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By Sam Smith | 2.20.2015 | 8:57 p.m. CT
Friday, the Bulls suffered a dispiriting 100-91 loss to an undermanned Detroit Pistons team.
The Bulls blew a late first half 11-point lead when the Pistons started the second half with a 14-4 run. The Pistons pulled away from there and then playing a defensive group in the fourth quarter, the Bulls pulled within 77-74. But they could not score enough with a surfeit of turnovers and the Pistons pulled away for their own impressive victory.
The Bulls saw their four-game winning streak broken and fell to 34-21. The Pistons are 22-33.
The Bulls were led by Jimmy Butler with 30 points. Pau Gasol’s streak of 14 straight double/doubles ended as he had 12 points and eight rebounds. Joakim Noah had 10 points and 14 rebounds. Taj Gibson had 15 points and nine rebounds. Derrick Rose had just eight points on two of nine shooting with six turnovers. The Bulls had 20 turnovers which led to 26 Detroit points. Greg Monroe and Caron Butler each had 20 for Detroit and Andre Drummond had 18 points and 20 rebounds.
Observations:
1. Jimmy Butler who worked about the most going to the All-Star game looked perhaps the freshest, making threes early and his astute passing in drawing double teams enabled the Bulls to open up a double digit first half lead.
2. The Bulls still don’t seem to use their floor spacing shooters enough in rotating Mike Dunleavy, Tony Snell, Aaron Brooks and Nikola Mirotic. The emphasis remains on the interior game, which makes it more difficult to run a fluid offense.
3. Whether to purposely foul poor free throw shooters has been as issue. Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau usually isn’t a believer in that strategy. The Pistons have one of the poorest in Andre Drummond, who missed five of his first seven. The Bulls rejected the strategy until 2:57 left. Drummond then made two of six.