The Dallas Mavericks were ran off the court in their first game without Anthony Davis for this next stretch.
The Dallas Mavericks were already facing an uphill battle in the first game after hearing the news of Anthony Davis' diagnosis of ligament damage in his left hand.
To make matters worse, Dallas' Saturday night visit to the Chicago Bulls included head coach Jason Kidd getting ejected halfway through the first quarter, where Dallas' early 10-point deficit swelled to as large as 27 en route to Chicago sprinting to a 125-107 inside United Center.
Kidd was arguing a Max Christie goaltend call that upon review would have been overturned. However, the referees did not grant Kidd the challenge he was asking for before the ball was put back in play.
Emotions overflowed into a verbal blast at head ref Scott Foster, leading to Kidd's second ejection in his near five and a half years as the Mavs head coach.
Associate head coach Frank Vogel explained the situation briefly in his postgame remarks after taking over for Kidd on the sideline.
“We were trying to challenge a play. They inbounded the ball before we could, we thought we had the right to challenge. He and Scott got into it, and it led to the ejection," Vogel recalled.
Rather than use the tension as fuel to spark a run, Dallas couldn't keep up with the track meet that blew through the Windy City.
It was a wire-to-wire win for the Bulls (18-20), who used 38 fast-break points to cruise past the undermanned Mavericks (14-25). Dallas now falls to a woeful 4-15 without Davis in the lineup to begin a stretch of unavailability that could go on for months.
The Bulls kept pace throughout by scoring at least 30 points in three of the four quarters. Vogel, a former NBA Champion head coach with the Lakers when Kidd was his assistant in the bubble, understood how that would hurt the Mavs' chances of competing.
"You're not going to win too many games by doing that," Vogel said. "It starts with offensive execution. Too many lost possessions that led them into those fast breaks and too little resistance when we're trying to get back."
Ryan Nembhard returned to the starting lineup to lead Dallas offensively with 16 points and six assists. Jaden Hardy provided a scoring punch off the bench with 14 points on a team-high four three-pointers.
The Bulls saw six players score in double figures with Ayo Dosunmu posting 20 points off the bench and Coby White recording a game-high 22.
The Mavs return home on Monday for a matchup with the 11-24 Brooklyn Nets, who are one of only a few teams currently with better odds than Dallas of landing the top draft pick at season's end.
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