Tuesday's game was a tough one for Chicago, as the already short-handed Bulls were without Nikola Vucevic and Kevin Huerter as a result of a busy trade deadline...
Tuesday's game was a tough one for the Chicago Bulls, as the already short-handed squad was without Nikola Vucevic and Kevin Huerter as a result of a busy trade deadline. It was reported on Tuesday that the Bulls--who usually aren't extremely active at the NBA Trade Deadline--traded Nikola Vucevic to the Boston Celtics for Anfernee Simons, they also swapped 2nd round picks. The Bulls also traded Kevin Huerter to the Detroit Pistons in a three-team deal that landed the Bulls Jaden Ivey and Michael Conley Jr. The flurry of trades made Tuesday night's game feel like a bit of an afterthought, but Chicago still had a game to play.
The extremely short-handed Bulls had a starting lineup of Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu, Isaac Okoro, Matas Buzelis and Jalen Smith. Although Smith manned the five, he was on a strict minutes restriction capped at 20. Smith continued his string of great games with 16 points and 5 rebounds, including going 3-5 from the 3-pt line. Smith was the only Bull who got going from deep, with the team shooting 38% on a whopping 50 attempts from 3-point range.
The problem? Milwaukee connected on a scorching hot 61% of their 3-pt attempts.
Milwaukee's ball movement (33 assists) and shooters (23 made 3-pt FGs) took advantage of a Bulls squad that was a bit out of sorts, and flustered following the Vucevic and Huerter trades. You can't blame Chicago's remaining players for being unfocused considering the circumstances, but the defensive effort on rotations and their ensuing closeouts certainly needs work.
The Bulls fell behind 77-52 by halftime, looking like they were well on their way to another 30+ point blowout loss. But then White had one of his trademark scoring outbursts, going 5/8 from the field in the third quarter. He led a Bulls run that saw them get the score as close as 90-84 before the Bucks used a 24-16 run to forcefully take back control of the contest.
Chicago, despite the obviously disappointing result, can feel good about the effort they saw from franchise cornerstone Matas Buzelis in his first game post-Vucevic trade. Vucevic and Buzelis had multiple nights where their combination of scoring and defense in the frontcourt kept the Bulls afloat, but on Milwaukee, it was a lot more on Matas' plate.
Buzelis led the Bulls in scoring with 22 points (8-16 FG), and also chipped in 2 rebounds, and 5 blocks. Per Bulls PR, Buzelis became the 17th player in NBA history to hit 5 3-pt FGs and have 5 blocks in the same game, and the second player this season to do so after Victor Wembanyama.
Bulls fans will have a lot more big Buzelis nights to look forward to, as the team figures to be extremely guard heavy even if they move off of one or more of the guard group of White, Dosunmu, Jaden Ivey, Anfernee Simons, and Mike Conley Jr. But Bulls fans could also have a lot more tough nights on the horizon, as the team heads on a road trip to Toronto, Brooklyn, and Boston, with a home matchup with the Denver Nuggets sandwiched in-between. There won't be much time for the new-look Bulls to gradually work their new guards into the rotation, and how Billy Donovan handles the challenge will be intriguing down the stretch.