Chicago Bulls: Offense produces a dud in loss to T-Wolves

Another story of the Chicago Bulls falling short in a big way against the competition in the Las Vegas NBA Summer League came about on the afternoon of Aug. 12. The Bulls took on the Minnesota Timberwolves in the third outing of the Summer League slate on Aug. 12, looking to build off the momentum of a huge comeback win over the San Antonio Spurs on the night of Aug. 10.

There was no faulting the effort that the Bulls came out with in the first half, especially on the defensive end of the floor. The Bulls were dominant on defense in the first half. In fact, the Bulls and Timberwolves combined for just 62 points by the time the two teams headed into the locker room at halftime.

The difference was that the Timberwolves found an offensive spark in the second half, and the Bulls didn’t. The Bulls had trouble finding any sort of rhythm shooting from the field all afternoon long in Vegas.

Neither team shot particularly well in this game, but the Bulls were much worse than the Timberwolves. The Timberwolves shot just north of 38 percent from the field and 22.7 percent from beyond the arc. Meanwhile, the Bulls shot a poor 25 percent from the field and 15.6 percent from beyond the arc.

This type of stuff can happen in the Summer League, and it’s about seeing the progress for the Bulls in the next game.

Chicago Bulls’ poor shooting performances from Marko Simonovic and Ayo Dosunmu part of a bigger problem

Nonetheless, this shooting effort was nothing more than pathetic for nearly all of the Bulls’ players in this game. Let’s just take a look at some of the shooting performances from the field from the Bulls in this Summer League outing:

• Jaylen Adams: 3-of-16
• Marko Simonovic: 1-of-8
• Ayo Dosunmu: 1-of-7
• Ethan Thompson: 2-of-13

The St. Bonaventure product and former Milwaukee Bucks guard Jaylen Adams shot rather poorly from the field and from beyond the arc. He also shot just 1-of-9 from beyond the arc in this loss to the Timberwolves. It didn’t help matters that Adams had three turnovers and one assist on the afternoon.

Even though the efficient Summer League stint for big man Marko Simonovic ground to a halt in this game, he at least shot well from the charity stripe. Simonovic shot a perfect 8-of-8 from the free-throw line. This was the third straight game scoring in double figures for Simonovic.

Moreover, the former Illinois Fighting Illini rookie point guard Ayo Dosunmu didn’t have a good outing here either. He missed all of his attempts from beyond the arc, didn’t have any attempts from the free-throw line, and didn’t manage any assists.

The Bulls didn’t see many encouraging signs out of most of the younger players on this team in this loss to the Timberwolves, which came by the final score of 78-59. Namely, we need to see more efficient efforts out of Dosunmu and Simonovic soon.

Second-year forward Patrick Williams was about the lone bright spot for the Bulls. He had another double-double, with a team-high 18 points and 10 rebounds.

The Bulls were just flat out outplayed by the Timberwolves in this Aug. 12 21-point loss. Guard McKinley Wright IV and big man Jaden McDaniels outclassed the Bulls, which isn’t anything great to say. Wright and McDaniels combined for 22 points, 16 rebounds, four assists, two steals, and three blocks.

Following this convincing loss at the hands of the Timberwolves on Aug. 12, the Bulls carry a record of 1-2 in the Summer League. Next up for the Bulls is a meeting with the Memphis Grizzlies on Aug. 15, with tip-off time set for 8 p.m. CT.