Road woes continue as Bulls crumble late in 126-109 loss to Pelicans
The topic was the Miami Heat's bench flare-up between ex-Bull Jimmy Butler, ex-Florida Gator Udonis Haslem and coach Erik Spoelstra.
Could that happen here? Doesn't seem like it, since the Bulls don't have any angry, confrontational types on the roster. Maybe Tristan Thompson if he's in a bad mood.
Before Thursday's game in New Orleans, coach Billy Donovan suggested a scenario where he'd like to see Bulls players get on each other's case - not hesitating to make a physical play on the court.
"You're not escaping it with (Milwaukee's) Giannis (Antetokounmpo)," Donovan said. "He is coming at you. You have one of two choices - you can move out of the way or you can stick your nose in there. We've got to put our nose in a lot more of those plays, in my opinion."
The Bulls had plenty of opportunities to make some defensive stands against New Orleans, even without the injured DeMar DeRozan. But a big run early in the fourth quarter by the fired-up Pelicans turned the tide and the Bulls lost again 126-109, despite 39 points from Zach LaVine.
The Bulls (42-31) have now dropped eight of their last nine road games and have three more stops on their current trip, beginning Saturday in Cleveland.
"Yeah, it's frustrating," LaVine said. "Obviously, we're trying to figure out how to get back in a rhythm. We want to be going into the latter part of the season on a high note. We've got to figure it out. Nobody's going to help us. We've done enough trying to pep talk and rally. It's time to stop talking and get it done, start playing the right way and win these games."
The Bulls led 88-86 when Coby White opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer. But New Orleans took control with a 12-0 run in the span of two minutes.
It started with a dunk from Larry Nance Jr., who was playing his first game with the Pelicans. Then Nance hit a 3 and after the bucket, point guard Jose Alvarado hid in the corner and forced a traveling call against Alex Caruso. On the next 3 possessions after the turnover, Alvarado drove for a layup, hit a runner, then added a 3-pointer to make it 102-90.
"We were playing really well," Donovan said. "Then we had a couple of careless turnovers, we don't come up with a loose rebound, we fouled. The fouls just break momentum. We had so many plays that broke momentum for us and gave them momentum. A lot of the fouls we had were unnecessary."
It looked like the Bulls might have the firepower to pull off the road win. LaVine scored 16 points in the first quarter and White went 5-for-8 from 3-point range for 23 points. But the Bulls wore down late and watched New Orleans make 28 of 30 free throws. Devontae Graham led the Pelicans with 30 points.
The Bulls use perhaps the smallest lineup in the NBA, with 6-foot-4 Javonte Green starting most of the season at power forward. Donovan was careful not to put all the blame on center Nikola Vucevic, but his message is the Bulls need to be more physical to make up for the lack of height.
"I think at times, we have not done a good enough job of physically throwing our body in there." Donovan said. "Vertical at the rim, taking a charge, do something physically to get some resistance. I think that's got to be driven home more, in my opinion, with our group. They need to drive that home more."
Thompson was ejected for arguing with the referees during a stoppage in play with 21.2 seconds remaining. That happened as Ayo Dosunmu was given a flagrant foul on a breakaway layup by Alvarado, with contact that wasn't especially rough.
"We've got to go back to our brand of basketball," LaVine said. "We can't give up 122 points. We can't do that if we're a playoff team. We're going to have to start figuring out what our weaknesses are and covering them up."
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