Chicago Bulls at Dallas Mavericks Instant Analysis

The Chicago Bulls rolled into to Dallas with intentions to put away the team with the league’s worst record. Things didn’t go according to plan, but let’s take a look at all the significant action from a rough loss on the road.

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This was the second game of a back-to-back and the Bulls had to travel from Chicago to Dallas for the game so Dwyane Wade was held out. The Bulls opted for Nikola Mirotic in his place.

Dallas and Chicago settled for a lot of long twos early in the game. Neither team looked ready to go early. It took more than two minutes before either team made a shot. Harrison Barnes broke the ice with an and-one. Bulls started 0-for-6, getting their first make at 8:26 of the first quarter.

Rajon Rondo, known for his lack of interest on the defensive end of the floor gave up an incredibly easy basket to Deron Williams.

Then he dribbled the ball off his own foot for a turnover on the offensive end of the floor a short time later.

Things continued to not look good for Chicago, Jimmy Butler had to be pulled with his second foul less than six minutes into the game and the Bulls trailing 11-2. Rondo somehow managed to dribble the ball off his leg again.

With Butler out, Isaiah Canaan was the first change off the bench. Shortly after that, Denzel Valentine and Jerian Grant made their way into the game for Rondo and Robin Lopez. Bulls were running a lineup of Mirotic, Canaan, Gibson, Valentine and Grant.

Dallas got out to a 19-6 lead with 3:53 left in the first when Fred Hoiberg pulled Mirotic, who shot 0-for-3 in the first, in favor of Bobby Portis. Portis was a DNP-CD last night against the Cavaliers. Portis had a rough start, picking up a foul and being a victim of some Devin Harris-Andrew Bogut offense. Mavs pushed their lead to 23-8 before Butler, subbed back into the game, made his first trip to the free throw line.

Things were dire for the Bulls, so Hoiberg did a good thing and brought Butler back into the game. Butler immediately found his way to the free throw line. That stopped some of the problems for Chicago, but Dallas finished the first quarter leading 29-18. The 29 points was the biggest first quarter of the season for the Mavericks and at one point they led by as much as 17 points.

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The Bulls struggled to make up ground, but they didn’t lose any more ground during the late first quarter and into the second quarter. Canaan was a good contributor off the bench, scoring seven points with one assist in 10 minutes of play early in the game.

The Bulls also got some great offensive effort from Lopez. You can see why a healthy and active Wade paired with Lopez and Butler can be a great lineup. Lopez was the first Chicago player to 10 points on the night, doing it on 5-for-7 shooting. Butler led the Bulls in all other major categories.

Mirotic continued to struggle when he returned to the game, missing another shot, which pushed him to 0-for-4 on the night and an astounding -18 in 10 minutes of play. It might be an outlier, but the entire first half featured bad defense from Chicago. And if you thought that maybe Portis was the answer for Mirotic, he wasn’t. Portis played some very bad defense when he was supposed to be guarding Barnes, who finished the first half with 17 points. He also managed to fall victim to a rather unlucky offensive foul when he steamrolled Wesley Matthews who positioned himself while Portis wasn’t even looking.

The first half finished in uninspiring fashion as the Bulls, who had closed within six points during the second quarter, trailed 57-45 at halftime, a greater deficit than at the end of the first quarter by a point.

The first half situation might have been much worse if not for the effort from Butler in the second quarter. He made a point to get to the free throw line frequently and took advantage of mismatches like this one against Williams:

Butler finished the first half 6-for-7 from the line. The attempts equal his 2014-15 and 2015-16 averages and the makes were greater than his career average at any point prior to this season.

As a team, they looked bad. Committing nine first-half turnovers and converting just one 3-pointer. They also lost the offensive rebound battle 9-3. These are all areas where the Bulls have needed to beat their opponents in games they want to win.

The third quarter was a disaster for Chicago. Instead of getting back into the game, they dropped even further behind. In a strange, almost-give-up move, Hoiberg put Grant, Portis, Canaan and the exiled Cristiano Felicio in the game during the third quarter when trailing by about 20 points. The strange part was that a 79-58 deficit with that lineup on the court included Butler, who had no business being in that game at that point.

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The sad truth for Chicago in the third quarter is that they didn’t have an answer for Dallas and their big scorer. And it wasn’t Barnes. No, it was Matthews, who put up a huge 13 points early in the third quarter to increase the Bulls deficit. Having Butler on the floor produced a few results – he continued his 20-point game streak and received a technical foul for expressing frustration at a non-call on Matthews during a Butler drive to the rim. Butler needed to get blood cleaned up at the next stoppage of play, presumably from the contact on his drive to the rim that produced his technical foul.

It was a loss across the board for Chicago during this game. They didn’t just get run in the first quarter and edged in the second quarter, they were also shelled in the third quarter. They were unable to close the gap all night after a short surge early in the second quarter.

The bench performed admirably during the fourth quarter. It was good to see players like Felicio and Valentine getting extended run. Even a bad Portis getting some floor time that essentially had no impact on the outcome of the game is a good thing. They need to get a lot better.

Some good things came from it. There was this Valentine splash:

And there was this bulldozing basket from Felicio:

It was a bad game, but at least we got some Felicio. Hey, Fred Zoidberg – #FreeFelicio.

The starters came back for a final run at the Mavs and it didn’t make a bit of difference. Eventually, with about four minutes left, it was all Bulls bench. Even Paul Zipser snuck in for about three or four minutes of action.

Chicago has a day off tomorrow, but then it’s right back into the fray for a back-to-back. This game was a disaster against a weak Dallas squad. Hopefully, it’s an outlier and not a sign of things to come. Final score – Dallas a lot, Chicago not even close.

One other note, R.J. Hunter got in the game for the final 90 or so seconds. I didn’t even know that Hunter was with the team. So, surprise for me.