A two-game winning streak was snapped for the Chicago Bulls on the night of Jan. 1, bringing about more question marks for the rebuild.
Mixed results have come the way of first-year head coach Billy Donovan and the Chicago Bulls in the last few games. The Bulls started out the 2020-21 regular season slate with three straight losses prior to turning it around with two straight wins on the road on Dec. 29 and 31. But it all went bad for Donovan and the Bulls again on the night of Jan.1.
The turn of the calendar year to 2021 was not too kind to the Bulls in their first game of the new year. On the night of Jan. 1, the Bulls fell short on the road to the reigning back-to-back MVP and superstar forward Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks. The second divisional game of the regular season so far definitely did not go the Bulls way, as they lost by the convincing final score of 126-96.
There is now just one game where the Bulls let up less than 124 points, out of the six they’ve played in so far. That one game saw the Bulls beat the Washington Wizards by the final score of 115-107, back on the road on Dec. 29.
Moreover, the Bulls do need to get much better, especially on the defensive end of the floor moving forward. The Bulls rank 26th in the NBA in defensive rating (114.2) and 28th in the league in points allowed per game (123.5).
Next up for the Bulls is a home meeting at the United Center with superstar point guard Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks on the night of Jan. 3. That will be the first opponent out of the Western Conference that the Bulls have faced this season.
But the Bulls still have a lot of work to do after the first six games of this season. Here’s a look at the three Bulls players off to the worst start this campaign through six games.