NEWSLETTER
Last night’s 103-95 loss to the Orlando Magic reminded the Bulls that a team can’t just luck its way into the playoff picture. Well, they can, but they have to be, you know, really lucky.
To the Bulls credit (or I guess Zach LaVine/Tomas Satoransky’s), the game did actually look relatively competitive throughout most of the first half, with Chicago playing like they wanted to win. However, the same problem that’s been plaguing the Bulls from the start of the season reared its ugly head: playing the full 48-minutes.
In the first half of the game, the Bulls shot 52 percent and ran into the locker room up 54-51. Then, the second half happened. The Bulls shot 31 percent from the field and dished out just six assists after recording 14 in the first half. Ultimately, this meant the team’s 20th loss of the season and yet another game where the Bulls best basketball came early.
I’ll at least mention that at least this time around the Bulls didn’t suffer a disgusting 4th quarter collapse. While they only scored 14 in the final frame, the Magic scored just six more points. At the end of the night though, the Bulls were up at half and couldn’t control finish things off, which is a familiar story.
One of the main critiques about this team early on had been its failure to carry over the ball movement and shared basketball from the first half into the second. Admittedly, the team has appeared to improve on this over the past month, but old habits are hard to get rid of, and last night that was evident.
The Bulls just tend to lack the ball movement and energy they possess at the beginning of games, and the stats back it up:
AST Ratio
PACE
TOV%
These numbers demonstrate not only a struggle to follow the very game plan that often keeps them in games early on, but also a proclivity to sloppiness as the game goes on.
Of course, as games get more intense, these things happen, but the Bulls clearly lack the requisite level of discipline to be a winning team. When teams ramp up the intensity, the Bulls can’t keep up, and it certainly doesn’t help that their defense holds opponents to the 8th-lowest field-goal percentage in the first half, but then allows the 9th-highest in the second.
Perhaps even more frustrating: We know this team has the talent to compete and stay in games, it’s just the chemistry and discipline that isn’t established. Again, we’ve seen better moments over this 6-6 December, but it doesn’t help when games have to turn into offensive possessions like this:
This isn’t a bash on LaVine – he’s proven to be the go-to guy. And, indeed, he’s just doing what he thinks he has to (perhaps he does).
The point here is that despite plenty of time left on the clock, the team gameplan is still lacking any kind of creativity or true movement. The coaching staff should be advocating for this more in the second half, instead of telling players (like LaVine) that they must take over.
If the Bulls want to realistically stay in the playoff hunt and salvage their season, these second-half woes will have to go. The schedule is about to get really difficult when the new year comes around. So maybe the Bulls resolution should be … Play more complete games!
