Mirotic shines, Butler goes down in Bulls loss
The Bulls found a new fourth-quarter scorer Sunday at the United Center. Unfortunately, it takes more than one guy to beat a quality opponent.
Rookie Nikola Mirotic, on his way to a career-high 29 points, scored 16 of the Bulls' 17 points in the fourth quarter against the Los Angeles Clippers. The other point came on a free throw by Joakim Noah.
One point from the entire roster, minus Mirotic, wasn't nearly enough to pull out a victory. The score was tied with 7:08 remaining, but the one-man offense wasn't enough and the Bulls lost 96-86.
The Bulls (37-23) shot a season-low 31 percent as a team. Pau Gasol went 2-for-13 from the field, Noah was 2-for-8, Kirk Hinrich 0-for-7, and the list goes on.
And the Bulls' added another name to the injury list. Leading scorer Jimmy Butler left the game early in the third quarter with a sprained left elbow and did not return. Butler got crunched by a pick set by burly center DeAndre Jordan.
So Butler, Derrick Rose (knee surgery) and Taj Gibson (sprained ankle) are out, Gasol played through an illness, and Hinrich is struggling with a turf-toe injury. All things considered, the current outlook for the Bulls doesn't seem promising.
"You've just got to find a way to win," coach Tom Thibodeau said. "Doesn't matter who's out. That game was winnable down the stretch and we didn't get it done."
Mirotic made 6 of 12 shots in the fourth quarter, while the rest of the team went 0-for-11. The former Real Madrid star took little comfort in his best NBA performance.
"It's a good feeling when you play, but I'm not here for my minutes, I'm here to help my team," Mirotic said. "This situation, without Derrick, without Pau, without Jimmy - somebody needs to shoot the ball. My teammates are trying to find me, and I made some tough shots, but I really feel bad because my team lost."
Being short-handed is a convenient excuse, but there were some head-scratching aspects to this loss. Gasol was limited to a season-low 4 points. It was just the fourth time all season he played and failed to score in double figures.
Gasol had a tough matchup against Clippers center DeAndre Jordan, who pulled down 26 rebounds. The record for most rebounds by a Bulls opponent is 34 by Wilt Chamberlain on Dec. 16, 1967.
"I want to give Pau a lot of credit. Pau is sick, very sick," Thibodeau said. "He knows we're short-handed. He went out there and he gave us everything he had."
Thibodeau also mentioned Hinrich playing injured. Hinrich logged 25 minutes without scoring, but it was tough to take him off the floor because the Clippers finished with a guard-heavy lineup including Chris Paul (28 points, 12 assists), Jamal Crawford and J.J. Redick.
Crawford scored all 16 of his points in the second half and mentioned in the locker room how much he hates early starts.
Another concern for the Bulls was their inability to get anything out of Tony Snell, one of their better scorers in recent weeks. Snell played the entire final quarter and took just 1 shot. Overall on Sunday, Snell had 13 points on 7 shot attempts.
"I like the way Tony's been playing," Thibodeau said. "We've got to find ways for him to get some looks."
The Bulls need to find a way to do everything better. They dropped to 3-2 on their season-long homestand, with two games remaining against Washington and Oklahoma City.
"We have to be mentally tough right now. We have to fight through some adversity and … one of the good characteristics of our team, they've been through a lot. They know how to fight through things."