Bulls shoot bricks, get trounced 97-77 by Jazz
The Bulls have some quality road wins this season, but just as many bad home losses.
Wednesday was the fourth time they've lost at the United Center to a sub-.500 opponent. On the heels of a high-scoring win over Houston two days earlier, the Bulls clanked shots throughout a 97-77 loss to the Utah Jazz.
The 20-point margin was the Bulls' worst defeat of the season and they shot a season-low 33.3 percent from the field. Utah, meanwhile, improved to 13-23 on the season.
“They played well, but we were just lethargic, I thought, throughout,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “It's disappointing. I don't want to overreact, but I don't want to underreact, either.”
Surely, the Bulls are well aware of their tendency to relax against teams with losing records. They had a couple of close calls last week in narrow home wins against Boston and Denver.
“We seem to do a better job of focusing and playing with a certain edge against teams with better records,” Pau Gasol said. “We have to do a better job on focusing the same way, to take care of business against the teams we're supposed to beat. We're giving away too many opportunities at home that could be important down the road.”
Jimmy Butler led the Bulls (25-11) with 16 points and 11 rebounds, while Taj Gibson scored 15 and Gasol 13. The Bulls began the fourth quarter within striking distance, trailing 63-51, but watched Utah open the final quarter with a 16-3 run.
The stat sheet featured plenty of poor shooting by the Bulls, but the numbers that stood out the most were Derrick Rose going 3-for-15 from the field.
Rose's shooting slump seems to have no end. Over the past six games, he's hit 28 of 110 shots from the field, a dismal 25.5 percent. He never seems to fret about missing shots and Wednesday's postgame locker room was no exception.
“Me missing shots, I'm not worried about that,” he said. “I've just got to get in a rhythm like I used to be.”
Rose attempted just 1 shot from 3-point range — it missed, of course — so it wasn't necessarily a case of needing to be more aggressive. All the Bulls bricked open shots and fumbled away easy passes Wednesday.
“It's basketball. Shots aren't going to fall. It's just part of the game,” Rose said. “When they start falling, things will change, like who knows? But I'm going to continue to shoot my shots.”
Rose talked about needing to get back in a rhythm. Well, he was in a pretty good one not so long ago. When the Bulls won at Washington on Dec. 21, Rose hit 10 of 17 shots, scored 25 points and dominated Wizards guard John Wall down the stretch of a close game.
The Bulls return to Washington on Friday for the second game in D.C. in less than three weeks, so maybe a challenging opponent will bring Rose's shot back to life. Then again, there are more sub-.500 teams coming to the United Center.
“It hurts losing the way we did,” Rose said. “It's a learning experience. A team like this, you just have to take their confidence early and let them know it will be a hard game.”
That's easier said than done for this year's Bulls.
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