Pacers push Bulls further from play-in position
Expectations for the Bulls have fallen quite a bit. So instead of a playoff atmosphere at the United Center on Sunday afternoon, there was a play-in atmosphere featuring two teams fighting to move up to the 10th spot in the East.
The Bulls needed to take care of business at home, but couldn't get it done, losing to the Indiana Pacers 125-122 on Tyrese Haliburton's long 3-pointer with 2.7 seconds left on the clock.
The Bulls (29-36) and Pacers are now tied for 11th place in the East, and the Bulls lost the season series 3-1.
"As long as you've got time, you've got a chance," DeMar DeRozan said. "That's where we're at. Obviously, it's beyond frustrating that we lost again, the way we lost. I felt like we fought, put ourselves in the position to be able to pull that game out."
This was the second time this week the Bulls faced a large deficit in shot attempts. Indiana took 94 shots to the Bulls' 74, which is a big reason why the Bulls lost despite shooting 60.8% from the field. There was a similar box score in the loss at Toronto last Tuesday, when the Raptors led in field-goal attempts 94-71.
How does that happen? Well, the Pacers led in offensive rebounds 13-4, second-chance points 20-8 and 3-point baskets 16-10. The visitors took twice as many threes as the Bulls, 44-22.
Zach LaVine went 5-for-8 from behind the arc and scored 42 points, but needed another hot hand. Patrick Williams finished with 14 points, but took just 6 shots. Williams returned to a bench role Sunday after going back to the starting lineup against Kevin Durant's Phoenix team on Friday.
"They offensive rebounded a ton," Bulls guard Patrick Beverley said. "We gave them a lot of second-chance points. I think it came down to rebounding. We can't get down on ourselves, we played a heck of a game, put 122 up. Just offensive rebounding, we'll get better in that area."
Beverley and Haliburton apparently have some beef. After the game, Haliburton posted on Twitter a clip of Beverley calling out Haliburton on a podcast, for Haliburton calling out Beverley on a different podcast. Those two played against each other on Feb. 2 when Beverley's Lakers pulled out a 1-point win in Indianapolis.
This game had plenty of swings. The Bulls led by 10 points late in the first quarter before Indiana used a 29-9 run to flip the scoreboard.
The Pacers led 107-97 with 8:52 left, before the Bulls used a 12-1 run to take the lead on a LaVine 3-pointer. Down the stretch, DeRozan hit a pair of jumpers to put the Bulls up by one with 1:44 remaining.
The lead changed hands a few more times. In the final minute, a LaVine jumper put the Bulls up by one, Buddy Hield answered with a three, then LaVine was fouled on a 3-point attempt by rookie Bennedict Mathurin with 22.6 seconds left. LaVine hit the first two free throws to tie the score, then missed the third.
Haliburton never gave up the ball on the next possession. Beverley got tripped up by a screen set by center Myles Turner, and as Beverley stumbled, Haliburton launched a 26-footer for the win. Nikola Vucevic missed a three at the end that wasn't close.
Next up, the Bulls will get sort of a second all-star break with just two games over the next nine days. They'll visit Denver and Houston while the Big Ten tournament takes over the United Center for the first time since 2019. Just 17 games remain in the NBA regular season.
"The opportunity is still there," DeRozan said. "Can't put our heads down, can't cry about it. We've got to muster up the mental capacity to be able to push through this thing."
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