The Bulls came into Tuesday’s matchup with the Lakers looking to put together a sustained effort against one of the league’s hottest teams, winners of five straight games on their way into the United Center. It was looking like the Bulls were going to do just that...and then the fourth quarter happened.
The Bulls were outscored by the Lakers 38-19 in the fourth quarter, as the James-led squad showed exactly the type of intensity and focus needed down the stretch to truly become a championship-level team.
L.A. and Chicago are two of the league's best teams in terms of protecting the ball, ranking second and ninth respectively in turnover percentage coming into Tuesday night. So as we stated in our preview of the matchup, whoever controlled the turnover battle was likely to walk away with a win.
While the Lakers only committed one less turnover than the Bulls, they valued possessions when they mattered most: down the stretch of a close game.
The Bulls harassed the Lakers — who average 15.0 turnovers per game — into 11 turnovers in the first half alone, leading to 17 first-half points off turnovers (for the Bulls).
Chicago was doing everything necessary to beat a Lakers team that has a clear cut advantage in frontcourt scoring and experience. But the Lakers settled down, only committing four turnovers in the second half and effectively shutting down the Bulls transition offense.
Without fastbreak points to provide easy buckets, these Bulls struggle mightily to score and that makes games against elite teams like the Lakers even more of an uphill battle.
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“We cannot get into [a] halfcourt slugfest with this team,” Boylen said postgame.
And while Boylen’s words ring true in the fact that the Lakers are obviously one of the league’s best teams and should have an advantage over the Bulls in halfcourt situations, it doesn’t make the way Tuesday’s game unfolded any less disappointing.
The Bulls halfcourt offense is still a bit of an enigma at this point in the season, while on the flip side, the Lakers were running nice actions to get clean looks for the recently returned Kyle Kuzma, who got up eight shots in the fourth quarter.
Poor execution was yet again the downfall of the Bulls and while fans will continue to fight over who deserves the biggest slice of blame pie, the fact of the matter is that all parties were at fault for Tuesday’s loss. But no matter who you want to blame, the Bulls will need to find an identity, and fast, if they want to be a competitive team all season.
One of the more confounding things this season has been the usage of Markkanen and he — keep in mind he is the second-leading scorer on the team — took one field goal attempt in the fourth quarter. His one shot in the fourth quarter (pictured below) was a contested pick-and-pop 3-pointer in which he received the ball with only five seconds left on the shot-clock.
What makes this even more concerning is the fact that Markkanen also only attempted one shot in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Pacers, creating somewhat of a troubling pattern.
This comes on the heels of Boylen choosing to close with Thaddeus Young over Markkanen in certain games recently, albeit with positive results. No one ever expected Markkanen to become a lockdown defender but if he is being de-emphasized on offense as well, it does bring up many other concerns.
Despite the fact that there is now a bigger sample size to back up the Bulls not looking like a playoff team, it is still too early in the season to write them off. But they better be prepared to rally around each other sooner than later because, with two matchups with top-10 defenses over their next four games, something tells us more slugfests are on the way.
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