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Thursday night’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers presented a must-win matchup for the Chicago Bulls. But they failed to capitalize, giving up 127 points and committing 19 turnovers to a team without its two best players.
Zach LaVine scored an inefficient 19 points and dished seven assists, but it was Lauri Markkanen who led the Bulls in scoring. In his first night on the floor since February 5th, he scored 23 points on seven made three-pointers.
Otto Porter Jr. also made his return to the floor on Thursday night but didn’t see the same success as Markkanen. The 27-year old forward finished with just three points and three rebounds on one-of-six shooting from the field. He’d previously been sidelined since February 3rd with what he described as lower back pain.
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Bulls Efforts Earn a Resounding Disapproval
Head coach Billy Donovan was very vocal with reporters (via NBC Sports) after the loss. He went as far as to call the loss to Philadelphia a regression of their progress made prior to the All-Star break:
We took, I think, some major steps backward. I didn’t think we did anything very well.
Chicago’s already poor paint defense gave up a season-high 78 points to the 76ers, who were without Joel Embiid. Tony Bradley and Dwight Howard combined for 32 points and 17 rebounds on the night. But Donovan wouldn’t point a finger to any player specifically for the Bulls’ poor rim protection:
I didn’t think our guards did a very good job of getting into the ball and I didn’t think our bigs protected the I’m very well. And there was plenty of opportunities that we could have broken off the coverage and had our bigs meet their guards at the basket, and we just didn’t do it at all.
It wasn’t just the defensive end where Chicago saw lapses in effort. No, their offense was largely incohesive for a majority of the evening, aside from the second quarter, where they shot eight-of-15 from the three-point line:
We were all out of sorts on both ends of the floor but particularly defensively. I just didn’t think that we had any level of physicality.
The Bulls had problems taking the ball away from the 76ers and protecting it under their own rim. Philadelphia forward Mattise Thybulle recorded five steals himself, and the Howard/Bradley combo accounted for five blocks.
A Chance at Redemption
Both the coaching staff and front office will learn a lot about this team on Friday night with the Bulls hosting a red-hot Miami Heat team in the second night of a back-to-back.
Especially given the reports that they’ll be arriving at United Center without Bam Adebayo, who’s out with a knee injury:
Adebayo’s averaging 19.2 points, 9.5 rebounds, 5.4 assists, and a block per game this year. Miami’s going to miss his presence down low, but trust that head coach Erik Spoelstra will make the proper adjustments in scheming for Chicago.
The last time these two teams met (December of 2019) Adebayo had 21 points, 13 rebounds, six assists, three steals, and a block in a Heat win. If the Chicago Bulls can take advantage and pull out a win on Friday, it’ll be a good start towards erasing the damage from Thursday night’s loss.
Miami is 19-18, and the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference.
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