The Chicago Bulls were overwhelmed on Wednesday night in Philadelphia, proving no match for the Sixers star trio of Paul George, Joel Embiid and rookie VJ Edgecombe.
The Chicago Bulls were thoroughly dominated on Wednesday night by a Philadelphia 76ers team hoping to stay out of the Play-In. Chicago lost 157-137, with the 157 representing the most points the Bulls have given up in a game this season. Josh Giddey racked up a team-high 23 points in the blowout loss, the first time he has scored 20 points since March 13.
Despite Giddey getting 23 points, a big part of the Bulls' struggles were Giddey and Matas Buzelis--the driving forces behind any win at this point of the season--being unable to consistently generate clean looks against a Sixers team that has a ton of length, and made the Bulls look small for most of the evening.
While the Bulls struggled to generate clean looks--Chicago shot 32% on 47 attempts from 3-point range--Joel Embiid, Paul George and VJ Edgecombe combined for 63 of the Sixers 157 points, with Philadelphia shooting a red-hot 47% from the 3-point on 47 attempts.
On top of the lopsided perimeter battle, the Bulls had absolutely no answers for Joel Embiid. Things went from bad to worse when Jalen Smith exited the game right as it started due to right calf tightness, and Nick Richards exited shortly thereafter due to a right elbow issue.
Smith had a block in his six minutes of play, swatting the athletic, young forward Dominick Barlow at the rim.
It's not like Smith and Richards would've slowed down Embiid to a large degree, but Smith has been the Bulls only consistent rim protection as of late, and Richards is the tallest player on the roster. Buzelis excels at blocking shots but primarily guarding wings, and he had a tough night on both ends with Philadelphia possessing so much size (Barlow, Paul George, Embiid all playing heavy minutes with the shortest of that trio being 6-foot-9).
Embiid poured in 35 points in 28 minutes, including 3-3 from the 3-point line and 8-9 from the free throw line. The Cameroonian-American big shot 70.5% from the field and didn't break much of a sweat in the blowout win.
The Bulls went down 38-26 after the opening frame, with Embiid setting the tone going 6-9 from the field in that 1st quarter. But things really fell apart for the Bulls coming out of halftime. The Bulls gave up a franchise-record 51 points in the 3rd quarter, allowing the Sixers to shoot 19-22 (86.4%) from the field.
Buzelis struggled his way to 18 points on 6-15 shooting. He shot an encouraging 4-10 from the 3-point line and was able to take advantage of Embiid on the perimeter a few times, but mostly struggled against the Sixers physicality, only finishing with two free throw attempts on the evening. Giddey finished a rebound short of yet another triple-double with 23 points, 9 rebounds, and 12 assists. The Australian guard continues to put up incredible assist numbers, but the four turnovers he had did hurt any sort of comeback effort.
The Bulls will look to flush away the memory of this 20-point blowout loss in Philadelphia as they take on