a one-week re-evaluation period.
White was scoreless in 10 minutes off the bench in the first half, a part of a disastrous offensive showing in which the Bulls mustered just 33 points. White finished with five points on 2-of-7 shooting with three assists and four turnovers.
Matas Buzelis led the way for the Bulls with 26 points on 9-of-12 shooting and was the only thing remotely close to a bright spot for Chicago.
Surprisingly enough, the Celtics didn’t even shoot it well, only 40 percent from the field. Jaylen Brown was just 6-of-24, but the Celtics attempted 18 more field goal attempts than the Bulls, with Anfernee Simons leading the way for Boston in scoring with 27 points, making eight threes.
Up next: The Bulls have the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday, who will be without Jalen Duren, Tobias Harris and Caris LeVert. The Pistons (26-9) are the top seed in the Eastern Conference, but have split the season series with the Bulls so far, 1-1. The Bulls topped Detroit in their season opener, part of their 5-0 start to the season, but then lost to them when they were without Duren, Harris, as well as Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey and Isaiah Stewart.
On the season, the Pistons are ninth in offense (117.9), second in defense (110.5) and third in point differential (+7.4), but have stumbled in their last two weeks, going just 4-3.
Tune into the CHGO Bulls postgame live:
Another game where the Bulls completely fail to impose their style and play to their identity.
It’s always tough to win when shooting the ball as poorly as the Bulls did (44 percent, 32 percent in the first half). Billy Donovan is constantly referencing “the controllables” as a baseline level of competitive effort the Bulls need to exert to give themselves a chance to be competitive. That means preventing offensive rebounds, not fouling and taking care of the ball.
But the Bulls didn’t do themselves any favors, allowing the Celtics to grab 14 offensive rebounds and 14 second chance points in the first half alone, 2o offensive rebounds total for 26 second chance points.
It’s possible the front office puts less weight into these kinds of games where they are down a few bodies as they evaluate the team ahead of the Trade Deadline. But the Bulls pride themselves on their identity and ability to play with physicality. Win or lose. Missing some of their rotation shouldn’t prevent them from physically showing up for the game, regardless.
Forget, for a moment, the lack of high-level talent — the Bulls’ existential problem. They’ve had way too many games where they completely fail to show up competitively.
Will that problem ever be addressed?
The Bulls had two sub-20-point quarters in their loss to Charlotte on Saturday. The Bulls said to themselves, “Hold my beer!” on Monday in Boston. Monday’s 14 points marked their lowest-scoring first quarter of the season. They followed that with 19 points in the second.
Stop, stop, I can’t handle all the competitiveness!
Some credit (I guess?) for showing some fight in the third quarter and not entirely crumbling and throwing in the towel at halftime. But it’s clear as day just how much better the Jayson Tatum-less Celtics are compared to the “nine or ten good players” Bulls. And here’s the kicker: Jaylen Brown, who has been on an absolute HEATER over the past dozen games…had a TERRIBLE shooting night. As of this typing, nearing the end of the third quarter, he has nine points on 4-20 shooting from the field. The Celtics are up by 21. Lolz.
How many offensive rebounds did Boston have? Seventy-five? It had to be above fifty. Good lord. Not ideal to be missing Collins and Smith, but still. Inexcusable. Rebounding is a team effort. Heck, I even missed Giddey’s rebounding out there tonight.
And that’s where I’ll leave my thoughts for tonight. Because…yuck.
Actually, not. Worth noting the Bulls made a half-decent comeback effort in the fourth quarter. But they were too far behind for it to really matter. Enjoyed some promising buckets from Buzelis, who is quietly stringing together some impressive games and stat lines. His and-1s around the rim in this recent stretch have me…always excited about his future. Keep working, young fella.
You know how when an ass whippin’ is coming and you know it but it’s still bad anyway because it’s no way to truly prepare for it? Yeah. This game.
Bulls have just been really bad at everything recently. It just gets highlighted when you play a team like the Celtics.
Ayo Dosunmu, man. He’s gonna play tough and hard each and every game.
I like how Buzelis played as well. Was attacking consistently, shooting the three and wasn’t really intimidated by Boston. That’s what I like in my future.
One thing this Bulls team is gonna play up (or down) to the competition and play tough. No matter what.
Patrick “Lee” Williams is trash.
— Big Dave
