‘We just folded’
4th straight loss was particularly painful after blowing 22-point lead to Thunder
The first half for the Bulls against the Thunder went about as well as they could have envisioned.
The offense was clicking, spreading the ball around to all five starters as they built a 22-point lead in the third quarter.
From that point on, however, the Bulls proceeded to melt down.
They had more turnovers in the third quarter (nine) than they had field goals (eight) to let the Thunder back in the game. Still, the Bulls held a 16-point lead with 4 minutes, 40 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and a double-digit advantage just under the two-minute mark.
But the Bulls proceeded to march toward one of their most painful losses of the season, completing their 127-125 collapse to the Thunder in overtime.
“We’re up by 20, there’s not a lot to talk about,” guard Zach LaVine said. “We’re all at a loss for words for how we played and how we ended the game. We were playing extremely well and we just folded. We straight up folded.”
After some positive momentum from their West Coast trip, the Bulls lost a winnable game against a tanking team to run their losing streak to four.
Here are three takeaways from Friday’s collapse.
1. Late meltdown leaves the Bulls searching for answers.
Zach LaVine has been through his share of disappointing losses during his four seasons with the Bulls, but this was perhaps the most frustrated he has ever been following a game. His responses were short and he appeared disconsolate during his media session after the game.
“You’ve got to learn how to win a basketball game when you’re up by 20,” he said. “There’s not a lot to talk about. It’s about as plain and simple as it gets right there. You up by 20, you can’t lose.”
LaVine finished with 35 points, scoring more than 30 points for the fourth consecutive game, but he took his share of responsibility for the team’s collapse. He contributed with six turnovers and some costly mistakes and lost possessions down the stretch, including the team’s last chance in regulation and in overtime.
But the Bulls did not have many answers following this debacle.
“We just have to do a better job as an entire organization because we can’t lose games like that,” LaVine said. “We’ve lost a lot of games this year where we’ve been playing well. Our fourthquarter execution has to get better. I take that upon myself. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in the fourth quarter. It’s extremely frustrating. Somehow, some way, even if you play bad, you’ve got to pull those games out.”
Added Lauri Markkanen: “This one should hurt. It hurts everybody to lose a game like this.”
2. The Bulls will continue to struggle until they cut down on turnovers.
The Bulls already had been turning the ball at the highest rate in the NBA, but their carelessness with the ball reached a new level Friday night. They committed 24 turnovers leading to 33 Thunder points.
“We’ve gotten destroyed in the turnover battle the whole entire year,” coach Billy Donovan said. “Until that gets resolved, it’s going to be hard for us to really compete. I mean, we’ll compete, but it’s going to be hard for us to win.”
Donovan has called most of the errors self-inflicted, things such as a lack of rebounding, fouling too often and a high turnover rate. In the first half, the Bulls collected 17 assists with seven turnovers but got careless in the second half and overtime, turning the ball over 17 times.
“It’s so hard to win at this level when you’re turning the ball over at the rate we turn it over,” Donovan said. “I thought we were playing really good. The turnovers in the third quarter, there was no pressure. They picked up their pressure when they got back in the game. We just had careless turnover after careless turnover.”
3. Lauri Markkanen returns to starting lineup for the first time in two weeks.
This was Lauri Markkanen’s first game since Dec. 29, missing the last few weeks under the NBA’s health and safety protocols, and he was inserted back into the starting lineup. But perhaps more importantly he secured a spot in the closing lineup as the center ahead of Thaddeus Young, who had been the team’s small ball five, and Wendell Carter Jr.
Markkanen’s first night back was mixed. He started off shooting well from beyond the arc but went cold down the stretch as the team struggled. He finished 5for-14 (3-of-9 from 3) with 16 points and six rebounds, but went without an assist and had a pair of turnovers in 35 minutes.
“It’s obviously going to take a little while to get your legs back under you, but I felt fine,” Markkanen said. “A couple of times I was pretty gassed. I asked for subs just because I haven’t played in two weeks. That happens, but other than that I felt pretty good.”