The Numbers Didn’t Lie
Right now, there is a lot of speculation about who the Bulls are and who they’re going to be this season. With every game the picture should be more clear than it was before. Friday night’s loss was a big indicator of the likely direction of this team.
At the beginning of the week, Matt Moore of CBS Sports had the Bulls rocketing up his power rankings and it was hard to argue, they were 3-0 with big wins over the Pacers and Celtics, two teams that were projected to be head-and-shoulders about the Bulls this season. Two games later and the Bulls look much more mortal at 3-2.
Jonathan Tjarks of The Ringer praised the offense and defense of the Bulls in a piece published on Friday.
The Bulls haven’t been a great ball movement team this season. Their best ball movement all season came on the first possession in the fourth quarter of Friday night’s loss. It resulted in an open look from 3-point range that missed. And that is the Bulls.
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This game would have been an ugly blowout for Chicago if Wade hadn’t gone nuclear and players like Gibson hadn’t cleaned the glass early, snagging an incredible number of offensive rebounds. When the Bulls snuck into halftime with a one-point lead, it was largely because of second chance points.
When it was all over with, the Bulls lost every major statistical category except on the boards. They outrebounded the Knicks overall, but it was their 15-11 advantage on the offensive end that kept them afloat for a big chunk of the game. They were chased out of the building in the assists category. Sure, Rose had an impressive 11, but New York had 32 total. Chicago had just 15 assists on 37 made shots.
The Bulls also committed 12 turnovers to just five from the Knicks.
Overall, the Bulls played a lot of isolation basketball with poor ball movement. Despite what people may tell you, they failed to get out in transition and often failed to move the ball. Good ball movement would lead to much more than just 15 assists in a game. There was one instance in the first half when Chicago brought Mirotic and McDermott into the game to create spacing. The very first play that was run after those two players were inserted featured both players standing in the corners, beyond the 3-point line, not moving at any point during the play. Instead, Robin Lopez was stationed under the rim and Butler drove right, between Lopez and McDermott and into an area that quickly became occupied by three New York defenders. Whatever people might say, that is not ball movement, that is not pace and space.
Beyond Wade’s hot night from deep, 5-for-7, the rest of the team shot just 3-for-16. And this was the real question heading into this game. Could the Bulls sustain the random hot shooting from (insert random bench player here) while their starters rested or went through cold streaks where they just stopped running an offense and instead elected to post in ISO, settling for a bad mid-range look over a defender. Friday, Wade did what he could, but the mix-and-match approach of Hoiberg failed to produce results for the second consecutive game. This is probably more indicative of how the season will play out if Hoiberg doesn’t get his rotations solidified and stop experimenting with lineups that feature Bobby Portis, Nikola Mirotic, Dwyane Wade and Isaiah Canaan in the fourth quarter.
Chicago has their first back-to-back of the season, playing a game again on Saturday. They will be on the road to play the underwhelming Indiana Pacers, a team they beat once this season already. Stick with us here at Pippen for all your game information and analysis.