A wretched loss to the New York Knicks on the road on Feb. 29 gave the Chicago Bulls their 40th of the regular season so far.
At this point of the regular season, the best move for the Chicago Bulls will be to go into full tank mode.
It has to be given how poor they’ve played since the All-Star Break.
The Bulls have only won one game in their six opportunities since NBA All-Star Weekend was hosted at the United Center in Chicago two weeks ago. After their most recent embarrassing loss at the hands of the New York Knicks, the Bulls hold a record of 20-40. The first 60 games of the 2019-20 regular season under head coach Jim Boylen did not go as planned for this Bulls team.
Losing to the Knicks by the final score of 125-115 at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 29 might not be the worst loss since the All-Star Break let out either. The Bulls managed to fall short at the hands of the Charlotte Hornets at home at the United Center on Feb. 20 by a double-digit margin. That was the Bulls first game out of the All-Star Break.
Moreover, the Bulls weren’t able to beat the slipping Phoenix Suns in the back-end of back-to-back games on Feb. 22. The Suns beat the Bulls by an eight-point margin, despite rookie point guard Coby White posting his second straight 33-point game. If White’s 33-points couldn’t get the Bulls past a team as bad as the Suns, all hope looked to be lost.
But like they usually do, the Bulls managed to make matters worse when it looked as if they had already hit rock bottom. In a game that mattered more for gaining confidence than actually making a playoff push in the East, the Bulls took on the Knicks on Saturday evening hoping to not build yet another losing streak.
The Bulls played from behind pretty much all game long against the Knicks. That’s hard to do given how bad the Knicks are this season. The Knicks still have yet to reach the 20-win mark, even after beating the Bulls this evening.
White continued his hot scoring stretch against the Knicks. He didn’t finish with more than 30 points for the fourth consecutive game. But he did shoot 7-of-17 from the field and 4-of-8 from beyond the arc for 22 points. White also added two rebounds, three assists, and two steals to that mark. He had just on turnover on the day.
The other hot scorer for the Bulls in this game was shooting guard Zach LaVine. He finished up with a team-high 26 points on 10-of-25 shooting from the field and 4-of-8 from three-point range. LaVine also added a whopping seven assists, three rebounds, and one steal.
Center Wendell Carter Jr. did return to the starting five in this game, which was good news on a day where it was hard to find some. Although, Carter Jr. only shot 1-of-5 from the field, good for six points.
The managed to allow four different Knicks big men/forwards to have at least 17 points each. Those four Knicks players included R.J. Barrett, Julius Randle, Taj Gibson, and Mitchell Robinson.
The Knicks also way outrebounded the Bulls in this game. They had 17 more rebounds than the Bulls. And although the Bulls did have just eight turnovers on the day, they couldn’t take advantage of the extra possessions from the Knicks 16.
The battle on the glass was the telling story of this game. The Knicks had just way too many offensive boards, and the Bulls couldn’t stop them from getting to the free-throw line. There were 10 more free-throw attempts for the Knicks than the Bulls here.
Since the Bulls are now more than seven games behind the Orlando Magic in the playoff race for the final spot in the East, that thought is well behind us. We’re back at the point where the Bulls might as well just start tanking and re-configuring the roster for the upcoming offseason, just like last season.
Next up for the Bulls will be a battle with the Dallas Mavericks and the star duo of guard Luka Doncic and forward Kristaps Porzingis. The Bulls will get the talented and deep Mavericks on March 2. Hopefully the dumpster fire that is this Bulls team in the latter stages of the third year of the rebuild will show some signs of life heading into the 2020 offseason.