With all due respect to the two drubbings at the hands of the league-worst Detroit Pistons, the Chicago Bulls 107-105 loss to the now Washington Wizards might take the cake for worst game of the season.
“It’s frustrating. I’m going to be pissed off until we get back out on the court,” DeMar DeRozan said. “We shouldn’t drop games like this right now. We’re resilient. But we can’t live on the edge every game. We gotta leave it out there these last ten games. We can’t have no more excuses.”
Despite missing four starters in Deni Avdija, Tyus Jones, Kyle Kuzma and Bilal Coulibaly, the Wizards opened the game on a 15-0 run. Even against an injury riddled bottom-feeder, the Bulls didn’t have enough to overcome that kind of deficit. It was especially difficult considering they shot just 41.4 percent from the field and 28.6 percent from deep.
The Bulls have to execute better to avoid this situation.
“You run the risk when you let luck come into the game and we let luck come into the game in a lot of situations,” a disappointed Billy Donovan said post-game. “You don’t want to be into a situation where things are being chanced to luck. You’re hoping they miss a free throw, you’re hoping this happens, you’re hoping that happens, and maybe you get lucky. That’s not a way to live.”
“We don’t have that room of error to be able to do that,” he continued.
Considering their place in the standings with just ten games remaining, being outplayed by that caliber of team can’t happen.
“You’re playing against teams like Washington, they don’t necessarily have anything to lose,” DeRozan explained. “So they just go out there and play. They play hard or play with no conscious of making mistakes. Sometimes those games is just as difficult when you play a top team. You gotta be aware of that. But for the most part, it shouldn’t even matter. We got to hone in and understand like, all these games matter. Every single game matters.”
Though this game was a terrible look for the Bulls, their fate remains all but sealed. At 34-38, they are 1.5 games ahead of the Atlanta Hawks in 9th, with the tiebreaker. They’re five games behind the Philadelphia 76ers in 8th.
So what do the Bulls need to do to get themselves back on track before the Play-In Tournament?
“Play like your life depends on it,” DeRozan said. “Simple as that.”
DeRozan’s final heave
Despite floundering offensively all game, the Bulls did have chance to get this one back with a half-court heave from DeRozan at the final buzzer.
Down two after Wizards’ forward Justin Champagnie missed his second free throw attempt, Alex Caruso rebounded the ball and found DeRozan for a chance to put up a game-winning attempt with 6.4 seconds to go.
DeRozan launched the shot from beyond half court with two full seconds remaining on the game clock. At first it appeared he may have lost track of time. Maybe he had the opportunity to get further into the front court and/or find someone else for a better look.
But like most things for DeRozan, there was intention behind the play.
“I was just trying to line it up,” he said. “Regardless, it was going to be a long shot. I didn’t want to get too close to the defender, have him have a chance to get a good contest. I think I lined it up perfectly. Felt good. Little bit long but sometimes in those situations, you don’t want to dribble too deep and have the defender be able to get a good contest.”
Up next: The Bulls host the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday.
