Talk about the winter of our discontent.
This Bulls season with Tuesday’s 19-point lost lead and last second 108-103 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers is feeling very Shakespearean. Our heroes continue to show the tragic flaw, often losing big leads, 19 points against the Clippers, the fourth lost lead this month of at least 16 points and twice more than 20. And with all the conflict trying to avoid a tragic end as the Bulls record fell to 23-27 and farther from playoff contention in the Eastern Conference.
“We did some good stuff defensively that caused them to miss,” noted DeMar DeRozan, who had a poor game for him with 20 points and eight turnovers. “Gave ourselves an opportunity to stay in the game, win the game. Zach got three free throws (missing two with 1:03 left trailing by two points). Even before that I got a good look on a pullup jumper (that rimmed out with 1:44 left trailing 104-102). We had a couple of opportunities to take advantage. One, I’m sure I got fouled on when Reggie (Jackson) reached in and I tried to spin (trailing 104-103 with 36 seconds left). We gave ourselves a chance, but things just didn’t go our way as much as we needed it to.
“Losing period, no matter how you lose, sucks,” DeRozan said. “Team like that with veteran guys, extremely well coached, not going to give up. So a 15, 20-point lead is nothing to them. You’ve got to play 48 minutes balls out. We just couldn’t get it back when we got the lead.”
And then, at least for Tuesday’s loss, came the tragic ending when with a chance at least to tie and send the game into overtime with a three pointer with about 10 seconds left in regulation, the Bulls like last week in Indiana threw away the inbounds pass. So the Clippers escaped with the win and the Bulls yet again witnessed the waste of all their good deeds for a fate they hope will not prove inevitable.
“Got to give ourselves a chance at that point to at least get a shot up,” said LaVine. “You turn the ball over there and you don’t have a shot; it’s frustrating.”
Which has become something of the mantra of this disappointing season that seemed still to have so much promise even without the injured Lonzo Ball. And so it appeared again against the Clippers, another classic battle of good versus evil since the Clippers basically are the face of the NBA’s pernicious load management.
The Bulls players come to play; the Clippers’ usually to watch. Though this time Kawhi Leonard interrupted his intermittent season vacation with 33 points and the crucial steal of that late inbounds pass. Paul George had a pedestrian 16 points and 10 rebounds, and the difference for the Clippers was Norman Powell off the bench with 27 points and a 40-20 Clippers bench advantage.
Which was unfortunate since the Bulls did so many things well in addition to that 32-20 first quarter start and a second quarter 46-27 lead.
LaVine nearly had a triple double with 18 points, a career-most 14 rebounds and eight assists, though with six turnovers and that last one put on him with 5.3 seconds left, though it took a village for that breakdown. Nikola Vučević had 23 points and 14 rebounds, getting the Bulls revving with three straight three pointers in the first quarter that made it 16-5 Bulls about four minutes in.
The Clippers when they decide to play are a difficult team for the Bulls because of their proliferation of veteran long-armed wing players like Leonard, George and Nic Batum, who proved especially disruptive for DeRozan. He thus wasn’t able to fake them into many fouls. So with Leonard getting five steals, the Clippers deftly played passing lanes and caused 20 Bulls turnovers to eight of their own.
It proved a big difference because the Bulls defended and rebounded so well. The Clippers made just 12 of 44 threes and shot 39.8 percent overall to 49.4 percent for the Bulls, and the Bulls with 12 of 24 threes. The Bulls led in rebounding 51-44.
Patrick Williams at least made it difficult for Leonard, who shot 11 of 24, and Williams had the dunk of the game with a drive and power slam midway through the third quarter as the Bulls were recovering to retake the lead.
After the Bulls got that 19-point margin in the second quarter, the Clippers started a run down to a 12-point deficit with the Bulls trying to get away with a small group again. LA center Ivica Zubac, whom Vučević was dominating in the first quarter, got loose for a pair of scores and a block. Bulls coach Billy Donovan got Vučević back in, and he scored immediately to push the Bulls back ahead by 14. But Powell got fouled on a three, Leonard got a steal and runout and made a pair of jumpers, and the Bulls were reaching and fouling as the Clippers tied the game at 52 with momentum their sixth man.
Alex Caruso, who had two more steals and was perfect shooting with three field goals and two free throws, had the first of several skilled defensive plays, stripping the ball from Leonard as he went up to shoot and then forcing Leonard into an off balance miss. It got the Bulls ahead 58-54 at halftime.
And then into the muck of the competition, LaVine emerging with a three pointer and consecutive three-point plays, the Clippers matching that with a Powell three and consecutive steals leading to his fast break score, and the Clippers leading 85-84 going into the fourth quarter.
“When we got up they really turned up the pressure,” said Donovan. “In the first half even against the pressure we were getting downhill and our spacing was good and we found people. When we got into the second half, I thought we got on top of each other and at times the spacing needed to be better. We generated better shots in the first half.”
But this is what you prepare for in the playoffs, the final countdown, as it were.
Andre Drummond saw his first minutes of the game to start that fourth quarter. And though he had five rebounds in three minutes, the Clippers seemed like they’d pull away with a 96-88 lead five minutes into the fourth with DeRozan fouling Leonard on a made three pointer and Jackson setting up a Zubac dunk after a DeRozan turnover. Still, the Bulls again recovered and maybe there would be a happy ending?
