Bulls look out of gas in 83-77 loss to Mavs
After a busy week and an overtime win at Philadelphia the previous night, the Bulls tried to man up and close out a slow-moving game against Dallas on Friday at the United Center.
It turned out to be a double dose of bad news. The Bulls scored a season-low in points, lost to the Mavericks 83-77 and also lost Joakim Noah to a recurrence of his left shoulder injury.
Inside the locker room, there was a weary sadness in the voices when players shared their thoughts on Noah's setback.
"You've been going to war with this guy in all kind of different circumstances over eight years," Taj Gibson said. "You practice on a daily basis. He's one of the emotional leaders on this team. It kind of hits you in the heart, seeing him on the bench and on that table like that, kind of got flashbacks to how Derrick (Rose) got hurt. You don't want to see your man go down like that. It was frustrating."
Noah was trying to box out JaVale McGee, with both hands locked onto the Mavs center, when he suddenly spun away, stepped out of bounds and let out a loud expletive. Noah then jogged across the court and straight through the tunnel to the locker room, his left arm hanging at his side.
The Bulls called it a separation. Noah originally suffered a left shoulder sprain on Dec. 21 against Brooklyn. He came back three weeks later after missing nine games.
With the same injury happening twice now, Noah figures to be out longer than three weeks this time.
"It hurt, just knowing how hard he works, how hard he wants to be on the court, how much he means to this team," Derrick Rose said. "It's devastating, but guys still have to win. Everybody has to be ready because you never know."
Oddly enough, both injuries happened on a day the Bulls made a change to the stating lineup. On Dec. 21, Hoiberg moved Nikola Mirotic into a small forward slot, partially to create more playing time for rookie Bobby Portis.
On Friday, Tony Snell replaced Mirotic at small forward. Before the game, Hoiberg talked about getting Mirotic some time on the second unit with Noah, while Portis' playing time figured to drop. Now Portis is right back in the mix, most likely.
Whatever the lineup, the Bulls (23-16) couldn't score enough points on Friday. Rose led the team with 18 points and Pau Gasol added 17, but they were the only players in double figures. The scoring totals made sense, since Rose and Gasol both skipped Thursday's overtime win in Philadelphia to rest injuries.
Jimmy Butler played his regular minutes Friday, but didn't have much in the tank after scoring a career-high 53 points while playing 49 minutes on Thursday. Butler scored just 4 points on 2-of-11 shooting against Dallas.
"You think I was tired?" Butler asked in the locker room. "Don't matter. I didn't do my job, tired or not tired. I was a big part of the 'L' tonight."
The Bulls shot 36 percent from the field, went 2-for-19 from 3-point range and their streak of scoring 100 points ended at 13 in a row.
They led by 10 points at halftime, but gave it back quickly as Dallas opened the third quarter with a 15-2 run. Dirk Nowitzki (21 points) hit a tough 3-pointer over Gibson with 2:15 left to make it 79-72 and the Bulls couldn't score enough to come back.
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