Chicago Bulls at Indiana Pacers: Instant Analysis, Bulls Bad

The Chicago Bulls looked anything but great against the Knicks on Friday night and were looking to get back on a winning track against the Indiana Pacers on Saturday. After a huge blowout victory over the disappointing Indiana squad in their first meeting of the season, this seemed like the most likely cure for whatever hangover was plaguing the Bulls.

Next: Five Big Takeaways from Bulls vs. Knicks

However, that wasn’t the case.

Chicago came out looking flat, though their ball movement on offense was better in the first five minutes against the Pacers than it was most of the night against New York. Still, they didn’t have the results to show for it. Poor shooting and fatigue led to isolation offense that failed to produce the needed results.

Indiana got out to a 15-6 lead, despite the Bulls once again winning the rebound battle. Chicago has been one of the very best rebounding teams in the entire league so far this season and their first two scores of the night came from putback follows on missed shots. And the missed shots continued throughout much of the first half. Perhaps the starters, particularly players like Rondo and Wade, were showing the effect of time on their bodies, but the offense completely fizzled by the time they were subbed out for their first rest breaks.

Nikola Mirotic and Isaiah Canaan were the first Bulls off the bench for Fred Hoiberg. Mirotic had another solid shooting performance against the Knicks and entered the game averaging 14 points per contest. That solid work on the offensive end of the floor earned him the early entrance on Saturday night. Unfortunately, he couldn’t make much of the opportunity. Some poor defense and inability to get his offense rolling resulted in his removal from the game after just four minutes on the court.

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The Bulls continued the ugly trend of turnovers and unassisted scoring in the first half. At the end of the first quarter, Indiana had a 31-15 lead, just one point shy of the 32 New York put on Chicago the night before.

The poor shooting for Chicago continued into the second quarter, still under 30 percent for the game while Indian shot over 60 percent. The Bulls finished the first half shooting 37.8 percent on field goals and would have been even further in the hole if not for their incredible efforts to win the free throw battle.

The Pacers pushed the lead out to as much as 22 during the half, thanks in large part to their highly accurate shooting and limited turnovers. They shot 60.5 percent on field goals and were 6-for-11 from 3-point range, scoring a whopping 62 first-half points.

The one highlight for the Bulls was the improved play of Doug McDermott, who appeared to have the rust shaken off after going through concussion protocol. He put up 12 first-half points, the most of any Bull. Paul George put up 13 points with five rebounds. It was 62-43 at the half, Pacers way out in front.

This play to end the first half perfectly summed up the Chicago performance:

After a sloppy first half, double-digit turnovers and shooting under 40 percent, the Bulls got right back to attacking the rim in the third quarter. The first three minutes of the second half was particularly ugly, with the Pacers scoring no points and both teams committing turnovers.

After a timeout around the 8:30 mark, the Bulls offense completely devolved. The rest the quarter, and game, was a disaster for Chicago. This is the kind of night that most of us blogger-writer types feared the Bulls would produce on a regular basis this season and for the second night in a row, it manifested in the ugliest way.

In a truly bizarre moment, George experienced frustration despite the huge lead and kicked the basketball directly into the face of a fan and was ejected:

There was absolutely zero fight back from the Bulls who continued to miss a lot of shots, play terrible offense and defense, before finally waiving the white flag and pulling their starters in the fourth quarter. It was already 91-69 before that happened.

A silver lining for Chicago was getting some serious run for the young Bulls. Denzel Valentine, Paul Zipser, Jerian Grant, Bobby Portis and Cristiano Felicio played together for much of the fourth quarter and despite Pacers coach Nate McMillan briefly bringing back Jeff Teague and Myles Turner, the bench Bulls managed to cut the lead by a few points from the 27-point deficit they had to a final score of 111-94.

Bobby Portis and Jimmy Butler each scored 16 points to lead the Bulls, Jeff Teague led all scorers with 21 points and added six assists.

You win some, you lose some and sometimes you get run out of the building.

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