LaVine made one of those threes with the shot clock winding down that you know the coach is going, “No, no, no, good shot.” DeRozan then seemed to redeem himself with a heck of a defensive play, fronting Leonard to deny the pass, making a steal and firing in for a slam dunk to get the Bulls within 99-95 with 5:19 left.
It wasn’t long after when LaVine added his own defining defensive play, blocking a driving Leonard attempt. And then after the Clippers fired up three more off target threes, Caruso got a basket off LaVine’s block to get the Bulls within 104-102 with 2:13 left. Then Powell was called for the three-shot foul on LaVine. Ball game?
But the 84 percent shooter shockingly missed the first two, leaving the Bulls trailing 104-103 with 1:03 left when LaVine made the last one.
Then came Batum missing a three, but then DeRozan losing the ball on an awkward shot attempt on what he insisted was a foul by Jackson.
“I take a lot upon myself; that was uncharacteristic turning the ball over as much as I did, just careless,” said DeRozan. “I wouldn’t even give them that much credit. It was us rushing some stuff, being careless, loose with the ball; that killed us all the turnovers we had. I had seven, eight, whatever it was it was. Entirely too much and we can’t let that happen.
“I got fouled (on that shot with 36 seconds left),” said DeRozan. “What went wrong is they didn’t call it. Simple as that, frustrating. Being in that situation I didn’t want to settle for a jump shot. As soon as I spun, his arm was reaching in and I couldn’t fully spin. It don’t make no sense to me. Try to be aggressive, try to get downhill, clearly was a foul. Wake up tomorrow and read the last two-minute report. I always get (that call). I feel with anyone reaching in and trying to spin it, it’s clearly a foul.”
The Clippers worked the ball around with their one-point lead, DeRozan switching onto George. George did the usual multiple between legs dribble and then bumped into DeRozan and shot short. Whistle with 20.1 seconds left. The Bulls had a foul to give, though. So 14 seconds on the shot clock.
The Clippers moved the ball around to Powell, who drove from the right wing and a foul was called. Donovan challenged the call, which was overturned... but to change the foul from DeRozan to Caruso. Powell made both free throws for a 106-103 Clippers lead with 10.8 seconds left.
And then came our hero’s tragic fate.
Caruso, like last week against the Pacers, went to inbound the ball. This was where no one much cared to clear things up later.
“We didn’t execute the play very well,” Donovan said. “We needed to be better there. We’ve worked on that. With them defensively being small, they’re going to switch everything, so you’ve got to kind of manipulate who you’re screening. We didn’t execute the play. No one broke it off. We’ve got to execute the play better.”
Donovan didn’t care to elaborate.
It was a formation we’d seen before with DeRozan starting on the left block, LaVine cutting across the lane to the right block and Vučević setting a down screen for DeRozan coming to the top. It looked like LaVine was then to come over a double screen from Vučević and DeRozan for a three-point attempt since he was a team-best three of five on threes in the game.
But LaVine got picked up by Batum on a switch. So LaVine cut toward the right (strong side/ball side) corner. But manipulated by Leonard, DeRozan also went to that corner, leaving Caruso trying to thread a pass to LaVine with DeRozan much too close, and thus Leonard in the middle.
Caruso bounced the ball in. DeRozan reached for it and LaVine tried to grab the ball. But they were so close and Leonard poked it from LaVine to Batum. The ball went back to Leonard, who dribbled up and was fouled and made the clinching free throws.
So what happened now with such good intentions?
“I believe Alex was trying to go to Zach with the ball, but the spacing obviously was not great,” said Donovan. “It’s a skill to be able to inbound the ball. Alex’s got size, he’s smart and has good vision. Our spacing was bad it made it difficult for him to make the pass; we just didn’t execute the play well.”
“DeMar’s in the corner and Vooch is up top and Zach had a little angle, so I just tried to lead him to a spot,” said Caruso. “I think there was just a little miscommunication on our part of who the ball was intended for. For the most part we ran the play we were supposed to run. We just didn't execute the screening aspect of how they were guarding it. They were switching everything, so maybe we could have screened better or broke open better.”
“I know the sequence of the play; it seemed like we were taking too long to get it in,” said DeRozan. “They did a good job switching. We had a couple of options, Zach coming off and Vooch popping back to the ball. By the time I’d seen Vooch didn’t get it, we were just trying to get the ball inbounds. We were just all over the place.”
“I think Alex was just trying to throw it to an open spot,” said LaVine. “For me to go up to the top, but they were switching. So I just tried to make a cut and get open. Me and DeMar cut to the same area, and then you just try and make a play. Kawhi got his hand on it and then we just scrambled for it. I just tried to break my cut off because Batum switched out off the inbound. They switch a lot. We could have done something that was a little different. Obviously, get the ball in. Alex made the right play.”
Though we have seen better days.
Got a question for Sam?
Submit your question to Sam at asksam@bulls.com
The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Chicago Bulls. All opinions expressed by Sam Smith are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Chicago Bulls or its Basketball Operations staff, parent company, partners, or sponsors. His sources are not known to the Bulls and he has no special access to information beyond the access and privileges that go along with being an NBA accredited member of the media.