What happens when the team with the fastest pace in the NBA meets the team with the second-worst?
Sunday offered an answer to that question.
The Bulls have gone from 28th in pace to first thanks to the personnel changes and a coach who has rebuilt an offense to maximize their talents. Meanwhile, the Sixers have struggled to succeed with an injury-ridden roster. Sunday, all Nick Nurse could muster pregame when asked how to slow the Bulls down was, “You gotta run back really fast.”
Turns out, the Sixers didn’t have an issue keeping up with the Bulls thanks to one MVP being reinserted. Joel Embiid exposed what’s been the Bulls’ Achilles’ heel all season: physicality in the paint. He finished with 31 points, helping hand the Bulls a 108-100 loss on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Bull’s big man — Nikola Vucevic — was rendered largely ineffective, finishing with just 13 points on seven attempts.
“One area that’s gotta be a major focus for us going into these four days is we’ve gotta be able to post feed better,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said. “He could have had a much better offensive night.”
Sunday was the Bulls’ second consecutive game with at least 50 three-point attempts, which isn’t necessarily an issue for a team leading the NBA in pace. The task for the Bulls — emphasized by Vucevic’s lack of involvement in the last two losses — is melding their high volume from behind the arc with getting Vucevic his inside touches.
“There was way too many passes deflected, tipped away,” Donovan said. “We’ve got to find him and we’ve done a pretty good job of that, but I think that’s the versatility of Vooch. It’s OK if he’s not necessarily getting threes. He can do other things, finding the ball in the pocket. I thought he had some opportunities to shoot the basketball, but he’s so unselfish he moved it. We’ve got to be better at executing passes to him.”
The Bulls gave up 21 points off turnovers, including six in the fourth quarter.
Donovan added that he’s pleased with his team’s shot selection from behind the arc. They’re averaging 43.5 attempts this season and converting 38.4%. What’s impressed him most is their ability to generate uncontested threes.
Against the Sixers, however, they shot 19-for-54 from deep.
“We didn’t shoot the ball well,” Donovan said. “I thought it started slipping from us in the first half. I give the guys a lot of credit coming out of the half. Even though we struggled offensively to shoot the ball, we gave ourselves a chance.”
“Physically, we competed a lot better defensively.”
The Sixers outscored the Bulls 54-30 in the paint and outrebounded them 56-35. Embiid’s presence was the difference. He started the game shooting 0-for-7 before going on an 8-for-11 tear to close the first half, helping give his team a 12-point advantage as they headed for the locker rooms.
Rookie Matas Buzelis earned significant minutes in the second half, playing a 15-minute stint between the third and fourth quarters.
“It surprised me a little, but I’m always ready for the opportunity,” Buzelis said. “I’m always ready to compete. I was fine today. I just missed some shots. Defensively, I was really solid, got in transition for our guys, and rebounded well. That stretch was pretty good to me, but I’ll rewatch the film.”
LaVine led the Bulls with 30 points on another efficient shooting night, going 10-for-21 from the field. Josh Giddey added 13 points and Lonzo Ball finished with three points and two assists. Ball was part of Donovan’s closing lineup after his minutes restriction was upped from a hard cap of 18 minutes per game to 20.
The loss to the Pacers on Friday was yet another reminder of how the lack of practice time keeps feeding into way too many defensive breakdowns. That changes Monday, and Donovan can’t wait.
Williams was showing signs of consistency before discomfort in his surgically repaired left foot surfaced in mid-November. Bulls coach Billy Donovan said Friday that progress is being made. Williams will have a steady week of practice starting Monday, and if there are no setbacks, he could play next Friday against the Hornets.
