Injuries and losses harder to stomach
NEW YORK – The losses and injuries keep piling up for the Bulls.
They had a chance to make up ground against one of the teams ahead of them in the standings Friday night, but instead they gave up 54 points to Kyrie Irving in a 133-118 loss to the Nets.
On the first play of the game, Kris Dunn suffered a right knee injury and did not return. He was scheduled to fly to Chicago on Saturday for more testing while the rest of the Bulls went to Toronto for their 2 p.m. Sunday game against the defending-champion Raptors.
Friday was a disastrous night for a team that was clinging to playoff hopes entering this three-game trip. Here are three takeaways from the loss to the Nets:
1. The injury bug bites again.
The Bulls lost their best perimeter defender on the first possession of the game when Kris Dunn landed awkwardly on forward Thaddeus Young after taking a charge from Nets guard Joe Harris. Dunn remained on the ground and limped toward the locker room, and although coach Jim Boylen did not speculate on Dunn’s status, the Bulls sounded like a team prepared to endure another extended absence.
They are already playing without a few of their most important players — Otto Porter Jr. (foot), Lauri Markkanen (pelvis) and Wendell Carter Jr. (ankle) — although center Daniel Gafford (thumb) warmed up Friday and could return soon. The potential of losing Dunn, who leads the NBA with 2.9 steals per 36 minutes and has guarded the opposing team’s best player regularly, could be too much to overcome.
“If our record is better, he’d get more national coverage,” guard Zach LaVine said of Dunn. “He’s an All-League defender. He’s top in steals. He guards the best player each night. Sometimes he takes him out, makes it tough for him. He has meant a lot for us. He’s the toughest dude on the team, not scared of anybody. … It’s going to suck.”
2. Defense has been the Bulls’ calling card all season — but it wasn’t Friday night.
Kyrie Irving was sensational, and the loss of Kris Dunn put the Bulls in a difficult spot defensively.
But the Nets were not met with much resistance.
They shot a season-high 62.5% from the field and 48% from 3. The Bulls gave up 73 points in the first half, and Irving’s scoring outburst was the most they have yielded to an opponent this season. Irving converted 19 of his 23 shot attempts (82.6%). Only two players in league history had a shooting percentage that high in a 50-point game: Wilt Chamberlain, who did it four times, and Michael Jordan.
The Bulls already were stretched thin defensively without Wendell Carter Jr., but they deserve credit for remaining a competent defensive team without him this month. Since Carter’s injury on Jan. 6, the Bulls ranked 11th in the NBA in defensive efficiency entering Friday despite allowing too many easy shots.
Entering Friday, opposing teams shot 49.8% from the field against the Bulls in January, the highest in the league.
If Dunn has to miss significant time, the Bulls will be pushed even further defensively and they might not have the personnel to continue overcoming the losses.
“We’ve been a very good defensive team,” Jim Boylen said. “We’re going to continue to work at being a good defensive team. And we’ll coach our guys we do have to become that and maintain that.”
3. The gap between the Bulls and the playoff teams is growing getting larger.
The Bulls are ninth in the Eastern Conference, in which neither the seventhor and eighth-seeded teams seeds have been unable to put together any consistency to secure their hold on a playoff spot.
It’s hard to seriously consider the Bulls as a playoff contender, however, when taking into account their record against those playoff teams. Friday’s loss dropped the Bulls to 0-17 against the top seven teams in the East, astonishing even for a team that has struggled badly against teams with winning records.
Entering this trip, the Bulls had pulled themselves to within striking distance of the final playoff slot with a chance to make things interesting and add some legitimacy to their so-called postseason push. But after losing a late lead Wednesday in a loss to the Pacers and then Friday’s shellacking by the Nets, the Bulls are 19-32 and 31⁄2 games behind the Magic for the final playoff slot.
But the gap between the Bulls and the playoffs seems much larger.