Butler leads Bulls past Pelicans
After being officially eliminated from the playoffs with Indiana's win over Brooklyn on Sunday night, the Bulls had their own version of cutdown day.
Derrick Rose, Pau Gasol, Taj Gibson and E'Twaun Moore were officially shut down for the season, joining Joakim Noah and Cameron Bairstow on the sideline.
Jimmy Butler stayed in the lineup, though, and led the Bulls to a 121-116 victory over the injury-depleted New Orleans Pelicans on Monday at Smoothie King Center.
“It says a lot. It shows that he (Butler) wants to be the leader of this thing,” coach Fred Hoiberg told reporters after the game. “I thought he played the right way, got other guys involved. He competed all the way to the finish line. That's great.”
The Bulls (41-40) will finish the regular season on Wednesday at home against Philadelphia. Win and they will be the first Eastern Conference team to finish with a winning record and miss the playoffs since the 2005 Cavaliers failed to qualify at 42-40.
There have been several times in the past 10 years when 37 and 38 wins were enough to make the playoffs in the East.
All five Bulls starters scored in double figures, led by Butler's 23 points. He also played a decent amount of point guard and dished out a team-high 11 assists.
“He told me in the offseason he was a point guard. I didn't really believe him,” Hoiberg said. “He's shown me a lot this year and shown his teammates a lot, that he cannot only get looks for himself, but get opportunities for his teammates by getting them the ball. I thought he played the right way all game long.”
Nikola Mirotic added 20 points. Center Cristiano Felicio continued to excel, scoring 16 points for a second consecutive game, while hitting a combined 13 for 15 shots from the field. Justin Holiday added 14, Bobby Portis 13, Mike Dunleavy 12 and Doug McDermott 10.
The Pelicans were basically missing all their top players — Anthony Davis, Tyreke Evans, Ryan Anderson, Eric Gordon and Jrue Holiday, Justin's younger brother. Forward James Ennis led New Orleans with 29 points.
On the Bulls' side, Gasol has been struggling with a sore knee, Gibson had a fractured rib and Moore has been dealing with a hamstring issues.
The Bulls will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2008 and just the second time in the last 12 seasons. At the morning shootaround, Rose talked about the disappointing finish and looked at the future.
“I still believe that we could win a championship,” Rose said. “It's just that this year, we really can't put a finger on what really happened. We let things slip a little bit too early and it kind of followed us throughout the entire year. So next year we can have a chance. We got to come in, and this should be fuel to go in the offseason and really work on our game and come back with revenge on our minds.”
Get the latest Bulls news via Twitter by following @McGrawDHBulls.