Bulls: Road Ahead Still Looks Bumpy After Unsatisfying Loss in NYC
Wizards await in DC as Bulls still look unlike team they imagined themselves to be
The Chicago Bulls weren’t expecting another underwhelming showing on the road against the Knicks in New York on Monday, but its what they got of themselves in a 109-104 loss.
DeMar DeRozan (37 points on 12-of-26 shooting) sure showed up, bringing more of his 4th quarter scoring exploits (15 in the final frame) to try to give an edge to his lackluster squad, but the Bulls as a unite could not compile enough stops to regain any lead or any lasting momentum in the game’s closing period.
An early Chicago lead grew to as much as 12 between the first and second quarter, as the Bulls got out of the blocks, clicking on both ends of the floor.
Zach LaVine was a big help early on with another tone-setting first quarter display of scoring. LaVine’s 9 points on 4-of-4 shooting in the first put his average at 10.6 in opening quarters over the last three games. However, Chicago was not able to sustain success on the other end, leading to a gradual downward spiral as the game inched closer to its finish line.
The Knicks would eventually overtake the Bulls and garner a three-point lead by the half.
Bulls coach Billy Donovan deployed a tight, playoff-style, rotation of nine players Monday night but the bench had little to nothing to show for the concentrated effort, compiling just 11 points in comparison to New York's 28, a big part of the story of the game
Another big part ties into the old adage in basketball that “rebounding is an effort thing.” The Bulls allowed 13 offensive rebounds and, in my estimation, nine of them were plays in where they were present and even in position but were simply out-willed by a hungrier group of Knicks.
Doubling down on how the Bulls made a tough game tougher, the Bulls coughed up the rock 12 times in this one, leading to 16 New York points off turnovers.
When you're not whole, and you're on the road you want to minimize entities of the game that you can’t control, such as extended possessions from the opposing offense and possessions where you can’t even get shots up for losing control of the ball.
Also, giving up 27 points to Alec Burks doesn’t help (plenty of which came off very clean looks, even after he'd shown he was hot).
Road Ahead
The Bulls have the Wizards this evening on the second night of a road back to back — Washington is a team with a high level of collective energy that will make things difficult on a team gutting out an East Coast road trip. The Wizards have won their last two, including a thrashing of the Warriors on Sunday in their last game out.
Follow WARR Media (We Are Regal Radio
)
on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram