The Chicago Bulls lost to the Washington Wizards 101-90 on Saturday in the United Center. It’s time to check out my one like and dislike from the game.
The Chicago Bulls lost to the Washington Wizards 101-90 on Saturday in the United Center. The loss occurred on the second night of a back-to-back and the Bulls were without guards Kris Dunn (concussion) and Zach LaVine (rest).
Tank-o-meter
The Chicago Bulls’ record is 19-36 after the win. They have the eighth-worst record in the league and are 2.5 games back of the worst record in the association.
Fun Fact #1:
The Chicago Bulls made 9 3-pointers in their loss vs. the Wizards. It’s the second game in a row the Bulls didn’t make at least 10 3-pointers. The last time the Windy City franchise failed to make 10 3-pointers in back-to-back games was their Dec. 13 contest vs. the Utah Jazz and their Dec. 15 game vs. the Milwaukee Bucks.
Fun Fact #2:
The Chicago Bulls are 6-11 (35 percent) when they don’t make 9 3-pointers or less in a game. But, they’re only 13-25 (34 percent) when they make 10 or more 3-pointers.
Dislike: Turnovers
Turnovers weren’t the sole reason for this loss. The Chicago Bulls struggled to efficiently score (an effective field goal percentage of 50 percent, 35th percentile) without LaVine and Dunn.
Their offense in the half-court was embarrassing (they scored 69.6 points per 100 possessions, which is in the 2nd percentile). The Bulls couldn’t stop the Wizards’ half-court offense (117 points per 100 possessions, 96th percentile).
But, the Chicago Bulls’ turnovers prevented them from creating momentum for themselves. The Bulls ended their possessions with a turnover on 20.7 percent of their possessions (6th percentile). Not only is this a detrimental rate for a team expecting to win a basketball game, but it’s especially unacceptable when the team is struggling to create offense for itself.
The Bulls clearly miss Dunn’s playmaking, and LaVine’s to a lesser extent. The lack of dynamic players limits the productivity of their offense and allows opposing defenses to key in on certain players for extended periods of time. The sooner Dunn, LaVine, and rookie forward Lauri Markkanen can share the floor together, the better.
Like: Getting Markkanen shots
My dislike from the Bulls’ previous game against the Minnesota Timberwolves was that Markkanen didn’t receive enough scoring opportunities. He was tied for the sixth-most field goal attempts on the team and went the entire fourth quarter without a shot.
So, it was encouraging to see the Bulls make a better effort of getting him involved in the offense. He recorded team-highs of 19 field goal attempts and eight 3-point attempts. Unfortunately, he couldn’t capitalize off those opportunities, as he shot 26.3 percent from the field and 12.5 percent from beyond the arc.
“We’re running plays for him,” said Head Coach Fred Hoiberg, according to a Feb. 11 article on the Chicago Bulls website. “He’s the number one guy in the (opponent) scouting report (with Dunn and LaVine out). They’re staying close to him. Tried to get it in there a couple times to the post and we couldn’t deliver.”
Next: Player of the game against Wizards: undetermined
“We’re running plays for him throughout the game. We couldn’t knock down the shot to make them pay and come out and guard us on the switches. I liked his aggressiveness, I liked the shots that he got. We did make a much better effort of looking for him and getting him attempts and that’s important.”
Markkanen missing shots is okay. I would rather the Bulls make it an emphasis to get him involved in the offense early and often instead of what happened against the Timberwolves when it felt like he was disappearing. He’s going to be the Bulls’ second best scoring options on most nights and he needs to be prepared for the responsibility that comes with that role.