Bulls get worked over by another possible playoff opponent
The question remains: Is there a potential playoff opponent the Bulls can beat?
How about winning just one game to avoid the first-round sweep?
This homestand was supposed to test the Bulls' ability to compete against the best in the Eastern Conference, but in three straight games, they were blown out of the gym by Miami, Milwaukee and now Boston in a 117-94 drubbing on Wednesday at the United Center.
Not even the presence of former President Barack Obama, seated in an end zone suite, did much to inspire the Bulls. The Celtics dominated on both ends and the result was a game that was never really competitive.
Coach Billy Donovan did have a decent explanation of what's going on with the slumping Bulls right now.
"There is a growth period that you have to become tougher and nastier," Donovan said. "You just become hardened, you understand what it's about. You're competing for everything on every single possession. You're competing on the screen, you're competing to get out there and contest, you're competing on the glass.
"It can't be, 'I forgot to get back in transition, I lost sight of my man, I forgot to block out.' Those things inevitably add up and you can't get by on that. There has to be precision and concentration and focus."
What Donovan is hoping will happen is the Bulls who have never experienced playoff basketball get tired of getting punched in the mouth by these Eastern powers and start answering the bell.
"It's obviously not fun, but we've got to find some fight within these next couple of games before it hits real time," Zach LaVine said. "We're just trying to catch a rhythm. It doesn't matter who we play or when we play them, we've got to get back on track.
"Hopefully it's making us light a fire under some guys and really open our eyes and make everybody look in the mirror and figure out what I can do to help us get better."
The defense was appallingly bad at the start of the game. The Bulls were getting caught behind screens or getting beat one-on-one, forcing others to help, then constantly scrambling to catch up to the ball. Sometimes they were just on the wrong page and gave up open dunks when one defender switched and the other didn't.
Boston shot 58% in the first half and piled up 20 assists. Not a great sign for a Bulls defense in Game No. 80 of the season.
Things got a little better when Derrick Jones Jr. and Javonte Green came in off the bench, giving the Bulls a little more foot speed to stay in front of guys like Boston's Jaylen Green and Jayson Tatum. Alex Caruso skipped the game to rest a sore back and he might have helped, but the Bulls can't rely on one person to save the defensive effort.
"It's hard to play when we're disconnected like this and the result shows," LaVine said. "Offensively and defensively we're disconnected right now. We have to find our rhythm within these next two games."
One other team the Bulls could see in the playoffs, Philadelphia, didn't pay a visit this week, but the Bulls are already 0-4 this season against the 76ers.
They seem destined to finish in the No. 6 seed in the East. But with Boston, Milwaukee and Philadelphia all tied in the loss column for second, third and fourth, there's no telling which team they might see in the playoffs. The Bulls have two games remaining, home against Charlotte on Friday and at Minnesota on Sunday.
"When you're playing against good, quality teams, there has to be just this intense focus and we've got to get that and I don't think like we have that," Donovan said. "There's just this elite, laser-focus of moment-by-moment, playing what is going on now.
"I saw all this coming. I'm not surprised a bit. We're not as bad as we've played, but we probably weren't as good as when we went on a nine-game winning streak."
The Celtics are one of those teams with a strong defensive reputation that get away with a lot of grabbing and holding, but it won't do the Bulls any good to complain about it. The Bulls complained plenty - DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic got technicals - when they should have been stepping up to the challenge.
Nobody played particularly well on the home side, with the exception maybe of backup centers Tristan Thompson and Tony Bradley. DeRozan led the Bulls with 16 points, LaVine scored just 7 after sitting out Tuesday's game to rest his sore knee.
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