The Bulls Tuesday got another glimpse of championship basketball, and it was unfortunately at the other end of the court as following a brilliant effort Monday in defeat to the Eastern Conference contending Milwaukee Bucks, the Bulls Tuesday were dismissed and outplayed 114-106 by the defending champion Denver Nuggets basically playing without three starters.
The Bulls were missing injured Zach LaVine and Alex Caruso. But despite the absence of Jamal Murray, guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope injured in the first half and two-time Bunyanesque MVP Nikola Jokić shockingly ejected in the second quarter, the Nuggets kept the Bulls at arms length the rest of the game like a kid punching wildly against a vastly taller opponent.
The Bulls got yet another powerful and dynamic game from Coby White with 27 points and eight assists with 5-of-10 threes. Nikola Vučević was elusive in adding 26 points, 16 rebounds and five assists with Jokić mostly watching from the locker room. But DeMar DeRozan in the second night of the back-to-back was three of 13-for-14 points and the Bulls reserves were dominated 50-23. Denver controlled the boards even without Jokić with the skeleton of what was DeAndre Jordan and marched their way to the free throw line for 32 attempts. Reggie Jackson led Denver with 25 points.
Looking for a watershed week coming off four consecutive wins and a more stylish form of play with a modicum of increased pace and ball movement, the Bulls surprisingly off their recent efforts got stuck in mud and fell to 9-16.
“He got ejected,” White offered with a shrug about Jokić. “I mean, they are a championship team. They’ve got a lot of really good players over there, and even a couple of weeks ago with Jokić and Murray and someone else out, Reggie Jackson had like 40 (35) and DeAndre Jordan had like 20 (21). Julian Strawther is really good (16 points), Justin Holiday is a vet, (Christian) Braun (13), Aaron Gordon, Michael Porter Jr. They were aggressive and it seemed like when Jokić went out they all stepped up with confidence and made a lot of shots; they are a really good team.
“Defending with five guys tonight (was a weakness),” White conceded about the Bulls with another rough start and early double digit deficit. “They are a hard team to defend because they constantly move the ball and they have a lot of ball and player movement, and I feel a lot of times we were a step behind. We’re going to take on the challenge (moving forward). We fought hard both of these games and both of those teams are championship contender teams. But it wasn’t enough. We don’t lose any confidence. We’re going to keep doing what we are doing, we’re going to compete and be together and come out ready for Miami (Thursday and Saturday). We’ve just got to be prepared for two really good teams (76ers Monday) on this trip.”
That’s right, welcome to the NBA. The challenges just keep coming, and at least the way the Bulls have played lately it doesn’t appear like they are backing away.
Though White admitted it would be nice to have Zach LaVine around at times like this with the stress of a cavalcade of games and difficult opponents. The Bulls do expect Caruso back from an ankle sprain in Miami.
“We’ve been missing Zach the whole time,” said White, whose locker is next to LaVine’s. “Like I’ve always said, he’s Zach LaVine All-Star, one of the best scorers in the NBA. We need him. Tonight he would have helped. Last night he would have helped. The game before that he would have helped. He’s going to help regardless. Having a guy like him on the floor is going to help. We need him for sure no matter the circumstances.”
Which were unusually bizarre Tuesday in what was a special night for Serbians — the officials wouldn’t have known that — with a pregame Serbian dance group and the night being a special ticket promotion for the Serbian community, which in Chicago is one of the largest in the world.
Veteran NBA observers — even the Bulls broadcast team of Adam Amin and Stacey King on the air were appalled — were saying it was one of the more egregiously unprofessional actions by an NBA official ejecting Jokić late in the second quarter with Denver leading 54-47.
Though not exactly sporting, that type of punishment commonly would be welcomed by the home crowd to give their team a better chance to win. But the United Center fans erupted in cascading boos with Jokić's quick ejection with one technical foul for apparent inappropriate language toward the official in his only visit to Chicago this season.
Referee Mark Lindsay abruptly offered afterward to a pool reporter a brief explanation: “Jokić was ejected after one technical foul because he directed profane language at the official that by our standards warranted an ejection.”
The Nuggets were able to laugh afterward with the victory also in a second of back to back.
“The official felt the language that was used warranted an ejection,” cracked Nuggets coach Mike Malone, a New York native. “I told him, ‘I don’t understand the problem. Where I grew up that was a term of endearment in my house.’”
Jokić afterward agreed he probably crossed the line, but also said that line often gets crossed in the NBA by various players and often there is no call, or maybe one technical foul and not an ejection.
So the NBA is getting players to ease up on load management, but the officials are pushing it now? Talk about doubling down.
Maybe wrong, but never in doubt.
“I’m just happy we didn’t play in Serbia,” Jokić said later. “Some guys can say whatever and it wouldn’t be a technical; some guys can say whatever. So it is what it is. I crossed the line. But sometimes that word doesn't cross the line.”
