What Just Happened?

What a perfect Chicago Bulls game to write the first real post about. 

On a night that should have been a great momentum builder for the Chicago Bulls, they instead lose to the Detroit Pistons 105-95. Early on, it seemed like the Bulls were getting into a groove, feeding Nikola Vucevic numerous times in the post en route to 17 first half points on 8-12 shooting. Demar Derozan also had it going early in the game, scoring 17 points himself on 7-8 shooting in the first two frames. The Bulls used the 34 points from the two stars to build a 5 point halftime lead over the hungry Pistons, who were playing like they had something to prove after their brutal (and potentially bogus?) loss to the New York Knicks last night. 

The Bulls were an abysmal 2-29 from the 3 point line tonight, and that seemed to make all the difference. The first half shooting was noticeable but not detrimental, thanks in large part to the efforts of Derozan, Vucevic, and Alex Caruso. Caruso was a difference maker yet again on the defensive side of the ball, bolstering his All-Defensive campaign with 5 steals. The second half is where everything started to go wrong in Chicago, as the shooting did not improve, Derozan and Vucevic combined to shoot 5-19 from the field. Their struggles made the off-nights of Ayo Dosunmu and Coby White far more apparent, as the pair had one of their worst offensive outputs in the last 2 months. Dosunmu and White were unable to get the lid off the rim versus the Pistons, shooting a combined 6-28 from the field and 0-10 from 3.

On the other side, the Pistons got inspired performances from multiple players, including Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, Ausar Thompson, and Simone Fontecchio. Cunningham showed yet again tonight why he is a budding star in this league, as he scored 26 points and didn’t let the Bulls defense rattle him at all. Ivey and Thompson shined defensively and in transition, with Ivey having two early transition assists to Thompson. Ausar also had as many 3 pointers as the Bulls tonight, bringing his season total up to 17 made 3s. Simone Fontecchio took off in the second half especially, and helped put Chicago away with 17 points and 5 3s made.

The Bulls seemingly didn’t play a terrible game, with Derozan, Vucevic, and Drummond all scoring over 20 points and the latter 2 amassing 10 and 11 rebounds respectively. The issue came with the aforementioned shooting. It wasn’t like the Bulls were only getting contested looks from distance, as most of the shots were relatively open. Tonight the shots just simply weren’t falling from beyond the arc, and it seemed like the game plan was to shoot out of the slump. 

For a team trying to be competitive as current Vice President of Basketball Operations Artūras Karnišovas spoke about in a press conference after the trade deadline earlier this month, this was another performance that left myself and many other fans confused by some of the decision making at all levels. In the past week, the Bulls converted Onuralp Bitim’s contract from a 2-way contract to an NBA contract, and signed Andrew Funk to a 2-way contract. These are moves that are consistent with the Bulls need for more shooting, and yet Bitim has only logged 6 minutes of playing time since the start of the season. At some point, these pure shooters need to make their way into the lineup, even in limited minutes. 

The other issue that Chicago has dealt with is a lack of size, as the options at power forward for Billy Donovan include 6’6” Demar Derozan, along with 6’4” Alex Caruso and 6’4” Terry Taylor. Against a team like Detroit whose smallest starter is 6’4” Jaden Ivey, the Bulls lack of size is made much more apparent, and this was represented in a 47-39 rebounding advantage for the Pistons. The dominance of Vucevic and Drummond in the paint should not be understated, as they helped lead the Bulls to a 50-42 points in the paint advantage and a 15-8 advantage on the offensive glass. But those two can only do so much, especially since they aren’t touted for their defensive talents.

Up next for the Bulls are the red hot Cleveland Cavaliers, who just won tonight on a ¾ court buzzer beater by Max Strus. If the Bulls want to win that game tomorrow, the shooting efforts need to be better. Cleveland are a team primed for a playoff push, and have had the Bulls number each of their last 7 matchups, winning each of them.