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Powerful West teams await slumping Bulls

The Bulls just went 1-5 against a collection of Eastern Conference lightweights.

During Monday’s 83-82 loss to Orlando, they somehow managed to shoot 35 percent from within the paint (12 for 34). According to nba.com, the Bulls rank last in the league in field-goal percentage on shots within 5 feet (.531).

Now the Bulls get to take on a couple of Western Conference powers, Houston and Oklahoma City, and try to make layups against elite shot-blockers Dwight Howard and Serge Ibaka.

Optimism and confidence are a couple of buzzwords that do not come to mind.

While going 3-10 since losing Derrick Rose to another knee surgery, the Bulls point to the preponderance of close losses as a sign of hope. True, the defeat to the Magic was the sixth by 6 points or less since Rose was injured.

But all of those came against relatively weak opponents. A back-to-back against the Rockets and Thunder is another story. Through Monday’s games, the West posted an overwhelming 83-36 record against the East this season.

Several Bulls players stayed in the gym longer than usual Tuesday with a charter plane to catch. The last to leave the floor was Mike Dunleavy, and he did his best to put a positive spin on the Bulls’ plight.

“It’s comparable to if you’re a really good shooter and you have a stretch of games where you’re not making shots,” he said. “You’ve just got to get in the gym, practice and start believing again. Most of the time, it starts with your mentality.

“How do you get out of it? If we knew, we’d do it. I think the first thing to start is just somehow, someway get a win over a good team and we have the opportunity to do that on this trip.”

After Monday’s game, coach Tom Thibodeau said it was his fault the Bulls missed so many layups against Orlando. Any of those errant layups could have changed the outcome, but the most glaring was Luol Deng’s miss with 1.7 seconds left that could have tied the score. Deng cut to the basket, caught a pass from Joakim Noah and had a clean look with Magic rookie Victor Oladipo about a step behind, but he pushed it too hard off the backboard.

“My job is to make sure we’re ready to make our layups, so we obviously have to work harder in practice on taking layups and making layups and doing them at a gamelike speed,” Thibodeau said after the game. “So I’m going to put more into that. So that part is on me.”

At the end of Tuesday’s practice, most of the players were working on 3-pointers. But as Thibodeau pointed out, if the Bulls shoot better than 32.2 percent from 3-point range, there should be more room to operate inside.

“We did work on our layups, so hopefully that will be better,” Thibodeau said. “I think people are collapsing right now because we’ve got to make perimeter shots. That will improve the spacing. You have to knock some shots down. We’ve got to make some 3s. If we do that, it will open things up.”

Ÿ Follow Mike’s Bulls reports on Twitter @McGrawDHBulls.

Hinrich improving but status for murky

Bulls game day

Bulls vs. Houston Rockets at the Toyota Center, 8:30 p.m. Wednesday

TV/Radio: WGN, ESPN/ ESPN 1000-AM

Update: This will be a sad night for players from the 2011 Bulls. While the current Bulls are struggling without Derrick Rose, Houston C Omer Asik is reportedly on the verge of being traded. The Rockets signed Asik away from the Bulls in 2012, then replaced him with Dwight Howard. SG James Harden leads Houston at 24.7 ppg, while Howard is averaging 17.4 points and 13.2 rebounds. SF Chandler Parsons (17.0 ppg) has continued to improve. PG Jeremy Lin missed Sunday’s loss to Sacramento and is unlikely to face the Bulls.

Next: Oklahoma City Thunder at Chesapeake Energy Arena, 7 p.m. Thursday

— Mike McGraw

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