The Chicago Bulls wasted a chance for some breathing room in the play-in standings Saturday night, losing to the Philadelphia 76ers 109-97 at the United Center.
Barring outright tumult in the Eastern Conference, the 76ers and the Bulls are set to finish the season in a footrace for the final spot of the play-in tournament. A win on Saturday could have given the Bulls a three-game lead on the 76ers for 10th place in the conference — the last spot in.
But even with a clear advantage, the Bulls (19-27) couldn’t pull it off. The 76ers (17-27) were short-handed to start and lost players as the game went on. Joel Embiid sat out with a left knee injury and Paul George missed the entire second half after appearing to suffer a hand injury. That didn’t matter to Tyrese Maxey, who scored 31 points to lead the 76ers as the Bulls offense floundered.
The Bulls have carved out an interesting position: just high enough in the East standings to maintain a play-in spot but low enough in the overall standings to hold onto their top-10 protected draft pick. Due to the strength of the Western Conference, they don’t actually need to miss the play-in tournament to hold onto that pick — but after eight losses in 10 games, the Bulls could be on track to fall lower anyway.
Zach LaVine scored 25 points and Nikola Vučević had 22 points and 12 rebounds for the Bulls, who fell to a worrying 8-16 at home this season despite going 11-11 on the road.
Here are four other takeaways from the loss.
1. Bulls were exposed by a lack of control.
It’s not hard to spot the greatest weakness for the Bulls this season: turning the ball over.
The Bulls committed 19 turnovers Saturday, 10 in the fourth quarter as the offense completely broke down. They scored only 14 points in the quarter as a result. Turnovers came from every angle — dribbling off their feet, chucking passes out of bounds, hanging onto the ball until the shot clock expired and a particularly egregious carry by Zach LaVine, who lazily trapped the ball against his chest while attempting to navigate a screen in the fourth quarter.
The errors only exacerbated another low-volume 3-point shooting night for the Bulls, who took only 37 attempts (making 12). Coach Billy Donovan said one of the officials came over to him midway through the first half to jokingly ask: “I thought you wanted them to shoot it, didn’t you?”
Donovan said he shot back: “Yeah, would you mind telling them that?”
While the Bulls are averaging the second-most 3-point attempts in the league, that number has dropped significantly — from 42.7 to 38.4 — over the last 10 games.
2. Another no-show from Patrick Williams.
Every game compounds the disappointment surrounding Williams in his fifth season with the Bulls. The wing failed to make an impact Saturday on either side of the court, tallying more turnovers (2) than made baskets as he shot 1-for-9 (11.1%) from the field.
Even when he did put down his head to get to the rim, the wing was always looking to pass first. This trait led to three assists but did little to improve his volume or accuracy of shots at the rim. And while Williams has historically been one of the most efficient 3-point shooters on the Bulls, his accuracy from behind the arc has taken a hit this season. He went 0-for-4 to continue a stretch of shooting below 35% from deep since returning from injury in early December.
And even as he maintains his position in the starting lineup, it’s clear that trust is eroding in close-game situations. Williams was replaced by Ayo Dosunmu in the closing rotation, a consistent move from Donovan in recent games.
After the loss, the wing defended himself amid another stop-and-start season, which he characterized as a “growth” opportunity.
“I got game,” Williams said. “Every time I’ve gone through something and I got through it, I always learned a lot, became a better player, a better person on the other end of it. This is no different. You grow through what you go through.”
3. Matas Buzelis’ minutes limited again.
It’s hard for the rookie to crack the second-half rotation. That trend continued Saturday, when Buzelis played fewer than three minutes in the second half (and only 12:07 minutes total). Before the game, Donovan defended his position that Buzelis still isn’t prepared for a full slate of playing time: “Right now, he’s not equipped to handle 30 minutes.”
Donovan highlighted how opposing teams often target Buzelis on defense, a tactic most recently used by the Golden State Warriors, who encouraged Andrew Wiggins to relentlessly attack the rookie in his first rotation of Thursday’s loss. Although Buzelis is eager to learn from those moments, Donovan questioned the effectiveness of leaving the rookie in a game just to suffer through learning experiences.
“I think what happens is sometimes you just teach a player — by just giving them a bunch of minutes with no responsibility — how to impact losing,” Donovan said. “He needs to be and we want him to be a winning player.”
Still, Buzelis managed to show some flashes in his limited time against the 76ers, finishing with six points and three rebounds.
4. Jalen Smith warming up.
Center Jalen Smith provided a rare source of offense off the bench, nailing all three of his 3-point attempts in the first half. It was a welcome change for Smith, who went 4-for-21 over the last seven games.
After shooting a career-high 42.4% from behind the arc with the Indiana Pacers last season, Smith has struggled to find his shot in Chicago, where he averages 32.8% shooting from deep. This is an aberration from the rest of the Bulls roster, which ranks ninth in the league in accuracy (37.1%) while taking the second-most 3-point attempts (42.8) in the league.
