The Bulls dropped Game 4 to the Bucks 119-95 on Sunday afternoon at the United Center. After the game, DeMar DeRozan and Billy Donovan talked about what they can do to not let the last
In many ways, this Chicago Bulls’ first-round playoff series mirrors their regular season.
What began with modest expectations morphed into either overachieving or an optimal version of the team before reality arrived.
The Bucks are better than the Bulls.
That was known before Sunday afternoon’s 119-95 beatdown in Game 4 at the United Center, which sends the series back to Milwaukee for Wednesday’s Game 5 in a do-or-die situation for the Bulls.
But just like the regular season, which showed a franchise on the rise but still on the outside of the elite looking in, the chasm between the Bulls and the true contenders remains large. There is offseason work to be done---whenever this playoff run ends.
Zach LaVine is on track to receive a maximum contract offer in unrestricted free agency and reminded all of his importance with 24 points, 13 assists and five rebounds. The assists fell one shy of LaVine’s career high.
Patrick Williams, still the crucial piece for internal improvement, shook off a slow start to post his first career playoff double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds.
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And DeMar DeRozan, who isn’t going anywhere, worked like heck against a stout Bucks’ defense to produce 23 points on 20 shots.
It’s not enough.
If you pause for perspective, you realize the progress the organization has made this season. Its first playoff appearance in five years. Its acquisition of starpower in DeRozan, true two-way talent---which is sorely missed in this series---in Lonzo Ball and elite defensive ability in Alex Caruso.
But in a playoff series in which the Bulls themselves raised expectations by briefly stealing homecourt advantage with a split in Milwaukee, that perspective shifts to what’s lacking.
“Those guys been through it. At the end of the day, you gotta give them credit,” DeRozan said of the battle-tested Bucks. “They won a series without Giannis (Antetokounmpo) before. They won a series with players down. They’re a championship team for a reason. And that’s how you respond.
“We’ve gotten a taste of what it’s like when a great team like that responds. It’s on us to regroup and figure out how we keep this thing going.”
Given the current state of the Bulls, that’s a tall task. Caruso’s status for Game 5 is unknown after an inadvertent Javon Carter hand to his face bloodied him and knocked him out of Game 4. Coby White has been a shell of himself this series. And the Bulls’ lack of two-way players has been exposed in this matchup.
The disparity between the way the Bucks played in Games 1 and 2 in Milwaukee and in dominating Games 3 and 4 at the United Center is jarring.
“That’s what this is all about to me. I felt even on the bench (Sunday), the frustration from our guys where they were really working hard,” coach Billy Donovan said. “Their physicality and level of want to and try was really there.
“And there were times where I think we gave really good effort and they still scored. And there were times where we moved the ball and generated pretty good looks and the ball didn’t go in the basket. And that gets deflating. You could sense that. And we’ve got to be able to confront that.”
LaVine was brilliant, shifting from a hot start scoring with 12 first-quarter points to a playmaking role when Caruso went down.
“In the second quarter, they gave us a different look. With AC going out, I had to play a little bit more defacto point guard and get downhill,” he said. “One guy isn’t going to beat them. They’re crowding the paint. Once I break that first line of defense, they’re sending guys into the lane and not letting me and DeMar beat them. Trust the pass. Try to get guys open.”
The Bulls again struggled from 3-point range, shooting just 25 percent. Adding shooting and rim protection have to be near the top of management’s wish list this offseason.
At the trade deadline, management explained its decision to stand pat by saying it wanted to see this team fully healthy. Unfortunately, with Ball never returning because of pain from a bone bruise that preceded his meniscus surgery, that never happened.
Still, this series certainly has crystallized some needs to improve this roster over the offseason.
This series isn’t yet over. But it’s starting to feel that way, a sharp turn from the momentum created by the Bulls splitting the first two games amid news that Khris Middleton would miss the rest of the series with an MCL sprain.
LaVine vowed to go down fighting.
“I’m not particularly ready to go home,” he said. “I hope everyone else isn’t.”
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