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The Chicago Bulls fans that booed at the end of the first half when their team went down 21, got on their feet and cheered for their team as they cut their deficit from 30 down to three in the final minutes.
Then those same fans marched through the exits before the final buzzer as the Sacramento Kings pulled ahead and close out a 123-115 win at the United Center on Saturday night.
A night up ups and downs to say the least.
That was an exhausting loss. And though the fans were pleased with the group for showing the effort and execution necessary to claw back, they also recognized that their team isn’t up to the task of pulling themselves out of the hole they had dug themselves into.
A fitting metaphor for team’s season, where in advance of Thursday’s Trade Deadline, the Bulls (23-27) front office is faced with big picture questions complicated by Zach LaVine’s season-ending foot surgery.
The player have to buy into the here and now. They can’t worry about the things over which they have no control. Every time they’re competitive with a good team like the 29-19 Kings, it’s proof they can compete with anyone.
“The guys that are in here compete,” DeMar DeRozan said after the game. “I got the utmost confidence and faith in them that we can go out there and compete with anybody.”
Especially in the wake of the LaVine news, DeRozan, who scored 24 points on just 5-of-14 shooting, got to the line for 14-of-15 free throw attempts, with seven rebounds, six assists and four steals, could easily pack it in and ask for a trade ahead of his free agency.
But he’s not worried about that right now.
“I’m a terrible planner,” DeRozan said. “That’s probably my big pet peeve in life. Some people like jotting down in their journal what they gotta do for the week. To me, that would drive me nuts. So for me, I really live my life day-by-day. If I get caught up in having future thoughts on things, I’m going to drive myself crazy. And I’d rather not be that way. I really take it day-by-day and be prepared for whatever happens. That’s just life. That’s my approach for life. I don’t get caught up in the he-said, she-said stuff. All I do is control what I can control.”
Not only is it the right PR answer, it’s a mindset the players must assume in order to show up and compete for their fans on a nightly basis. But that’s not the mindset with which the front office or ownership should operate.
For the higher ups, bigger picture has to be the priority. Living and dying with wins and losses will keep the team spinning on this self-inflicted cycle forever.
Torrey Craig made his return to play after missing the previous 22 games with a plantar fascia injury in his right foot.
“It’s a little discomfort but it’s not pain,” Craig said of how he was feeling post-game. “And it’s just getting used to playing, running back up and down, jumping, and cutting. Just gonna come with time the more I played the more reps I get.”
It will likely take some time for Craig to get back into full shape, but he plans to do so quickly.
“Hopefully not a lot but I was definitely feeling tonight,” he said. “I was so tired and I look at the stat sheet on play seven minutes and I was like, man. So I just think probably like two or three more games to get your conditioning back and your legs back under you.”
Craig was under a 20-minute restriction for the game, but played only 14. He finished with five points on 2-of-5 shooting and added some defensive punch to a thinning bench unit.
Up next: The Bulls are back at the UC on Tuesday against the Minnesota Timberwolves for their final game before the Trade Deadline.
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