Bulls' horrendous defense leads to another bad home loss
The layup line is supposed to end with pregame warmups.
The Bulls granted the Philadelphia 76ers some extended layup practice Friday - pretty much the entire third quarter of open shots at the rim. The Bulls couldn't recover from the resulting 26-point deficit and lost a head-scratcher 117-107 at the United Center.
"For us to come out and play with that type of effort at this time of year, it's maddening," Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said. "We finally showed some fight in the fourth quarter, but it was way too late."
This result obviously damaged the Bulls' playoff aspirations, but Detroit and Indiana also lost Friday, so they're still a long way from being eliminated.
The Bulls (34-39) actually got off to a fast start in this one, jumping to an early 16-6 advantage. In retrospect, that was probably the worst thing that could happen since the young Bulls seemed to take it for granted that Philadelphia (27-45) wasn't bringing an A-level effort.
Jimmy Butler played the entire second half until finally exiting with about a minute left. He finished with 36 points, 11 assists and 7 rebounds. He missed a couple easy ones at the end, but at least showed he cared. Bobby Portis was pretty good, with 17 points and 10 rebounds, while Nikola Mirotic (15 points) was hot early.
Center Robin Lopez, back from his suspension, missed all six of his shots. Paul Zipser and Joffrey Lauvergne seemed out to lunch.
"We just didn't guard anybody," Butler said. "Lack of discipline, game plan, whatever you want to call it. Truthfully, I think the game plan is really important. But if you're going to not do what the game plan says, go get a stop and nobody will be mad at you. But we weren't getting a stop within the game plan, outside of the game plan. That's where it all went wrong."
The third quarter was truly horrendous, with some of the worst defense ever played in an NBA game. The Sixers began the quarter by hitting 11 of their first 12 shots. Every basket was a dunk or lay in, with maybe 1 short jumper, good for 22 points in the paint. The lone miss was slammed home by center Shawn Long.
Finally, Philadelphia took and missed a longer shot, but Dario Saric (32 points) was right there for the tip in. A legitimate defensive stop followed, as Butler chased down Saric from behind and tipped the ball to teammate Anthony Morrow for a turnover.
Butler drew a charge earlier in the third quarter, so officially, Philadelphia scored on 12 of 13 possessions to open the second half, all from in close.
"They were driving by us," Hoiberg said. "That's where it starts, containing the ball. It's taking pride in your individual matchup and staying in front of your man and keeping him out of the paint."
True, most every Sixers basket in the third quarter was a straight driving lay in, or if one of the Bulls did come over to help, it was drive, dish and lay in.
The Bulls finally sprung to life at the start of the fourth quarter and closed within 102-92 when Portis hit a foul-line jumper with 7:14 left. The Bulls had two chances to pull closer, but Butler and Denzel Valentine missed 3-pointers and Saric drained an open 3 on the other end when Michael Carter-Williams fell down.
The Bulls need to finish 8-1 to match last season's 42 wins. They'll play in Milwaukee on Sunday afternoon.
"I sure hope like heck we take it personal, we come out and fight," Hoiberg said. "Win or lose, we're out there battling, fighting. That's what it's all about."
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