CHICAGO (670 The Score) – The Bulls’ experience in the play-in tournament was less beneficial, intense and meaningful than team brass had billed its potential as for weeks.
The Bulls’ season ended quietly with a pathetic showing in a 109-90 loss to the Heat on Wednesday evening at the United Center in the play-in game between the ninth and 10th seeds of the Eastern Conference. It marked the third straight year that the Heat had eliminated the Bulls in the play-in tournament. In the previous two years, Chicago lost at Miami in the final play-in game with a playoff berth at stake.
The Bulls didn’t get that far this time, and the setting of this game only led to them enduring boos from the home fans as they went to the halftime locker room down 71-47. The Bulls never led and were non-competitive for nearly the entire game as the Heat got anything they wanted on the offensive end while shooting 58.7% in the first half.
“The disappointing part was we didn’t play to our identity,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said, citing the team’s 18 turnovers and lack of pace at times. “We just didn’t.”
The Heat used 6-foot-7 forward Andrew Wiggins to defend Bulls guard Coby White for most of the game, and White was frustrated in a way that isn't often seen. He scored 17 points on 5-of-20 shooting while also committing seven turnovers in perhaps his worst game of the season.
The Heat also slowed Bulls point guard Josh Giddey from an efficiency perspective, as he scored 25 points but shot 9-of-21 from the field.
Heat center Bam Adebayo often defended Giddey while on the floor.
“They just came out the more physical team, the more disciplined team, played more to their identity than we did,” White said. “A game like that, if you get down, because of the pace, they don’t call fouls like they normally do. A lot can contribute to the game being a slower pace, and that doesn’t work in our favor.”
White added that the Bulls players didn’t follow the game plan well enough either.
“We didn’t complete the game plan,” he said. “We didn’t have game plan discipline. We thought as a team, we beat them (all three times) in the regular season, we thought if we just do what we normally do, then we’d be good. But they’ve got guys that have been to the Finals. They’ve got guys that know what it takes. They’ve got a head coach that’s one of the best head coaches in the league. They came in, and they were the better team tonight.”
After the trade deadline passed in February, executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas called earning a play-in berth a potential “accomplishment” and noted it would represent “growth” for the team’s youngsters. Donovan echoed that refrain time and again in preaching the need for the Bulls to play in meaningful basketball games down the stretch to help bolster their development. The Bulls won 15 of their final 20 games to earn the ninth spot in the East.
In the aftermath of this loss, White called it a “good experience for the young guys,” but it was just hard to believe the lackluster showing in a standalone game that was never close carried much meaning.
“No matter what it looks like the regular season, you can lose to anybody in this league,” White said. “It don’t matter.”
If anyone needed to learn a lesson from the play-in tournament Wednesday, it was probably the Bulls front office, not the players. After the Bulls posted a second straight 39-win regular season, they again got a reminder of the sad state of their franchise and a lesson that they aren't as close to success as they might feel like.
The Bulls remain starless with no clear path to obtain one, barring a great stroke of luck in the draft lottery. The few promising young players on the roster all have glaring flaws in their games, and the much-ballyhooed stylistic overhaul from being a plodding team to a fast-paced engine actually was accompanied by a drop in offensive efficiency year over year.
On Thursday, Karnisovas will address the media as the Bulls turn their attention to an offseason in which they have plenty of work to do.
“It’s a sour way to end it,” Giddey said. “We thought we were much better than the way we played tonight.”
Cody Westerlund is an editor for 670TheScore.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.