Bulls’ Billy Donovan Leans on Familiar Excuse for Team’s Losing Streak

Andy Lyons/Getty Images Billy Donovan

The Chicago Bulls are in the midst of a season-worst five-game losing streak and the team is now just 1-5 since the All-Star break. The Bulls’ struggles have come at a bad time with just 17 games remaining in the regular season.

The Bulls are now in fourth place in the Eastern Conference and are just a half-game in front of the Boston Celtics and just a game and a half in front of the Cleveland Cavaliers. The 121-106 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday night gave them the season sweep over the Bulls and to make matters superstar Joel Embiid is now 11-0 in his career against Chicago.

Bulls Struggles

Unfortunately for the Bulls, their struggles since the All-Star break can be attributed to a few things. For one their defense hasn’t been good, over the last six games the team has allowed 117.5 points per game.

Some of that can be attributed to the Bulls’ injuries as they are missing three of their best defensive players in Patrick Williams, Lonzo Ball, and Alex Caruso. The other issue on defense though is the Bulls’ lack of size on the interior. During this five-game losing streak opposing bigs have averaged 23.2 points and 13.8 rebounds per game.

Another issue for the Bulls is that DeMar DeRozan has come back down to earth since the All-Star break. During this current skid, he’s averaging 24.6 points per game, while shooting just 39.3% from the field. DeRozan has looked tired over the last five games, which is understandable given how much he’s carried this season, but it’s a bad sign for the Bulls.

After the loss to the Sixers on Monday night, head coach Billy Donovan discussed the team’s struggles with elite teams, saying that injuries are largely to blame.

“All year I’ve totally believed that in the locker room there’s enough to go out be competitive and win, I really believe that,” said Donovan, “but we’ve had 16 games the entire year with Lonzo, Alex, Patrick, Vuc, Demar, and I think Zach. Sixteen games out of 60-some games and our guys are fighting their battling, we can be better right? I said to you guys, I don’t know what we’ve got whole, right?

“This group right now not whole, I agree with you we have not performed really well against these teams and our margin for error against these teams is very very small and there’s a lot of things we’ve got to do much better. I think if we do get totally whole we’re not going to be able to overcome silly fouls, not blocking out, game plan discipline it doesn’t really make a difference who’s out there.

“Certainly Alex, I think Patrick and Lonzo they make us better defensively, they just do. That’s not to say that there the cure for all of this and I’m not making excuses for them because we have to be better, cause we don’t know if we’ll get whole … everybody including myself is hoping. Hoping, but the reality is we’re not.”

Hoping To Get Healthy

Donovan has said the same thing for much of the season about wanting to see this Bulls team fully healthy. Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso, and Patrick Williams have all been doing individual non-contact work at practice.

The latest on Caruso is that he’ll need to be cleared by a doctor before he returns to contact, however that date has not been set. No further information has been provided on Ball or Williams at this time on when they can return to contact.

With just 17 games left in the regular season, the Bulls are running out of time to get everyone back and get them on the same page before the playoffs. One good bit of news for the team is that the schedule lightens up over the next week with the next three games against the Detroit Pistons, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Sacramento Kings.