New year, old story: Bulls blown out by Magic
If the Chicago Bulls made a New Year's resolution not to get blown out from the opening tip ever again, that one's out the window.
This was another night when the Bulls didn't have it, the opponent played well and the game was never competitive. Wednesday's result was a 112-84 victory by the Orlando Magic at the United Center. The same teams met in the same building 12 days earlier and the Bulls won 90-80.
In the rematch, Orlando shot 58 percent from the field and had the Bulls backpedaling all night long. The Magic (17-20) was sharp throughout this one. Making good use of screens, the Bulls were often caught in bad switches or a state of confusion, with players uncertain of the defensive plan.
Orlando knocked down 7 of 12 shots from 3-point range in the first half, while also hitting 13 of 15 shots from inside the paint.
"What I'm disappointed in, I thought we tried to do it ourselves a little bit. I don't like that," Bulls coach Jim Boylen said. "You can't get back into the game by yourself. You've got to work for each other, you've got to screen better, you've got to do the basics better. I thought we got worse at the basics when they punched us. That's what bothers me."
Boylen said he emphasizes winning the first quarter, but the Bulls trailed 32-16 after the opening 12 minutes.
"I feel like they had the edge that we didn't," Lauri Markkanen said. "You always think you're ready to play, but they punched us in the mouth and built a good lead. It felt like whatever we tried to do didn't go our way."
One example of how things went for the Bulls happened late in the first quarter. Justin Holiday hit a 3-pointer - his only points of the game - to bring the Bulls within 18-11. A Kris Dunn steal ignited a 2-on-1 fast break, but when Zach LaVine tried to get the ball to a streaking Markkanen on the weak side, he threw it straight into the hand of Orlando defender Jonathan Isaac. LaVine ended up fouling Issac on the other end.
LaVine led the Bulls with 16 points on a night when no one in red played particularly well. One subplot was rookie center Wendell Carter Jr. playing just 13:28 on a night when he'd face challenging matchups against Nikola Vucevic and rookie Mo Bamba.
"We just didn't need to put him back in," Boylen said. "Sometimes you learn by sitting too. You see what's going on in the game. Maybe you have some introspection. Maybe you realize, 'I've got to play my minutes better when I'm out there.'"
When Carter spoke in the locker room, he agreed with everything Boylen said.
"I couldn't get into a good groove," Carter said. "I would have took myself out."
Carter didn't have a good explanation for why he couldn't get himself going. It's probably a natural occurrence for an NBA teenager in his first time through the league.
"I just wasn't affecting the game in any way," he said. "I wasn't playing the best defense, I wasn't making any shots, I wasn't rebounding the ball well. That's what I struggled with.
"It wasn't that I didn't come out with an edge. It was just like, I don't know, I just didn't play to the best of my ability. I felt like, especially when I play against other bigs that are very talented, that's going to be my edge every time I play them. Tonight, I don't know what it was. I just couldn't get in a groove fro myself, offensively or defensively."
Twitter: @McGrawDHBulls