CHICAGO (670 The Score) – A season that began so promisingly for the Bulls continued its downward spiral Friday evening.
The Bulls dropped their sixth straight game with a 120-105 loss to the Pacers at the United Center, continuing a plummet that has them now sitting at 9-13 and which makes their 5-0 start feel like years ago. The Bulls shot just 44.2% and committed 18 turnovers in their loss Friday.
“The most important thing is we stick together through this,” said guard Coby White, who led the Bulls with 22 points. “The season is always going to be filled with adversity. We got a chance to change the narrative right now. So the most important thing for me is we don’t let go of the rope and we do this thing together.”
While the Bulls have struggled on both ends of the floor, the primary source of their recent woes has been their offense. In going 1-7 over a stretch of eight games dating back to Nov. 21, the Bulls have posted an NBA-worst 107.2 offensive rating in that time frame, per NBA.com data. The Bulls’ field-goal percentage (45.4) and 3-point percentage (33.0%) both rank in the bottom five in the league in that span.
For their part, the Bulls acknowledged they’ve been playing too much isolation basketball lately.
“The offense has taken a step back in terms of body movement, player movement,” White said. “I honestly think too, teams start to adjust. You get more film. They start to adjust. So for us, we got to take it as players to figure out ways to be better at it. The coaches give us the formula, but we’ve just got to go out there and execute it.”
Bulls coach Billy Donovan stressed the need for his team to “play more the right way.” As an example, he credited his Bulls for consistently attacking the hoop, but he wants to see better decisions once his players get to the rim. Entering play Friday, 31% of the Bulls’ field-goal attempts were coming at the rim, the highest figure in the NBA, according to Basketball Reference. The problem is the Bulls were shooting 64.1% on those attempts, which ranked 28th in the league.
“We’ve got to play basketball in a way that you get rewarded playing the right way,” Donovan said.
“We got too much standing and guys just trying to put their head down and go one-on-one. And that’s not a good formula for us. We’ve got to play more the right way. I think we’ve shown a way to do that. We’ve gotten away from that.”
The Bulls will look to snap their losing skid when they welcome the Warriors (11-12) to the United Center on Sunday.
“Nothing in the league is easily fixable,” White said. “We’re playing against the best competition every night, the best players in the world. For us, we’re going to have put in the effort. We’re going to have to fight and claw our way back to where we want to get to, but I believe we can. We’re a close group. We got a lot of great relationships on this team. So for us, we just got to continue to have the honest conversations we’re having with each other and continue to grow. It’s going to take all of us, and it’s going to take a ton of spirit, a ton of heart. But it is fixable, which is the most important thing.”
Cody Westerlund is an editor for 670TheScore.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.