The Chicago Bulls have officially started the season 0-3 after the crushing loss to the Dallas Mavericks. After three solid quarters, what happened?
The Chicago Bulls have had a tough start to the 2018-19 NBA season. It was clear that without star sophomore Lauri Markkanen, the Bulls were going to struggle, but did anyone think they’d struggle this much?
After getting blown out in the season opener to Philly and losing a nailbiter to the Pistons, the Bulls were looking to come out of Dallas with their first win of the 2018-19 season.
Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
After an extremely solid three quarters, the Bulls fell apart on both offense and defense when it got to winning time.
The Bulls shot the ball extremely well throughout the game, converting on 51.3 percent of their field goal attempts and 56.5 percent of their 3-point attempts. Normally, those numbers should result in a win. Unfortunately for the Bulls, ball security took a backseat against the Mavericks as they turned it over an awful 19 times, resulting in a loss.
Anytime you turn the ball over 19 times against Luka Doncic, Dennis Smith Jr. and a quality Dallas Mavericks team, you aren’t going to be in a position to win.
Not only did the Bulls turn the ball over and play poor defense, but their offense got stagnant in the fourth quarter. There were way too many one-on-one plays that resulted in bad shot selection. When you have as many young, athletic and skilled players as the Bulls do, you need to be working the ball around, moving off the ball and finding ways to get good shots. Taking a pull-up 25-footer is a good example of what not to do.
Final score: Bulls 109, Mavs 115
As far as individual performances go, some players had really good nights and some had nights to forget.
Zach LaVine continued his scorching hot season with a 34 point performance on an extremely efficient 11-for-15 shooting from the field. Not bad, Zach.
Jabari Parker had his best game as a Bull as he scored 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the field.
Kris Dunn made his season debut tonight after missing the previous two games to be with his family after the birth of his baby boy. It’s safe to say Dunn looked a little rusty. He scored 9 points on a rough 4-for-13 shooting from the field to go along with 7 assists and 4 rebounds. He also fouled out in the fourth quarter and had 4 turnovers.
The Bulls will look to get their first win of the season on October 24 when they take on the Hornets in Chicago.