Chicago Bulls: The tank rolls on in third blowout loss of the Boylen era

The Chicago Bulls finished out their brief road trip with another forgettable blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday Night.

The Chicago Bulls’ 121-96 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder marked their 24th loss of the season and their eighth loss in the last 10 games.

Chicago’s performance was of the sort Bulls fans are familiar with this year. The Bulls played roughly one quarter of competitive basketball and promptly took a backseat to the Thunder for the rest of the game, ending the game with 23 turnovers.

Notable contributions of the night came from Lauri Markkanen, Kris Dunn and Cameron Payne. Markkanen dropped in 16 points to go along with 15 boards (seven of them offensive), two steals and two blocks. Dunn had 12 points and two assists to go along with a steal while Payne accompanied him with 11 points, six assists and two steals himself.

The Bulls hung with the Thunder for most of the first quarter primarily through their activity on defense. Chicago got into passing lanes and closed off drives, but Oklahoma City continued to hit tough shots. Paul George, in particular, kept the Bulls at bay throughout the first half, dropping 23 through two quarters.

But, as all parts of this Bulls team are destined to, things fell apart quickly.

The Thunder pulled away early in the second quarter and went into halftime with a 20-point lead. Chicago’s defense in the second half fell off a cliff and the game morphed into an impromptu dunk contest for Oklahoma City.

Things got interesting when, down 17 points late in the third quarter, both teams got into it on the court. Responding to a push by Russell Westbrook, Dunn shoved the Thunder guard. Jerami Grant took offense to the shove and quickly got in Dunn’s face. Things only escalated from there when Robin Lopez rushed into the fray.

After finally getting the teams to settle, a feat which resulted in the perfect image of Bulls coach Jim Boylen trying to separate Grant from the scrum through a choke hold, four separate technical fouls were given out to Dunn, Lopez, Grant and Westbrook.

Lopez, however, was ejected from the game shortly after, apparently for dropping the ball onto Grant.

In what can only be described as Boylenian, the head coach said that the fight, “pulled the team together a bit, which I like,” per the Chicago Tribune’s K.C. Johnson.

Moving forward

The Bulls are still trying to figure their offensive and defensive woes out, as evidenced by Monday night’s loss. The early returns suggest defense will come first.

While Chicago is still twentieth in the league in defensive rating, that number has at least improved slightly since Boylen’s promotion. Beyond the numbers, Chicago looks engaged more often on defense so far. And while Boylen’s archaic blitzing strategies aren’t doing the team any favors, any amount of effort is welcome from the Bulls this year.

Offense, however, continues to be a problem. The Bulls were 29th in the league in offensive rating at 101.0 in former head coach Fred Hoiberg’s 24 games this season. They’ve since dropped to dead last, boasting a deplorable 99.5 offensive rating, good for the 14th worst in franchise history and the worst since the 2003-2004 season.

Chicago has only broken 100 points once in its seven games under Boylen, and the offense’s plodding mechanics are reminiscent of a bygone era of basketball. It’s hard to imagine a grind-it-out Bulls offense winning many games when the defense is already so bad.

The Bulls will try to improve on both ends at home against the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday. The Nets have won five in a row and will look to bring their road record up to .500 at the United Center.