It’s a 3-peat: ‘Cancun’ Bulls didn’t throw in beach towel, but where do they go from here?
Maybe it was a bad sign when the Bulls came out in jerseys that read “Cancun” across their chests.
Well, actually, on second glance, the uniforms did say “Chicago.” But the Bulls played like a spring beach vacation was in their hearts and on their minds. At least in the first half.
Yes, they played with more intensity in the second half, but a 24-point halftime deficit proved too much to overcome and their season is now mercifully over thanks to a 109-90 drubbing at the hands of their Play-In nemesis, the Miami Heat.
“Credit to the guys,” said a disappointed Josh Giddey, who led the Bulls with 25 points and added 10 rebounds and 4 assists, “we didn’t throw the towel at all through that game. It would have been easy when we were down 20, 25, but we stuck with it and tried to give ourselves a chance.”
Yes, the Bulls trailed by as much as 25 and lost by 19. Where’s the banner?
For the third straight season, the Bulls were knocked out of this tournament by the Heat. Good thing Pat Riley trademarked “three-peat.”
Back in the day, Riley’s Miami team used to end Chicago’s season in the actual playoffs, but standards have been lowered significantly since Tom Thibodeau was unceremoniously fired 10 years ago this May. The Bulls have made the real playoffs just twice in the last decade, and once again they’ll be home, or on the beach, when they begin this weekend.
No one needed an 83rd game to know these Bulls, who went 39-43 in the regular season, aren’t a playoff team. In the end, a competitive March and April, when half the league is on cruise control, meant nothing. The only postseason experience the young Bulls players got was how to deal with getting your butts kicked in front of your frustrated fans.
“We just got to come ready in the summer,” Bulls guard Coby White said. “We’ve got to start preventing this. We’ve got to learn from it and not put ourselves in this situation.”
The postgame locker room was quiet and coach Billy Donovan was frustrated. It’s not like anyone could really have been surprised at the result, but the Bulls swept the Heat during the regular season and just beat them here last Wednesday, so you could’ve expected a competitive game. Instead, Miami shot 61 percent in the first quarter and held the Bulls to 19 points in the second to go into the half with a commanding 71-47 lead.
“I thought we came out with the wrong mindset, and credit to them, they did an awesome job getting back,” Giddey said. “I don’t think we got out in transition enough tonight and that’s kind of where we hang our hats. So I thought a lot of it was them. They dictated terms from pretty early on in that game, and we just didn’t respond the way we needed to.”
“We thought if we just do what we know we normally do, then we’ll be good,” said White, who shot a woeful 5 for 20 from the field and finished with 17 points. “But they got guys that have been to the Finals. They got guys that know what it takes. They got a head coach who is one of the best head coaches in the league. So they came in and they were a better team tonight.”
The only Chicago highlights in the first half were a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by rookie Matas Buzelis to end the first quarter and Bears quarterback Caleb Williams autographing a football and firing it into the stands. (Williams, an eagle-eyed reporter noticed, left with seven minutes to go in the game and the Bulls trailing by 17. He lost enough games last year to know when one is assured.)
Meanwhile, Tyler Herro, who was a punchline here last week for an ill-advised late 3-point attempt, made all eight of his shots in the first half for 23 points and finished with a game-high 38. He’s been there, done that. Unlike the Bulls players, he’s used to playing for more than a chance to make the playoffs.
Miami finished with 56 points in the paint (the Bulls had 40) and scored easy bucket after easy bucket. The Bulls knew coming into the season that defense would be a problem and those fears were realized time and time again. But this time, the Bulls couldn’t score either. Their 90 points would be a season low if Play-In stats counted.
“The disappointing part was we didn’t play to our identity,” Donovan said. “You know, we just didn’t.”
But while it’s easy to pile on the Bulls — did you see Patrick Williams’ stat line of 0 points and 2 rebounds in 14:35? — this was the best-case scenario. Now they’re assured of a lottery pick. They still have to wait on the other Play-In games to see where they’ll stack up, but the Bulls need all the help they can get.
Last year, they landed Buzelis with the 11th pick and he’s one of the few bright spots in an otherwise moribund organization. Bulls vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas has a big decision to make on Giddey, a restricted free agent who had a nice second-half push. White has one year remaining on a very team-friendly deal. Who do you sign? How much do you pay these guys? What can you win with a core of White, Giddey and Buzelis?
Karnišovas has been mostly a bust as the team’s basketball decision-maker, resigning the team to losing seasons and Play-In Tournaments in the last three seasons. In that time the latest they’ve been even at .500 was the first week of November and that was in 2022. He should be on his way out. But Michael and Jerry Reinsdorf aren’t dynamic owners, so no one’s counting on any dynamic changes.
My guess is Karnišovas will make a bunch of promises about how things are going to change and we’ll be right back here next year after another 39-43 season and another Play-In Tournament that offers nothing but false hope.
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