Chicago Bulls vs. Minnesota Timberwolves: 3 Takeaways

It was a heartbreaker at the United Center on Tuesday night as the Chicago Bulls fell to the Minnesota Timberwolves. This one felt a little more significant than just any old regular season matchup, so let’s break down the biggest takeaways from the game.

Welp.

On Tuesday night, the Chicago Bulls hosted the Tom Thibodeau reunion game for which we had all been patiently waiting. Finally the rafters of the United Center would echo with shouts of “ICE ICE ICE” and the cosmos would once again be in harmony. Jimmy Butler and the squad got a bit of a different game than they were expecting, however, and the Bulls lost 99-94.

After leading 38-22 at the end of the first quarter and pushing the lead to 21 midway through the second, the Bulls fell apart in arguably their worst loss of the season (Wade sat when they lost to Dallas remember). They scored the same amount of points in the first quarter as they did in the entire second half.

The Bulls essentially played two different games: the first quarter and the rest of the game. Through the first quarter, they had a 158.3 offensive rating, shot 72.7 percent from the field, and overall looked like they would bulldoze to another blowout victory like their other 38-point first quarter back on Halloween.

For the rest of the game, they shot 32.3 percent from the field (the Wolves shot 44 percent over the same span) and looked like a stagnant offense that relied entirely on hero-ball iso’s from its two alphas.

Tuesday’s game had odds-defying runs, plenty of drama, and four more missed threes from Nikola Mirotic (shooters shoot). Let’s dive into the details and discover what we can learn from the emotional loss.

The Game as a Microcosm

The Bulls have had a reputation over the last few years of beating good teams, then losing to bad teams not long after.

Against the Timberwolves, they managed to live up to that rep within a single game. The Bulls were both an offensive powerhouse and unable to stop a team with the worst record in the NBA. In Chris Herring’s story on the Bulls for FiveThirtyEight, he points out that the Bulls have nine instances in the last five seasons of beating an opponent with a .600 winning percentage or higher, then losing to a team with a .400 percentage or lower. No other team in the league has accomplished that feat more.

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It’s not easy to come up with why the Bulls have such a consistent problem with playing consistently.

Part of it certainly has to do with injuries, but injuries affect many teams in the league. The Bulls aren’t unique in that.

Part of it has to do with players’ individual consistency, and Nikola Mirotic has a strong case for most inconsistent player in the NBA over the last two years.

Part of it has to do with the Bulls’ mysterious tendency to show up a bit more for nationally televised games. They’ve won 16 straight TNT Thursday games at home if that means anything to you (it shouldn’t).

Whatever the causes, Bulls fans shouldn’t get their hopes up that this reputation will die out anytime soon, and maybe that’s not the worst thing in the world. After all, half of this problem involves watching the Bulls take down some really good teams. That has to count for something.

The Wade-Felicio Chemistry Grows

Watch this.

When the PAE crew collectively whined about Felicio’s minutes earlier this season, this is exactly why, and Dwyane Wade realizes it. Wade connected with Felicio for two lob dunks tonight, and the potential of all of Felicio’s hard rim running is starting to be realized.

If Wade can convince some more of his teammates to start looking for the lob a little more during the pick and roll, Felicio could start racking up dunks without much more effort. He already rolls hard to the rim on most of his pick-and-rolls, it’s just a matter of his teammates looking for him.

Look at this clip of Doug McDermott passing up a clear lob for a missed layup instead:

If all goes well and Felicio keeps getting consistent minutes, these opportunities will become more apparent and the Felicio lob will become a semi-regular occurrence. Maybe my wildest dreams will come true and the Wade-Felicio lob will become the new Pau-Jimmy lob. I should probably dream bigger in life.

Dougie Buckets Needs More Shots

Doug McDermott was ninth in 3-point percentage among players who took at least 100 3-pointers last season. He shot an incredible 42.5 percent from 3-point range on 3.1 attempts per game. Coming into the season, it’s safe to say that most people expected that attempt number to go up considering how 3-point challenged the rest of the roster was shaping up to be.

Next: Bulls vs. Timberwolves: Analysis after 99-94 loss to the Thibs-led Wolves

However, Doug is averaging only 2.5 attempts per game from deep so far this season. Players with a higher attempt number include Marreese Speights, Marc Gasol, and fellow-teammate-who’s-currently-shooting-28.4-percent-from-3 Nikola Mirotic (guess from just this article how this writer feels about Nikola Mirotic). Anthony Bennett is averaging only .2 attempts per game fewer than Doug.

Although it is true that Doug is still coming back from an unusually long concussion-related absence, this trend had begun before he started missing games. McDermott’s defensive woes are well-documented. He’s on the court for one reason and one reason only, but for some reason, he’s been relegated to standing in the corner far too often, only rarely getting action on backdoor cuts or his 2.5 spot ups per game.

It’s also true that Doug can help the offense without shooting a single shot. His mere reputation as a sharpshooter sucks his defender out to the corner with him, opening up driving lanes and making everything easier. This is why spacing is so prized in the NBA right now.

That being said, 3 points is still more valuable that a slightly clearer lane. If Doug is going to be on the court getting beaten on Zach LaVine drives and barely containing Ricky Rubio 1-on-1, it would be smart to take advantage of his talents on the other end.