Sometimes you're really looking forward to Philadelphia and some of the epicurean delights, but then you try the swiss cheese for the Cheesesteak like John Kerry did in probably costing himself the 2004 presidential election, and the yellow mustard is runny on your soft pretzel and who knows how long the Wawa had that Tastykake laying there. And you’re thinking, like the Bulls were Tuesday in trailing by a league-most 29 first-quarter points on the way to a 110-97 defeat, there’s got to be a toilet close by.
“You’ve got to flush it,” said DeMar DeRozan, who led the Bulls with 16 points, 10 in the first quarter before he began checking if there’s a good pizza place near the Bulls New York City hotel for Wednesday's game against the Knicks. “We’ve got to move on and get ready for tomorrow. We were just a step slow with everything, couldn’t make shot and everything was going for them. We came out and couldn’t make anything. Nothing could go our way and they came out hitting everything. We’ve got a bus ride to New York, play the Knicks tomorrow and redeem ourselves with that.”
Better to look forward because if they chanced to look backward the hope in this one is not gaining on them.
Objects in their rear view mirror this time were larger than they appeared with Joel Embiid returning from a sprained ankle to extend his streak of 30-point, 10-rebound games to 14, the longest since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1972. Embiid had 31 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists, finishing off his triple-double to end the third quarter and his playing time with a no-look pass to Tobias Harris for a dunk and 98-72 Philadelphia lead after three quarters.
The 76ers starters sat out the fourth quarter while the Bulls got eight points — and his first NBA basket — from Adama Sanogo and six each from Ayo Dosunmu and Dalen Terry to make it sound not so bad.
Dosunmu finished with 15 points and Andre Drummond had 11 points and 17 rebounds, and even that didn’t look great with the rim blocking him on one attempt and a pass to himself for a travel. The Bulls were 7-of-37 on threes for 19% after missing all 10 threes in the first quarter while the 76ers made 7-of-11 and were 10-of-20 at halftime on threes to the Bulls two of 19. Philadelphia led 73-42 at half.
Perhaps more worrisome was Patrick Williams leaving the game early with the recurrence of an ankle problem. He called it “stiff and sore,” but he diminished its gravity. Though it did keep him grounded with three points. Coby White nursing an ongoing wrist issue left the game also with an ankle problem, though Bulls coach Billy Donovan said White could have returned if the game were more competitive
It’s perhaps a concern that the Bulls good health may be catching up with them. Sure, Zach LaVine and Torrey Craig have been out extended periods, and Nikola Vučević recently joined them with a hamstring problem. But earlier the Bulls were one of the league’s heather teams with White and DeRozan now still Nos. 1 and 2 in the NBA in minutes played. Williams, Drummond, and Jevon Carter haven’t missed any games and Dosunmu and DeRozan have missed just two.
But help could be on the way by later this week with LaVine practicing with the Windy City Bulls this week while the Bulls were traveling and perhaps able to return Friday against Charlotte. LaVine has been out since late November with a foot injury.
“Man, we could have used that extra 20 to 25, 30 points tonight,” said DeRozan. “Gives us another dynamic force from a focus point of scoring, playmaking; end of the day it’s still Zach LaVine. Teams have to prepare for that. When we have him on the court (there are) so many more options for us to be able to execute out there.
Missing him we’ve been fighting nights like tonight; wish we had him.”
Donovan had an encouraging message pregame for LaVine’s return.
“I don't know what the exact date's going to be, but the way he's progressing right now and the fact that he's in full fledged contact, [it's] very positive,” said Donovan. “Everything that's been thrown at him in terms of the way he's progressed he's handled really well. The report I got (from the G League practices) is that it went very well. This has been good for him to be back there.”
There wasn’t much good for the Bulls Tuesday walking into the spirit of the 76ers.
“We talked about Chicago,” said Tyrese Maxey, who added 21 points and Harris with 20. “That was a tough one for us coming from Houston (Saturday on a back-to-back without Embiid). They beat us twice, so we wanted to make sure that we got them tonight pretty well.”
The 76ers repeatedly scored in transition, outrunning what looked like a weary Bulls bunch. The 76ers tripled the Bulls in fast break points while the Bulls showed little defensive resistance. Embiid had a lot to do with that, shooting at will over the Bulls smaller centers and even Drummond, who doesn’t play with a lot of lift. It’s also what’s missed without Vučević as Embiid basically played a zone and left Drummond alone to shoot outside. He didn’t. The Bulls hustled enough on the boards to have a rebounding lead, though that mostly was because they were retrieving so many of their own missed shots.
The 76ers were also much more assertive defensively, running the Bulls off shots and making the tough plays like Drummond being stripped of a late first quarter rebound by Jaden Springer and Danuel House Jr. then dunking over Drummond. The usually careful Bulls committed 18 turnovers. And without Vučević they were especially small once Williams left early in the game.
“I’ve said this before, I think the way we shoot the basketball cannot impact the physicality we have to play with defensively,” said Donovan. “I thought they pretty much were getting whatever they want, especially to start the game. We then picked it up, but we just couldn't shoot the ball at all. I think in the first quarter we were maybe (zero) for 10 for threes. That was probably the difference. I’m not a big flush game guy. I just think there's always something to be learned in any situation. We have to move forward from this, to the game tomorrow. But the physicality part of it…I think what happened was it got worse with our inability to make some shots. We're going to have nights like that.
“I do think that this has not been the makeup, the character of this group, in terms of the way we battle,” Donovan added. “We’ve had some bad nights. There’s certain things that we have to do to overcome their size. There’s got to be a lot more physicality. There’s got to be a lot more help. I thought we gave them open shots. When you're missing shots the defense gets magnified that much further. It’s just that you have to amp up the defense even greater because you're not making shots. Maybe generate some easy baskets, the transitions, the free throw line. One of the things that kind of kept us around was that DeMar kept getting fouled. He got to the free throw line early, but we just couldn't make enough shots. And we just couldn't overcome their shot making because I don’t think we contested it at all, really.”
The Bulls record fell to 15-20 with a heavy schedule of road games this month with nine of the next 14 on the road and a Western Conference trip late.
“Definitely don’t want to lose like that,” said DeRozan. “Give credit to them how they responded at home, especially knowing we came here and beat them and we just beat them the other day. We know we competed versus a team that's picked to come out of our conference. So for us to compete at a high level versus them, two games in a row, that's just a testament of how well we can play. It just sucks that Pat had to go down, without Cob, us being shorthanded again. We move around as much as we can understanding we’re (without) size down a man. Tonight we were just a step slow with everything.”
The sort of night that just makes you sick.
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.