Slow start, little heart
LaVine racks up 36 in ‘unacceptable’ loss before home crowd
Wendell Carter Jr. said the Bulls had the proper “swag” in warmups Saturday night before facing the Nets. But as soon as the game started, they were dragging.
Perhaps knowing the Nets were without leading scorer Kyrie Irving, whose unavailability due to a shoulder injury was announced before tipoff, got into the Bulls’ minds. Perhaps it was just another sign of the teams’ frustrating inconsistencies.
Whatever it was, it prompted Bulls coach Jim Boylen to use the word “unacceptable” several times after a 117-111 loss at the United Center.
“What I’m disappointed in is our start, a home game, Saturday night in Chicago,” Boylen said. “I can’t play for them. They have to come out and they have to do it.”
Unlike Thursday’s loss in Milwaukee, in which the Bulls showed signs of life, the defeat to the Nets showcased the Bulls getting outplayed in every quarter except the second in the Eastern Conference meeting.
The Bulls preached that the season is young and this was no time to panic. But they also acknowledged problems need to be solved quickly.
“We just look at it as the 14th game,” Carter said. “I know we don’t want to keep saying, ‘Oh, it’s the 15th, 16th game and then eventually it’s the 70th, 71st. It’s very early in the season. We’re still building this whole team together. I wouldn’t stress about it too much at the moment, but (we) know that we don’t have all day.”
Boylen shrugged off the idea of lineup changes. “You’ve got to stay the course,” he said.
The Bulls (4-9) were plagued by some of their familiar problems. They continued to shoot a high volume of 3-pointers but hit only 23.1% (9 of 39).
They struggled to find the basket anywhere, really, making only 35.2% from the floor.
Stagnant play and inconsistent stretches remain an issue.
“Sometimes you get the ball and it feels like 12 eyes staring at you,” said Zach LaVine, who scored a game-high 36 points. “I’m not scared to take any shot. I’m not scared to miss a shot. I’ve taken all these shots before.
“If I’m the one to blame, I can take it. I know I’m in the gym working on my craft each and every night. I always look at myself first before anyone else. I just feel we have to do better as a unit.”
A better job from the get-go would help.
Boylen bemoaned that he needed to burn two first-quarter timeouts to try to get players going as the Nets grabbed a 30-19 lead.
“That’s unacceptable,” he said. “You can’t lose the first quarter at home by 11. We were fighting uphill the whole way.”
The Bulls took a 56-50 halftime lead but were outscored 67-55 after halftime, including 43-33 in the fourth quarter.
The Nets announced before tipoff that Irving, who averages 28.5 points and 7.2 assists while shooting 34.1% on 3-pointers, would not play because of a shoulder injury. That news likely crept into Bulls players’ minds.
“Probably,” said Carter, who registered his eighth double-double of the season with 18 points and 14 rebounds. “That’s just human nature. We look at a team and they don’t have their best player. Not to say we underestimated them, but we didn’t come out and play how we would have played if he was playing. We’ve got to do a better job, stop showing our immaturity.”
Unlike the previous two games, rookie Coby White’s hot hand went cold.
The Bulls missed their first eight 3-point attempts before White hit one early in the second quarter. He was coming off impressive back-to-back performances, scoring 27 points with a franchise-record seven 3-pointers in the fourth quarter against the Knicks as well as a 26-point outing against the Bucks in which he hit 6 of 13 3s.
White shot only 1 of 7 from beyond the arc and 3 of 13 overall for seven points.
Forward Lauri Markkanen continued to confound. Despite scoring 16 points and grabbing 10 rebounds — his second doubledouble this season and first since the opener — he hit only 4 of 10 shots in 35 minutes.
He hit just his second 3-pointer of the game to pull the Bulls within 113-111 with 8.8 seconds left. The shot followed back-toback LaVine 3-pointers that temporarily threatened a comeback. But it was all too late. In addition to being without their leading scorer, the Nets weren’t much better from 3-point range, making only 10 of 43 (23.3%). Spencer Dinwiddie, starting in place of Irving, scored 20 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter while Joe Harris added 22 points.
From start to finish, the Bulls couldn’t figure it out.
“You’ve got to win the games you’re supposed to win,” LaVine said.