Lethargic Bulls beaten by lowly Oklahoma City
Injuries, illnesses and youth can be convenient excuses, but nothing will explain away the Bulls' selfish, lethargic play on Saturday night at the United Center.
The bottom line was a 109-98 overtime loss to Oklahoma City, a team that was 1-16 on the road this season. The Bulls finished their stretch of four straight home games against the league's four worst teams with just 2 victories.
The schedule gets much tougher from here with Portland, Cleveland and San Antonio coming to town next week, along with a road trip to Toronto.
"It's one of the tougher losses of the year for us," said center Drew Gooden. "But it's time to move on."
Asked what coach Vinny Del Negro said in the locker room following the game, Gooden reported that his only line was to call for a Sunday practice.
Thabo Sefolosha joined the list of missing on Saturday because of the flu, joining Luol Deng (sprained ankle) and Kirk Hinrich (thumb surgery).
The effort was awful in the first half when the Bulls were outrebounded 28-12, including 11-3 on the offensive glass. The Thunder also built a 15-4 edge in second-chance points before halftime.
It wasn't hard to figure out what went wrong. Gooden and Tyrus Thomas combined to grab 4 rebounds in 29 minutes. Oklahoma City forward Kevin Durant (28 points) grabbed 8 boards all by himself in the first half. Center Nick Collison had a huge game with 21 points and 9 rebounds as the Bulls often didn't bother to cover him on pick-and-rolls.
"We've just got to know what we're doing on the defensive end," said Joakim Noah, who grabbed 11 rebounds off the bench. "That will definitely help because I feel like sometimes we're just lost out there."
The Bulls (16-21) were fortunate to even get to overtime. In the final 30 seconds of regulation, Rose missed a pull-up in the lane that would have given the Bulls the lead. Then Durant missed an 18-foot jumper over Noah, and Russell Westbrook had a point-blank tip that rolled off the rim just before the final horn.
In the extra session, Collison's layup and 3-point play broke a tie with 3:19 remaining. On the Bulls' next trip, Noah grabbed an offensive board, then threw the ball away when none of his teammates came to meet a pass. Earl Watson turned the giveaway into a fastbreak lay in.
The Bulls turned it over again when Noah was called for a moving screen. Then off another Thunder offensive rebound, Jeff Green finished a lay-in to make it 103-96 with 2:16 left.
"I thought we guarded at times OK, but the second shots killed us," Del Negro said. "Their effort was just better in every way. They jut played harder than us and that's not acceptable."
Bad as they played early, the Bulls never trailed by more than 8 points. The home team finally showed some life in the fourth quarter, scoring on eight straight possessions to open a 90-85 lead with 5:48 remaining. But they followed up with a series of blunders, including 3 turnovers and a Noah goaltend of an Oklahoma City shot that appeared to be rolling off the rim.