A lengthy winning streak was severed for second-year head coach Billy Donovan and the Chicago Bulls on the night of Jan. 9 against superstar point guard Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks. The Bulls had a chance to move their winning streak to 10 games if they could top the Mavs on the road to round out the weekend.
This game just didn’t go the Bulls’ way really throughout the entirety of the second half. The Bulls would wind up falling short to the Mavs by the final score of 113-99.
These types of results are going to happen for the Bulls every once in a while, but it should still serve as a learning experience for this squad. Donovan and the Bulls need to find some secondary options when the team’s top stars aren’t performing up to par. The lack of offensive production for the Bulls resulted in this loss to the Mavs. There are other issues worth noting here too.
Top players for the Chicago Bulls struggling in early January
While the winning streak that the Bulls built up prior to this loss to the Mavs was impressive, it masked some of the looming issues emerging since the turn of the calendar year. Many of the wins that the Bulls amassed in the latter portion of this winning streak were by very narrow margins.
To begin pondering how the Bulls can fix any emerging issues ahead of a tough stretch of the January schedule starting this week, we can look at which players are struggling since the turn of the calendar year. Here’s a look into three players off to a slow start in January.