No defending Bulls lack of defense in blowout loss to Rockets
Some nights it's difficult to defend the Bulls' quality of play. Other nights, there's just no defense whatsoever.
On Sunday at the United Center, the Bulls leaned back, watched Houston score with ease and did nothing to stop it. The result was a 143-107 loss, and the second game in a row where an opponent tallied the highest point total in its all-time series against the Bulls. Cleveland scored 144 points against them on Friday.
“If you don't have any fight in you, you're going to get your (butt) kicked like that,” Zach LaVine said. “We've got to be a lot tougher. We've been playing well all year and competitive. Tonight was the total opposite of that.”
With this loss, the Bulls fell to 1-5 at home. Most of their good wins — Milwaukee, Memphis, New York, Atlanta — have happened away from the UC.
These are supposed to be friendly rims for the home team. But after Sunday's debacle, the Bulls are shooting 33.5% from 3-point land at the UC, compared to 39.2% on the road. Shots don't fall, players get discouraged and before they know it, the Rockets are leading by 39 points.
From coach Billy Donovan's perspective, it's about players having some pride and making a stand defensively.
“We're not like a shot-blocking team,” he said, stating the obvious. “We're going to have to put our body in plays. Tonight for as much as the ball was coming downhill, we didn't have one guy try to take a charge. They just kind of came right through us and we're going to have to make a stand.”
One concern with the Bulls’ defense in general is center Nikola Vucevic is not a shot-blocker and doesn't offer much rim protection. That's just not who he is, and the Bulls knew that when they traded for him in 2021 and when they gave him a three-year contract extension in 2023.
So once opponents break through the initial layer of defense, which often isn't difficult, it's pretty much over unless lots of help moves over to protect the paint. Even then, that usually creates an open shooter on the perimeter.
Two Bulls players took a high number of charges last season — Alex Caruso and DeMar DeRozan — and both went to new teams during the summer.
There are potential defensive stoppers on the roster. Dalen Terry is probably the best candidate, but Julian Phillips, Ayo Dosunmu, maybe someday rookie Matas Buzelis could take on that role. For now, Donovan thinks it's too early in their careers to ask any of those players to step into that role.
“It's a skill level and some guys are really, really good at (defense),” Donovan said. “I do think you need to have individual pride. You've got to basically have a pride level defensively.”
Late in the second quarter Sunday, the Bulls gained possession trailing 62-52 and seemed to be in a good spot to get back in the game. But after Coby White missed a reverse layup on that possession, the Rockets launched a 17-0 run that stretched into the third quarter, and there was no coming back from a 27-point deficit.
Houston played angry, like there was some sort of vendetta against the Bulls. Hard to imagine what that would be, since the Bulls were playing like the opposition's best friends, allowing them to pad the stat sheet.
Rockford native Fred VanVleet hit 10 of 16 shots for 28 points. Center Alperen Sengun recorded a triple-double in just 25 minutes of playing time with 20 points, 11 boards and 11 assists.
LaVine led the Bulls with 15 points, and things might only get worse from here. Sunday started a stretch of five games in seven days, with a road date in Detroit on tap for Monday.