Bulls' quest for a quality win comes up short again
The Bulls started the week with three home games on the schedule and a desperate need for a quality win.
They weren't close against Milwaukee on Monday, went down to the final minute before losing to Utah on Thursday.
Saturday appeared to bring a reasonable chance, since Boston played the previous night and was missing top scorer Kemba Walker with an illness.
But the Bulls couldn't match up with the Celtics' three all-star caliber small forwards and a fourth-quarter comeback fell short 111-104 at the United Center.
The Bulls fell to 1-14 on the season against teams with winning records and now they hit the road for games in Dallas and New Orleans.
"It's upsetting. I'm upset because I think we're just as good as them," said Zach LaVine, who led the Bulls with 35 points. "I go out there and I expect us to win. I think we're competing at a high level against those teams, we're just not finishing the game off. That's what separates us from those top-tier teams."
The biggest issue was simply the Bulls' inability to match up defensively with Boston's three wings - Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Gordon Hayward.
The Bulls have no true small forwards on the roster, with Otto Porter and Chandler Hutchison injured. So coach Jim Boylen shortened the rotation, played Thaddeus Young at small forward for a few minutes, and struggled to contain those three.
Tatum was hounded by Kris Dunn all night, but took advantage of his 4-inch height advantage to score 28 points, while hitting 12 of 15 shots from the field. Hayward added 24 points and Brown had 19.
"I thought I did good in the sense of try to make it tough on him," Dunn said. "We like guys to take the midrange shot. The only thing I can do is tip my hat off. He made a lot of great plays, a lot of great plays. Even a three toward the end, I thought I had good defense, good hands. He was so far out, he was almost out of bounds and knocked it down. That's the kind of league that we're in. There's highly talented players in this league."
The Bulls (13-23) trailed by 4 when Tatum made the two shots that settled the outcome. First, Dunn nearly got a steal, but Tatum gained control and hit a pullup jumper in the lane. After LaVine answered, Tatum drained a long 3-pointer as the shot clock expired to make it 108-101 with 1:06 left.
"I said something to myself, like, 'What the (expletive),'" Dunn said. "You make that shot, you've got it rolling and he had it rolling. The only thing I can do is tip my hat off to him. We paid respects after the game. I'm frustrated with myself. I don't want nobody to score that many points, especially on me. So go back to the drawing board, see what I can do better."
Lauri Markkanen scored 15 points and left the game in the fourth quarter with an apparent left ankle injury. He was trying to guard Boston's Marcus Smart on a drive. They collided, both players hit the court and Smart landed on top of Markkanen's leg. There was no immediate update on Markkanen's health after the game.
The quest for a quality win wasn't helped when the Bulls turned their own scoring opportunities into fast-break baskets on the other end. In the first quarter, LaVine missed an alley-oop dunk and the Celtics turned it into a Hayward fast-break jam six seconds later. The same thing happened in the third quarter, with Wendell Carter missing the dunk and Hayward scoring again. Another failure was the Bulls being outscored 30-21 in the third quarter.
After Boston opened the 16-point lead early in the fourth quarter, but the Bulls were ready with a response. They trimmed the lead down to 3 and LaVine missed a 3-pointer that would have tied the score.
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