CHICAGO – The Chicago Bulls have now lost seven of their last eight games as they fell at home against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night. Things got pretty ugly ahead of the All-Star break as the Bulls lost four games in a row by 18 points or more. They are now just 1-3 since the All-Star break, but the team has been competing. Those three losses have been by five points or less.
Chicago needs to find a way to get more wins, but they are trending in a positive direction right now after limping into the All-Star break. Josh Giddey knows that they are close.
“It kind of shows where we’re at,” Josh Giddey said after the loss to the Clippers, according to an article from NBA.com. “Phoenix, New York; we’ve been in every game. Obviously, big win in Philly, but the three losses we’ve had after the break, I think we’ve shown we can compete with anybody. We put ourselves in position to win games. So it’s a matter of figuring out how to close these games out. The next step for our team is late game execution both sides of the ball. No team has blown us out since the break. We’ve been in every game; it’s been competitive. So it’s just how to close out games down the stretch and as time goes on we’ll learn that and figure that out.”
Like Josh Giddey, Bulls head coach Billy Donovan is focusing on the positives. Before the All-Star break, the Bulls got blown at two nights in a row at home against the Detroit Pistons. Donovan prefers a competitive contest.
“When you are going to go against good teams, you are going to have these situations that come down, hopefully, to the wire,” Billy Donovan said to the media after the game. “I’d rather play in those games than the Detroit games before the break. I like what our guys are doing, and the more they are in these situations the better they will get in them.”
One thing is for sure: this Bulls team doesn’t quit. There were times against the Clippers where it looked like LA was going to pull away, but the Bulls continued to fight their way back.
“There’s going to be these emotional swings in games, and I like the way we responded,” Donovan added. “We got down 10, got right back in the game, third quarter to start…fourth quarter. With the momentum changes in an NBA game, with the number of possessions you have to weather those things and I appreciate the way those guys have battled and competed. We’ve been fighting our way back in the games, which has been good.”
The Bulls are competing, and that’s important. However, they need to start turning some of these close losses into wins. Chicago is currently 1.5 games up on the Brooklyn Nets for the final play-in tournament spot. Some more breathing room for the Bulls would be nice.
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