April 03--The Bulls dropped to 38-38 with their home loss to the Pistons. Here are three observations.
The fourth-quarter offense was painful to watch
Little movement, rare ball reversal, little creativity. Just a bunch of two-man game with Jimmy Butler and Pau Gasol.
Butler had a brilliant individual game. But the Bulls endured a 7-for-23 final period with a whole bunch of standing around for others.
Asked about the lack of offensive creativity, coach Fred Hoiberg basically undercut himself with his answer.
"Our pace got really slow. Not having a guy who can get in and put pressure on the rim with Derrick out," he said. "We went to the two-man game. When we got the ball up the court with pace in the third quarter, good things were happening for us. It was taking us too long. We were fighting the shot clock quite a bit. We weren't getting it over and getting the opportunity to cut as much as we'd like."
The Bulls did have a open 3-point look from E'Twaun Moore rattle in and out with 91 seconds left. And Aaron Brooks got into one of his shotmaking spurts. But the offense lacked down the stretch.
The Pistons attacked Doug McDermott and Nikola Mirotic
Hoiberg closed with Mike Dunleavy, who largely has been ineffective offensively of late. That's because the Bulls couldn't afford to keep their two best shooters on the floor. The Pistons attacked them basically every time they entered.
"They're good at exposing matchups," Hoiberg said.
The Bulls' game plan wasn't effective
Granted, Derrick Rose sitting out hurt. But why not try to run a Pistons team that was finishing a back-to-back in which its starters all logged heavy minutes? Particularly since the Pistons are a strong rebounding team who like to pound teams on the glass.
Hoiberg talked about needing to play with better pace on Sunday against the Bucks. But that's when the Bulls are now finishing a back-to-back, Butler logged over 39 minutes and now has sore ribs and Rose could be out again.
Like this Bulls season, it could be too little, too late.
