It was the 70th game of the season and the 19th different starting lineup for the Chicago Bulls. In one of the most discouraging and unpredictable Bulls seasons to ever exist, the matchup with Utah was just another piece to an undefined puzzle in a season of no answers.
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Welcome to the starting lineup, Nikola Mirotic. The erratic power forward has gone from completely out of the rotation back into the rotation and now he’s back into the starting lineup. It was his third start of the season, a year in which the restricted free agent currently has more DNP-CDs.
Joining Mirotic in the starting lineup for Chicago was Paul Zipser, Rajon Rondo, Jimmy Butler and Robin Lopez. With no Dwyane Wade, maybe Zipser will get some excellent run, but it didn’t look good early. Where do we start?
Rudy Gobert needed less than a minute to get his first block of the game. Gordon Hayward needed less than a minute (or thereabouts) to knock down his first wide open 3-pointer. It was really shaky for the Bulls. They played terrible, terrible offense. The motion from the game against Charlotte was gone, replaced by the stand around offense that produced nothing. They played terrible defense, allowing Joe Ingles to half-speed drive to the rim for a layup. And in the most confusing occurrence of the entire season, Chicago has no idea how to throw a pass into the post. They tried to run it out of a two-man game in the corner, as they have over and over all season with the same result – turnover. It’s bad, it’s dumb, they keep trying to run it.
There were a lot of Bulls turnovers and it was amusing that a majority of their successful offense early was running through Lopez going right over Gobert. That was also due to a sputtering start to the game for the Chicago offense.
The first quarter substitution crew was Rondo, Zipser and Mirotic out for Bobby Portis, Michael Carter-Williams and Denzel Valentine.
The Bulls had an up and down first quarter, but managed to keep things close when the Jazz bench players trickled into play. It was 23-16, Utah up after first quarter.
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Chicago ran an odd lineup in the second quarter: MCW, Zipser, Valentine, Cristiano Felicio, and Porits. Strangely, it got a bunch of stops and led to multiple Portis makes. The Bulls continued to keep the game close as the Jazz played some awful basketball for the first half of the second quarter. It was shortly after that when Hayward and Joe Ingles knocked down 3-pointers to help keep the Utah lead intact. Chicago started 0-for-6 from 3-point range, then Bobby knocked one down and so did Rondo. Rondo, to that point, was shooting 11-for-21 from 3-point range since being inactive on March 6, a span of seven games. Portis finished the first half shooting a perfect 6-for-6. Good luck to Fred Hoiberg, trying to figure out that rotation is going to be the death of him. Utah held on to a slim lead at halftime, 44-40.
The Bulls started out the second half on the right foot while the woes of the Utah continued in the second half. Chicago started out on an 11-4 run, taking control of the game as the turnovers and poor passes started flying in both directions. The Bulls held on to their hot start and got their first lead of the game. The Jazz had been shooting poorly for most of the game and it finally caught up with them. And then just when it seemed like the Bulls might be improbably pulling away, Gobert blocked Lopez and had a put-back slam on the other end, helping Utah get their lead back. It was back and forth the rest of the third, lots of ugly basketball being played. Utah led 64-61 after the third, a Denzel 3 rattling in and out at the buzzer that could’ve tied it.
Bobby Portis continued his night of great offense into the fourth quarter and then Denzel hit a 3-pointer that stayed down this time, drawing the Bulls to within one point with just over eight minutes to play. Chicago continued their hot streak on a 10-2 run that put them up four points with less than seven minutes to play. Valentine and Portis were doing all the offensive things for the Bulls throughout the night.
A note for the game, Joffrey Lauvergne was getting fourth quarter minutes over Mirotic.
Chicago followed up a terrible start from 3-point line by shooting particularly well to help take the lead into the final minutes. Everything started to go right for the Bulls down the stretch, as everything seemed to stay bad for Utah. From about the 8:00 mark to the 1:15 mark in the fourth, Chicago went on a 23-10 run. A Butler chasedown strip of Gordon Hayward turned what might have been a four-point game into a series of Bulls free throws and a Gobert foul out. It was an improbable win, but they did everything right down the stretch and took advantage of one of the most lackluster Jazz performances in recent memory.