It wasn’t a very good Friday for the Bulls in Brooklyn in a 125-108 loss, but the Bulls do have a reverent opportunity Sunday to rekindle their beliefs for the postseason.
“Got a tough game coming up (against West leading Minnesota),” noticed DeMar DeRozan, who led the Bulls again, this time with 31 points and a dozen in the fourth quarter. “We always respond the right way. Go from there. After that we’ve got a team (Atlanta Monday) where we are neck and neck right now. So every single game’s got to feel like (a play-in game). We’re getting down to the point where it's going to be one and done. We gotta treat these games like that. We can't just expect to get to a play-in game and say, 'Let's respond like we've been doing versus good teams all year.’ We gotta make sure we're trending in the right direction and not let games like this slip away.
“This game is over and done with," DeRozan said. "Use the frustration for any type of motivation to understand one, not to drop (to 10th in the East to open the play-in on the road), and two to get back to just playing basketball the way we know how to play basketball, competing at both ends."
The Bulls, however, mostly did do that as they pretty much always do.
But when the math goes against them, as it did again in a big way Friday, it’s a difficult comeback.
That’s because the Bulls just can’t counter a big three-point shooting game, and the Nets for the second time this season against the Bulls in their three-game sweep made an astounding 25 threes Friday. Brooklyn was 25-of-44 on threes, almost 60% as the Bulls continue to have difficultly both making threes and stopping them. Which is a problem.
The Bulls were close enough after three quarters, in score if not to their defensive assignments, trailing Brooklyn 86-85.
But with the Bulls committed to their principles of first protecting the paint, they just aren’t the most athletic team to break out to also run shooters off their spots religiously. Not that it might have mattered much this game the way the Nets were shooting. Dennis Schröder and Mikal Bridges both were 7-of-11 on threes, and like the eponymous convenience stores pretty much open all night.
The Bulls in total were 9-of-30 on threes while the Nets made nine threes in both the third and fourth quarters. And then in the fourth as great as DeRozan has been, it’s trouble exchanging his twos for their threes.
The Bulls still were within three points at 100-97 with seven minutes left in the game when Schröder and Bridges combined for three more threes in the next two minutes and the Bulls suddenly were trailing by double digits, and only within eight points for a few seconds the rest of the way.
“In that second half, they shot an incredible percentage,” acknowledged Bulls coach Billy Donovan, the likely-missing-the-play-in Nets went 18-of-24. “Some (were) highly contested difficult shots, but in the third quarter they started to make a few and found their rhythm. Certainly we could not trap everybody in the game. We were really aggressive closing and guarding the ball in the first half, and then in the third we let it get away. I thought we competed and contested hard, but it didn’t make a difference.
“This (three-point deficit) goes back to when Lonzo (Ball) and Alex (Caruso) went out (two and a half years ago). Our defense was top 10,” Donovan reminded. “Those guys were elite at taking care of the ball at the point of screens and it enabled Vooch (Nikola Vučević) to be back and protect the rim. With Lonzo being out and AC having injuries, our defense just completely plummeted. Last offseason, we had to really look at the threes. But if you look at the best defensive teams like Miami, OKC, they all give up a lot of threes. Not all threes are created equally. The problem for us is the paint protection because that’s where there’s more problems. At the rim, it’s fouls, it’s corner threes. Those shots are probably the most valuable shots. For us defensively, it’s always been to guard the paint first. You’re not going to take the threes away unless you want to give them a layup. We’ve always been about protecting the paint first and try to play defense with five. We can’t have Vooch back there in a drop; it’s too tough. Andre (Drummond) gives us some flexibility in terms of his athleticism at the point of screen and shot blocking, but we tried to protect those guys. It’s not just our bigs but everybody working together.”
But when the other guys are making those shots, well it’s the old chorus of the beloved Brooklyn Dodgers, wait ’til next year.
“We can't have none of that," DeRozan said. “We’re down to eight games. Exhaustion isn’t an excuse. With that, we're going to have to continue to fight for our lives. That's even going to be even more exhausting. So we gotta dig deep and show how bad we want it.”
