In the loss to the vastly-improved Phoenix Suns and the star backcourt duo of veteran point guard Chris Paul and volume scoring shooting guard Devin Booker on March 31, first-year head coach Billy Donovan saw his team struggle amid a few key injuries. The Chicago Bulls did hang tough on the road with the Suns on the final day of the month of March, but they still wound up losing their fifth game in a row.
With the likes of star shooting guard Zach LaVine, veteran shooting guard Garrett Temple, and second-year point guard Coby White, all absent against the Suns on March 31, the Bulls had trouble keeping pace with Booker. On this night, Booker registered a season-high 45 points, along with four rebounds, four assists, one steal, one block, and five turnovers.
And Booker shot an incredibly efficient 17-of-24 from the field, 2-of-5 from beyond the arc, and 9-of-10 from the free-throw line. The Bulls really couldn’t do anything to stop Booker and the Suns from scoring more than 120 points in this loss, which came to Chicago by the final score of 121-116.
The Bulls getting off to a slow start in the first half, and not having the presence of solid scoring guards like LaVine and White definitely hurt them in this game. Instead, Donovan had to rely upon rotation players like point guard Ryan Arcidiacono and shooting guard/wing Denzel Valentine to command the second unit off the bench.
Chicago Bulls inconsistency problem with Denzel Valentine
There was a point in this game when Valentine and Arcidiacono were playing well on both ends of the floor. But that point lasted really only at different parts of the third quarter. Valentine got ice cold down the stretch and was one of the Bulls’ highest usage players in this game.
He wound up finishing up this game with nearly a season-high 19 points, six rebounds, four assists, and two turnovers. And Valentine shot 8-of-18 from the field, 3-of-9 from beyond the arc, and didn’t have any attempt from the free-throw line.
On the surface, his stat line didn’t look all too bad on the night. But it was the timing of when Valentine went cold that really hurt the Bulls. Valentine went 6-of-11 from the field and 2-of-5 from beyond the arc in the first three quarters. That gave way to him shooting 2-of-7 from the field and 1-of-4 from beyond the arc in the fourth quarter, along with one key turnover.
No one on the Bulls was really doing well shooting from the field in the fourth quarter that was hot for the rest of the game. Star big man Nikola Vucevic shot just 1-of-4 from the field in the fourth. And the bench trio of small forward Troy Brown Jr., big man Daniel Theis, and Arcidiacono, shot a combined 1-of-5 from the field and 0-of-2 from beyond the arc in the fourth quarter.
Nonetheless, this still highlights a bigger point that the Bulls shouldn’t be giving Valentine too great of responsibility as a primary ball-handler at key points in games against a team as good as the Suns. The Bulls were largely short of playmakers in this game, with LaVine and White out due to injury. But this is where they need to find other sources of volume-scoring offense off the bench.
On the season to date, Valentine averaged 7.4 points per game, 3.9 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 0.6 steals, and no blocks. And he’s shot roughly 37 percent from the field, 33 percent from beyond the arc, and is perfect on a few attempts from the free-throw line. The Bulls now hold a record of 19-27 following their fifth straight loss after falling short to the Suns by a five-point margin.
Next up for the Bulls is a meeting with the Utah Jazz on the road on April 2.