The Chicago Bulls have already racked up their share of demoralizing losses in the opening stretch of this 5-9 season. But Sunday’s loss — a 143-107 blowout at the hands of the Houston Rockets — sunk to a lower level of dysfunction.
The entire fourth quarter functioned as garbage time after the Bulls sank into a 108-78 deficit through the first three quarters. Fred VanVleet racked up 28 points on 10-for-16 shooting, but the Rockets didn’t need singular heroics to manhandle the Bulls defense. Seven Rockets players finished with double-digit scoring.
Meanwhile, Zach LaVine was the only Bulls starter who could muster double-digit scoring on an ice-cold night from behind the 3-point arc. Without long-range shooting bailing them out, the haplessness of the Bulls defense was left on full display in their second-straight game ceding 140 or more points.
“We’ve got to take a stand,” Coby White said after the loss. “Giving up 140-plus (points) in back-to-back games is unacceptable. It’s embarrassing. It’s a disservice to the organization, a disservice to the fan base.”
The Bulls are now 1-5 at home this season. Here are five takeaways from the latest loss.
1. Another dismal 40-point quarter.
The Bulls have allowed their opponent to score 135 or more points in four games already this season — meaning nearly 30 percent of their outings have featured this gargantuan scoreline. In these games, opponents scoring typically balloons in a single quarter.
On Sunday, that was the second quarter. The Rockets ripped off 41 points in the second quarter — and they didn’t do it by getting hot from deep, going only 3-for-7 from 3-point range. Instead, the Rockets dominated the Bulls by hammering their way to the rim, where they scored nine of their 16 made baskets of the quarter.
Coach Billy Donovan criticized the Bulls defense for not meeting the Rockets with physical aggression at any point on the court, allowing themselves to be knocked off balance and out of the way.
“As much the ball was coming downhill, we didn’t have one guy try to take a charge,” Donovan said. “Someone’s got to put their body in the way. They just kind of just came right through us. We’re going to have to make a stance.”
2. The poor shooting night reflected weaknesses in the offense.
Zach LaVine was the only player to score double digits for the Bulls outside of garbage time, finishing with 15 points on 4-for-9 shooting. Talen Horton-Tucker also scored 12 points, nine of which were made in the fourth quarter once the game was firmly out of hand.
This dearth of scoring stemmed from a complete collapse from behind the 3-point arc, where the Bulls finished 14-for-56 in their worst shooting performance of the season.
The Bulls have mostly buoyed their offense with high-energy ball rotation and 3-point shooting this season — but that formula didn’t work against the Rockets. Patrick Williams went 1-for-7, Josh Giddey went 1-for-6 and Ayo Dosunmu went 1-for-5 from deep.
Meanwhile, the Bulls couldn’t revitalize their offense inside the arc, where they have often struggled to create separation against opposing defenses. The disparity in paint scoring was never more stark than on Sunday, when the Rockets racked up 80 points in the paint while the Bulls managed only 40. And as the poor shooting persisted, it began to seep into players’ confidence on the other end of the court, where the defense visibly lagged as 3-pointers continued to clang off the rim.
“We’re all human, so obviously missing shots kind of affects you during the game,” White said. “I’ve had moments where I’ve let missing shots affect me and my energy during the game. It’s just something that we all got to continue to work through and maneuver through.”
3. Patrick Williams snapped a double-digit scoring streak.
The last six games were a promising span for Williams, who was riding a double-digit scoring streak coming into Sunday’s game. But contesting a high level of physicality at the rim is one of the weak spots in the forward’s offensive game, which was made clear throughout the loss.
Williams scored only seven points after starting the game 0-for-6 from the floor, beginning to visibly hesitate as he loaded up shots from behind the arc. He went 2-for-9 from the floor and made only one 3-pointer.
4. Coach Billy Donovan shortened Josh Giddey’s rotations.
After being effectively benched in a brutal defensive outing against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Giddey played in shorter rotations on Sunday. He played only six minutes of the second quarter as the defense imploded, then was pulled off the court two minutes into the third quarter.
Donovan said this was partially due to a pre-planned rotation based on consulting with the Bulls medical team. Sunday marked the first of five games the Bulls will play in a seven-day stretch, one of the most challenging periods of their season.
But Donovan also noted that Giddey was still failing to give the Bulls the defensive energy necessary to contest in the game. He finished with nine points on 3-for-10 shooting after playing only 21 minutes.
5. Matas Buzelis struggled during a longer rotation in the fourth quarter.
The blowout loss afforded enough flexibility to let rookie Matas Buzelis play the entire fourth quarter — which should have been the silver lining of an otherwise mind-numbing night at the United Center.
But after a strong Saturday night in the G League for the Windy City Bulls home opener — where he tallied 24 points and 10 rebounds — Buzelis also struggled in Sunday’s NBA game, even in garbage time. The high level of physicality presented by the Rockets kept the rookie off balance when he attempted to finish at the rim.
Buzelis finished with eight points on 2-for-6 shooting, making both of his shots from behind the 3-point arc.
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