Reinforcements can't prevent another ugly Bulls loss
Now in the fourth year of a sputtering rebuild, when things start to go wrong on the court, frustration sets in quickly.
In the second quarter when center Wendell Carter Jr. was called for his third foul on a drive by Indian's TJ Warren, Carter punched the basket support and was given a technical foul. During the ensuing free throw, he tried to plead case with referee Tony Brothers, which is never going to help.
"It's always going to be difficult," Carter said. "Things don't happen overnight. We can't expect that just because we got a new coaching staff, everything's going to change. I feel like we've got to knuckle up, go out there and just handle business."
The Bulls started out better in their second game of the season. But they gave up runs of 18-0 and 19-0 on the way to a 125-106 loss on Saturday at the United Center, the Pacers' 10th straight in the series.
After the game, coach Billy Donovan offered a harsh reminder to his young squad.
"I think as young players, when you've experienced losing, it can beat you down," Donovan said. "The bottom line is, as they get further and further beaten down, they have to be responsible for their own rescue.
"If someone throws a life raft out there, you have to actually swim to it. You can't just say, 'Bring it to me.' We've got to be responsible for digging ourselves back out of a hole. I do think it is a mentality, I do think it's a disposition and I do think it's an attitude."
It's a nice analogy, but no one will be throwing the Bulls a life raft anytime soon. Next up is a date with the 0-2 Golden State Warriors, who had a day off and spent Saturday sharing videos of Steph Curry knocking down 103 straight jumpers at the Advocate Center.
After a rough opener against Atlanta on Wednesday, the Bulls were hoping for better results and did OK for the first quarter or so.
The Bulls had a 40-34 lead after a Lauri Markkanen dunk with 8:53 left in the second quarter. The Pacers decided to get serious and unleashed a 19-0 run, which featured 8 missed shots and 5 turnovers from the Bulls before they finally scored again.
Their 66-56 halftime deficit was a significant improvement over Wednesday's 83-59 hole against Atlanta. But then Indiana launched into an 18-0 run to open the third quarter.
"We've got bad habits," Zach LaVine said. "We've got to learn how to break them. We have some leadership out there, but we have to do a better job of it. To be honest, we just have to fight. We can't let those lapses go for that long and drift. I take that a little bit on me, but I think it's the whole team."
Runs like those are a sign of a team that doesn't know how to step up when adversity hits. The Pacers started the run by applying some full-court pressure and the Bulls turned it over.
"We've got to be able to stop the bleeding sooner than that," Donovan said. "That's this team's cross to bear. They don't handle it, they don't at all. I think they internalize their mistakes. They internalize what's going on."
LaVine led the Bulls with 17 points and Lauri Markkanen had 16. Indiana forward Domantas Sabonis bullied his way inside for a triple-double, finishing with 20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
Donovan got to look at some different combinations, since Tomas Satoransky, Garrett Temple and Denzel Valentine made their season debuts.
Temple led the team in plus-minus by netting a zero. A lineup of Valentine. Ryan Arcidiacono, Chandler Hutchison, Adam Mokoka and Daniel Gafford got the Bulls as close as 11 points with 3:52 left, Indiana's largest lead was 30.
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