Chicago only managed six fastbreak points and shot a paltry 27% from 3-point range in Saturday night's loss.
The Bulls entered Saturday night hoping to get back over the hump, and over .500 as they took on the Charlotte Hornets for the third time this season. They were looking to build off of the good feelings still flowing through the building following Friday's win over the Orlando Magic. This was a matchup two of the worst defensive units in the NBA, and it certainly looked that way right out of the gate. In a very defense-optional opening frame, the Bulls raced out to a 39-27 lead built on the back of some incredibly unselfish play on offense. Chicago collected a whopping 16 assists in the first quarter, their most in any single quarter this season.
The Nikola Vucevic-to-Matas Buzelis connection continues to be a thing of beauty, with the Montenegrin center finding Buzelis for a pair of cutting baskets in the first half. The pair combined for 24 points in the first half, with Ayo Dosunmu leading the Bulls with 14 points in the first half, making 6 of his 7 shots. The Hornets had no answer for the Bulls offense early on, but was able to close the gap by focusing on scoring in the paint themselves, with Miles Bridges and bench gaurd Collin Sextin being a big part of the second quarter push.
The third quarter kicked off with Jalen Smith and Brandon Miller trading 3-point makes, before a collision between LaMelo Ball and Smith around the 10:26 mark caused a long break in the action as both players were checked on. Smith took the worst of the fall, and was later ruled questionable to return as he was being evaluated for a concussion.
The Smith injury seemingly drained the energy from the Bulls, who quickly fell behind due to a flurry of Miles Bridges paint shots and a Miller pull-up.
Chicago focused on getting inside the paint since their 3-pointers weren't falling, and trips to the charity stripe by Tre Jones, Kevin Huerter, and Vucevic, kept their offense from going completely cold.
Despite the Bulls never-give-up attitude, the 32-17 3rd quarter in favor of the Hornets gave Chicago an uphill battle for the final frame.
With the 3-point shot not falling all night for Chicago, they were going to need a big advantage in another area of the game to pull out a win on Saturday night, and they just couldn't manage to do that. The Bulls--as they usually do--won bench points, and the points in the paint battle. But Charlotte bested them in free throw attempts, 2nd chance points, and most importantly (for the Bulls at least) fastbreak points.
Without Giddey and White for a third-straight game, the Bulls struggled tremendously when it came to getting out in transition and generating easy looks on offense. Those easy transition points are especially crucial on a night like Saturday night, where the Bulls perimeter offense dried up big time. Chicago shot 27% from the 3-point line, and finished with only six fastbreak points.
Unfortunately for the Bulls, no amount of ball movement would be able to make up for the lack of shotmaking or transition opportunities, that took an even bigger hit when Smith went down early in the third quarter.
Chicago will have a couple of days off before they take on the Celtics in Boston.