Chicago lost their regular season finale on Sunday night, despite a triple-double from Lachlan Olbrich and 25 points from Rob Dillingham.
The Chicago Bulls lost their regular season finale 149-128 to the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday evening, capping off an eventful season that sees them enter the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery at the nine-slot, with a 20.3% chance of jumping into the top-four picks. The Portland Trail Blazers won 122-110 on Sunday nights result that is important to the Bulls because as of now, it secures them a second first-round pick (lottery protected via Portland). The Trail Blazers still need to make it out of the Play-In for the Bulls to secure that lottery-protected pick, but Chicago is in a great spot as of now in terms of draft capital.
As far as Sunday's on the court action, Chicago's defense caved early, allowing the Mavericks to shoot 48% from the 3-point line heading into the half. The Bulls shot a paltry 13% from deep, showing a tremendous lack of shooting sans Josh Giddey and Matas Buzelis.
Collin Sexton picked up the scoring slack for the Bulls starters, chipping in 19 points on a night where Tre Jones (3-11) shot wasn't falling. Rob Dillingham was great for the Bulls in the regular season finale, scoring 25 points despite not shooting well from the 3-point line or the free throw line.
He always uses his speed to penetrate into the paint, but tonight Dillingham had his midrange pull-up jumper, floater, and finishing at the rim all working.
It was a terrible night for the Chicago defense in the sense that the Mavericks scored 97 points off the bench. Shooter John Poulakidas scored 28 points off the bench for Dallas, chipping in a red-hot 8-16 shooting performance from 3-point range.
Lachlan Olbrich made sure the Bulls weren't left out in terms of unheralded players putting up big-time stat lines, with the Australian big man dropping a 10-point, 15-rebound, 10-assist triple-double in 30 minutes.
Leonard Miller continued his recent run of strong play, scoring 17 points on 8-12 shooting. He still doesn't show much as a floor spacer, but clearly will provide Chicago with a solid mixture of solid defense, rebounding and slashing.
Chicago heads into the offseason with a 31-51 record, losing seven more games than they did last season. Giddey, Buzelis, Miller, Dillingham, and Noa Essengue figure to act as the Bulls core next season, in addition to who they pick in what is shaping up to be a loaded 2026 draft class. Chicago still needs to hire central decision-makers in their front office, but they head into the offseason with a ton of salary cap space, potentially two first-round draft picks, and a couple of decent, established building blocks in Buzelis and Giddey. The Bulls aren't in an amazing spot, but they are in a decent position to execute a rebuild that has an actual vision behind it.