Here’s what the Bulls are looking at after a putrid performance Monday in a 117-94 loss to the Trail Blazers at the United Center:
It’s beat the Warriors and Blazers on Wednesday and Friday on the road or stagger into December — for a third consecutive season — without having put together a single winning streak.
That’s right, the “improving” Bulls still can’t win consecutive games.
Coach Jim Boylen raved heading in about the Blazers’ potent skill and their dynamic scoring ability. He didn’t bother to mention their 5-11 record, which was even worse than the Bulls’ mark of 6-11.
But this was Blazers-Bulls, and that means a beating was in order. It was the visitors’ sixth straight victory head-to-head and their fifth straight at the UC. The Bulls made it embarrassingly easy by shooting 9-for-39 from three-point range. Their eyes might even have been open on some of those attempts.
What happened to Zach LaVine, he of the 27-point fourth quarter in Saturday’s comeback win at the Hornets? What happened to Coby White, who has been on a scoring binge himself?
They were completely upstaged by the Blazers’ superior perimeter players — and not just usual suspects Damian Lillard (12 assists) and CJ McCollum (21 points). No, this was Carmelo Anthony’s night to shine.
In his fourth game after signing with the Blazers as a free agent for a bargain-basement discount, Anthony, 35 — who hadn’t played in more than a year — had Bulls defenders on skates, scoring a game-high 25 points.
There are many skeptics around the league who doubt Anthony has anything worthwhile to offer the Blazers. Try telling that to the Bulls.
Foul play
Two minutes? That didn’t take long. The game still had that fresh-as-a-daisy smell when Wendell Carter Jr. was whistled for his first foul, a charge on the finishing end of a fast break.
For a player who seems to roll out of bed in foul trouble lately, this wasn’t a good development. Fortunately for Carter, the call was overturned on a coach’s challenge, and the Blazers’ Rodney Hood took the foul instead.
Carter was hit with a foul, his second, in the closing seconds of the second quarter, although replays showed he made no contact with Lillard on the play. A frustrated Carter — who has been making extra efforts to communicate with the refs — politely asked whistle-blower Jonathan Sterling to review the play during halftime.
“I just need to do a better job of establishing a better relationship with them, so we get a feel for one another, and they understand that I’m trying to stay out of foul trouble,” he said. “They’re helping me.”
Not that it mattered
Thanks to a few sloppy plays during garbage time, the Blazers became the 18th Bulls opponent in 18 games to commit at least 15 turnovers.
The last NBA team to open a season with opponents turning it over at least 15 times in 18 straight games was the Magic in 2000.
