Chicago Bulls at Orlando Magic: Game analysis of a close loss

The Chicago Bulls took on the Orlando Magic looking to avenge their tough loss to the Detroit Pistons on Monday night. Unfortunately for the Bulls, the offense collapsed in the fourth quarter, and Chicago dropped their third straight game.

Dwyane Wade missed his second straight game with a thigh injury, and the Chicago Bulls really missed his production in crunch time on Wednesday.

Chicago, despite a strong performance from their bench led by Joffrey Lauvergne (yep, you heard that right), ended up choking in the final two minutes to lose their third straight game.

That’s not the only bad news for the Bulls: they have a very tough stretch of games this upcoming week, including the Houston Rockets, Boston Celtics, and Washington Wizards. Wins will be very tough to come by.

Here’s your quarter-by-quarter analysis of Wednesday’s loss against the Magic.

First Quarter

The first quarter was a slow one, with not too much excitement from either side. For Orlando, however, there were a few early lowlights, thanks to a botched Aaron Gordon alley-oop and a 10-foot airball by Bismack Biyombo.

After eight minutes of play, the Bulls were shooting a solid 46 percent compared to just 34 percent from the Magic, yet Chicago found itself down three points.

Thankfully, the end of the quarter was positive for the Bulls: following two straight field goals from Joffrey Lauvergne (including his first 3-point field goal in a Bulls uniform) and a pair of free-throws from Jimmy Butler, the Bulls were up by three.

Bulls led after one, 22-19

Second Quarter

Hate Rajon Rondo all you want, but sometimes, he is truly fun to watch.

Chicago came out with a faster tempo to start the second half, and Rondo was running the show for the Bulls bench. He had three big plays for Chicago in just the first couple of minutes: he drilled a corner 3 and then threw up two lobs to Cristiano Felicio.

Lauvergne was also doing a fantastic job off the bench, making his presence felt just about everywhere. He was snatching rebounds, throwing some beautiful passes, and hitting his shots. Surprisingly, he also was very vocal while on the court, yelling for people to cut and move around.

The ball movement continued once the starters returned towards the end of the half, and after a Butler 3-pointer at the buzzer, the Bulls led by 10 at the half.

The big story from the half was the very strong bench effort; Chicago’s bench outscored Orlando’s bench 25-7.

Bulls led it at the break, 53-43

Third Quarter

Surprisingly, the Bulls actually came out with energy to start the second half.

Although the defense wasn’t exceptional, Chicago was simply picking the Magic apart on offense. Again and again, the ball kept swinging until an open man was found, and everyone hit their wide open shots.

The Magic weren’t about to give up, though. After a timeout halfway through the quarter, Orlando came out with an extremely aggressive defensive intensity, which halted the Bulls production.

Elfrid Payton had himself quite a game too, and with 2:49 left in the third, the young guard was flirting with a triple-double (18 points, 13 assists, and 8 rebounds) through three quarters that he eventually got.

The quarter ended with the momentum back on Orlando’s side. The Bulls 10-point lead at the half dwindled down to zero. The score was deadlocked following three quarters of play.

Bulls and Magic were tied at 77

Fourth Quarter

The fourth quarter started off with lots of shots and lots of bricks.

For both teams, it seemed the first four minutes consisted of a “pass and jack up a contested shot” play style. Denzel Valentine missed two tough shots for Chicago and C.J. Watson and D.J. Augustin also took unnecessary pull-up transition 3-pointers for Orlando.

Eventually, the Magic started to pull away. A 9-0 run halfway through the fourth put them up 88-81, courtesy of Chicago turnovers (now 10 in the half).

The Bulls managed to come back, and the game was close at 93-91 with two minutes left in the game. However, despite having Lauvergne and Lopez in the front court, the Bulls gave up FOUR consecutive offensive rebounds until Orlando finally got an uncontested layup.

Next: Chicago Bulls grades: Feb. 26-March 5

That terrible possession spelled doom for the Bulls, who couldn’t convert on the other end.

Bulls lose, 98-91