Despite late rally, Bulls can't handle Suns' noise
This is an observation from the United Center media room, which was confirmed by a longtime security guard.
No visiting NBA team has ever been louder before running onto the court for warmups than the Phoenix Suns on Monday. Not only raucous in the hallway, they spent about 30 seconds barking like dogs. Quite realistically, in fact.
The Suns are a energetic, confident outfit and owners of the NBA's best record. The Bulls looked more like a sad, short-handed team playing its fourth game in five nights, at least until the fourth quarter.
That description fits the Bulls, but they were also a half-game out of first place in the East at the start of the night. They seemed to have no interest in trying to make this an entertaining Final preview.
The Bulls lost 127-124, but the game wasn't actually close. Malcolm Hill's 8 points in the final 46 seconds provided a bad beat for any Suns bettors.
"I think they wanted to make a statement early," Zach LaVine said. "We're No. 2 in the East right now, were No. 1. They're No. 1 in the West. It's two top teams going against each other and it's really competitive."
LaVine (back spasms) and Coby White (adductor strain) returned after missing two games, but even with LaVine and DeMar DeRozan combining for 70 points, the Bulls struggled to compete.
The Bulls (33-21) and Suns both like to play fast, but Phoenix doesn't have the same size issues as the Bulls. And without Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso, the Bulls don't scramble on defense very well.
"I thought as the game wore on, we played at a higher and higher standard," coach Billy Donovan said. "At the start of the game, it's almost like they forced us to play at a higher level. We've got to be able to do that ourselves."
The Bulls struggled all night to keep up with defensive rotations. On one possession In the third quarter, the Bulls were completely mismatched on defense as the Suns brought the ball up.
Ayo Dosunmu tired to stick with Devin Booker in the corner, but no one was in position to pick up Chris Paul, who had the ball. Nikola Vucevic slid over, Dosunmu slid over and Booker ended up with a wide-open 3, then held the pose Wesley Snipes-style as DeRozan angrily threw the ball off the basket support.
"With those guys out, we're not going to have the strongest defense because that's what they do," LaVine said. "But we still have to have the same system and the same competitiveness without them, because we're going to be without them for a while and we've got to hold the ship."
Booker was hot from the start and finished with 38 points. Still, that was just the third-highest point total by a Bulls opponent in the last three games. Indiana's Caris Levert scored 42 and Philadelphia's Joel Embiid had 40.
After falling behind by 27, the Bulls did spring to life in the fourth quarter, with DeRozan deciding it's never too late to aim for 40 points. DeRozan scored 15 points in four minutes while missing just one shot.
The Bulls got within single digits at 113-104 with 5:56 left after a DeRozan 3-point play. The Suns answered right back with a Jae Crowder 3-pointer and DeAndre Ayton post-up to quickly extinguish the surge.
The Bulls didn't get Vucevic any touches early and the big man wasn't much of a factor until it was too late, finishing with 13 points and 12 rebounds on 6 of 15 shooting.
In the second quarter, while getting outscored 31-20, the Bulls were credited with zero assists.
"Our pace of play forced us to go iso. There was no energy," Donovan said. "We got back into the game there because we were playing downhill and we were getting into the paint, forcing rotations."
Added DeRozan, "We gave in a lot to their defense, them just loading in on us and us settling, not attacking, not trying to put them in rotations. We started to figure it out later in the game, but we can't wait until we're down 20 to make something happen."
The hectic schedule is just beginning for the Bulls. They go to Charlotte Wednesday, then have another home back-to-back on Friday and Saturday.
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