Jokić also was aware of the special night in the United Center.
"It's the second biggest Serbian population,” he said. “Belgrade is the first, and Chicago is the second. So maybe they came to see me.”
They did as some fans apparently were seen leaving after the Jokić ejection.
Bogdan Vejanovic of Chicago did stay to the end, but was unhappy. “Very disappointed,” said the Jokić fan sitting about 10 rows behind the Nuggets bench. “For no reason; it was shocking. This was my first Bulls game. We came to see him.”
And so did basketball fans.
Ethan Axelrod is a Chicago native who now lives in Denver. He arrived Tuesday morning to see the two teams he dreams one day will meet in an NBA Finals.
“I flew into today, I’m leaving tomorrow morning, I’m here just for this game,” said Axelrod. “Just to see Jokić play against the Bulls. I love the Bulls, and now the Nuggets also because I live in Denver. I couldn’t believe it. He was jawing with the ref, so maybe he deserved a technical. But then to throw him right out like that? I’ve never seen anything like that. You know a lot of fans were here to see him.”
It seemed clear that Vučević on the play fouled Jokić, who directed what, let’s say, likely was unholy language toward the official. But Jokić did it trotting back up court without making any sort of derogatory gesture or interacting with the official. Heck, for that Draymond Green might get a raise.
It was so outrageous even Bulls players were upset.
“I really like playing against him,” said Vučević. “You never want to see that happen whether it’s a teammate or not. A lot of times with a player like that it fires up the rest of the players, and they have a lot of good players and that’s what happened. It was disappointing to me because I was looking forward to us battling for 48 minutes. The ejection to me seemed excessive. A tech, whatever, but the ejection was a little too much for what happened. I don’t know what the criteria is, but I felt it was a little too much.
“I told him,” Vučević added with the rim shot. "‘You can’t do that in English.’”
All around it just didn’t translate well for the Bulls Tuesday despite some welcome moments.
White continued to experience emmetropia with his three-point eye, now even sticking his toe in the waters of Curry and Lillard deep territory.
“I worked a lot on expanding my range,” said White. “It (also) opens up the floor for driving opportunities. It’s a longer run for them closing out and opens up for everyone else if I can drag the defender out. Maybe two or three feet behind the line.”
Though Bulls coach Billy Donovan said he wouldn’t mind if Coby stayed a bit closer to that three-point line.
Well, you know coaches. But the accolades for White keep coming.
“Coby’s been playing great, a lot of confidence,” said Vučević. “I thought early he was trying to balance facilitating and getting himself going and wasn’t being himself. I felt lately he’s being really aggressive and creating, reading the defense. His shooting has been on fire shooting the three, which has been huge for us. But also getting into the paint in pick and roll and different actions and dishing out, finishing at the rim. He’s been playing great basketball.”
Still, the Bulls dropped behind 32-25 after one quarter even as they continued to work, a pair of blocks against Nuggets players on one possession, and then again showing the defensive effort midway through the second quarter with Vučević and Patrick Williams blocks as the Bulls got within 44-42. But Denver scores quickly with its threes, making 14-of-30 (the Bulls were 13-of-40). And then came the Jokić ejection and Denver ahead 57-50 at halftime.
And angry.
“I thought what happened the second half we might have relaxed a little bit with Jokić's ejection and they really took it to us and we played catch-up from there,” said Vučević. “The first half was kind of up and down; we finished the half just down five (seven) or something and were right there. But then they took it to us and it was difficult to get back in the game. And even though they missed Jokić, they have a lot of players from a championship team who know what it takes and a lot of times when your best player goes out someone else steps in.”
It was Strawther with a pair of threes and 10 points in the third, the Nuggets taking a 92-80 lead.
Indicative of the Bulls woes was a fourth quarter sequence/possession in which they got three offensive rebounds and won two jump balls, effectively stealing them from taller players, and missed every shot. Still clawing to the close, White snuck up behind Jordan for a steal and got two offensive rebounds on one possession. Andre Drummond rolled in for a three-point play and foul shots; yes, call it a Drum-roll.
It was pretty clear what was coming as the Nuggets inexorably made space for a recently rare appearance from the deepest part of the Bulls bench.
“I thought we tried to play the right way, tried to move the ball,” said Donovan. “Did not shoot it particularly well, but the one thing we’ve got to do a better job of is relying on our defense. We didn’t protect the rim well enough and the other part was we fouled too much and we have to clean that up. They’re a good team, they’ve got good players. We’ve got two guys out, they had two guys out. It really was about the guys competing on the court. We didn’t do enough to win the game and they did.
“I think we’ve got to regroup here,” said Donovan. “Getting back physically. I think the last two games has taken a lot out of us physically. So we’ve got to get it back.”
But there wasn't complete angst among the fans. Accompanying Bogdan Vejanović was Montenegrin singer Dragana Rakčević. Asked about Jokić being ejected, she said, "I am here to see Vučević. He is Number One."
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