The Bulls still believe there is a path with the play-in and at least a first round playoff series. But these kinds of games as the Bulls dropped to 35-39 suggest if not some sort of massive personnel reshuffle, at least a move toward countering and matching the way the game has evolved with the shooting and the athletic size.
The Nets aren’t a big team, and they are on the verge of elimination. So they’ve been working in some off their two-way players. Though Cam Thomas, Schröder and Bridges all scored at least 25 points. But the Nets with their hustle also got a dozen offensive rebounds for a 19-14 edge in second-chance points and that ridiculous advantage of 48 more points from threes. Interim coach Kevin Ollie, a former Bull — and pretty much every other team — does have them more active defensively.
The Bulls shot a credible 51% overall, but just nine of 30 on threes. And you just can’t continue to compete regularly in the NBA anymore that way. Of course, missing top shooters Zach LaVine and Patrick Williams out for the season injured is a major issue as much as some deny that.
Coby White is slumping, shooting 35% overall and 10-of-34 on threes since his return five games ago from his hip injury. But he’s also been extended to the most playing time and responsibility of his career. Caruso in establishing standards in steals and blocks also is doing so in winces.
He added a bunch more Friday going down twice, once on the bad left ankle and another time smacked in the face and bleeding from his mouth.
Caruso, of course, returned both times after leaving the game immediately after each incident. No way they even get to an eight-count on him.
Caruso had six points and Ayo Dosunmu has cooled some from three, 33% the last four games. Vučević added 13 points and 10 rebounds. But Brooklyn hustled their way to match the Bulls on the boards with Nic Clayton grabbing 13. And with the steady Schröder and Bridges, the Nets had just seven turnovers. Or the Bulls not quite having the legs to pressure like they have. Top Nets defender Bridges had four steals; the Bulls had three as a team.
“We had good looks; just didn’t shoot the ball particularly well,” said Donovan. “Our team has been up and down as it relates to that. When Vooch and Coby and Demar, in particular, are shooting the ball well, that certainly helps. But they need other guys to step up. Ayo’s had some big nights, but we really need everybody offensively not to say huge games, but consistent games. I wish we could control the ball going into the basket – it’s the one thing you can’t control – but I do like the shots we’re getting and how they’re trying to play and take care of the basketball. But we do have some droughts where we’re just not scoring enough. The only thing you can control is the shots we are getting.”
The Bulls mostly had enough control for a lot of this game after a sluggish start, trailing 24-12 about nine minutes into the game with the Nets attempting 13 threes in the quarter. So the Bulls should have figured what was coming.
The Bulls got comfortably within 27-21 at the end of the first quarter. And then came the high octane guys with Javonte Green and Dalen Terry. With an 18-5 run, the Bulls got ahead 44-37 with about seven minutes left in the first half and closed leading 52-47. That group kept the Nets 1-of-7 on threes in the quarter. But it’s mostly a slow-footed starting unit with Vučević and DeRozan, and Caruso running around to help madly can lose his man at times.
So the Nets got the threes going again to tie the game at 61 four minutes into the second half, and then the Bulls were out of position too often. Still, the Nets did only lead by one point entering the fourth quarter. Like Donovan said, it’s not like the Bulls didn’t compete and defend.
Early in Donovan’s tenure, the Bulls tended to play a so called drop defense with their centers. But teams were exploiting that off the pick-and-roll with easy midrange scores. Donovan has insisted that never was the philosophy, and the centers now come up to meet the screen more often. It’s, as Donovan explained, a compensation for losing Ball who was so adept at the getting around a screen that the center didn’t have to help. But Vučević and Drummond don’t get back quickly, which does leave the Bulls open for the lobs and dunks. More so it seems in trying to help and protect the basket according to the prevailing scheme, it leaves the Bulls guards and wings a long run to the corners and above the arc to defend threes.
So the Nets had an abundant harvest.
“They were hitting tough shots," observed DeRozan. "Gotta give them credit. They caught a rhythm. It's hard to guard any team that catches a rhythm and has no conscience just coming down pulling (up). There were a lot of shots they came down in transition and were shooting. It seemed like we couldn't get anything going offensively. We kept fighting and fighting, but they kept hitting shot after shot.”
The Bulls still do have a shot. Though they also need to make a few more.
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