Chicago Bulls vs. Dallas Mavericks: Takeaways, Analysis, Reactions

 For the second time this season, the Chicago Bulls lost to the bottom-dwelling Dallas Mavericks. Although it wasn’t by 25 points this time, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t just as embarrassing. Let’s gulp down the shame together and go through some of the biggest takeaways from a game we’d much rather forget.

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Happy birthday Dwyane Wade! Sorry your present sucked.

The Bulls can’t seem to shake their penchant for losing to really bad teams. They lost by 25 to the Mavericks in Dallas in what most agreed was their worst loss of the season. Then, they blew a 21-point lead to the Timberwolves in what most agreed was actually their worst loss of the season. Then the home-and-home with the Bucks happened (the Bucks aren’t a really bad team, but remember how bad those games were?). Now we’ve got a new entry into the worst loss of the season sweepstakes. The Bulls should count themselves lucky that there can only be one winner.

Things started out in encouraging fashion, with Chicago running up a 7-0 lead in almost no time and leading after the first quarter. However, the Mavs answered with a 30-19 second quarter that would eventually prove insurmountable, even if the Bulls had a couple leads late. Jimmy Butler and the gang were only down by two entering the fourth quarter, and it looked as if we might be in store for yet another heroic performance from Jimmy.

But we were wrong.

We had forgotten the old saying, “If you can’t handle Fred Hoiberg at his worst, you don’t deserve Jimmy Butler at his best.”

Let’s take a look at what we can take away from this game, other than frustration and heartburn of course.