10 observations: Bulls comeback falls short vs. Grizzlies

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The Chicago Bulls saw a six-game win streak snapped with a 116-110 home loss to the Memphis Grizzlies Saturday night.

The result drops them to 39-22, one game behind the 40-21 Miami Heat for first in the East.

Here are 10 observations:

1. The Bulls trailed by 17 points — 97-80 — with 10:19 left in the fourth quarter, and 101-85 at the 9:06 mark. To that point, their offense badly struggled with Memphis' length and physicality, shooting 38.5 percent and 33.3 percent inside the arc (4-for-15 from the midrange, 41.3 percent in the paint).

But what followed was a hellacious run, in which they scored 14 unanswered points in just over five minutes to pull within 101-99. From there, the two sides traded punches down the stretch in thrilling fashion. The game didn’t extend outside of a four-point margin until the Grizzlies drew game-clinching free throws in the final seconds.

2. DeMar DeRozan scored in the 30s for the tenth straight contest, though he did have his eight-game streak of scoring 35 or more points on 50 percent or better shooting snapped by tallying 31 on an uncharacteristic 10-for-29 (2-for-10 from the midrange). In the fourth quarter, he came alive to score 13 points, including a flurry of midrange pull-ups during the run that made it a competitive game. 

But, down three points with 14.9 seconds to go, it was DeRozan who was stripped on a drive to the rim — then ejected for drawing his second technical of the game arguing for a foul.

3. It was almost surreal to see DeRozan not come through in crunch-time, but head coach Billy Donovan said that final play went according to script.

"What I didn't want to do was to bomb a 3 and maybe miss or get a tough shot. I wanted to get something to the rim," Donovan said. "Tried to get DeMar in the middle of the floor, I think we got it to him where we needed to. Obviously he felt like he had gotten fouled.

“We were just trying to get something downhill to try to get a quick score, and from there, if it's a one-point game, we still have one timeout, maybe we can press or if they call timeout, we can try to maybe get a trap and a quick steal or something if that's possible. If not, they make two free throws or one free throw, you call timeout it's still a one-possession game. 

“It was unfortunate the way that last possession unfolded, being down three (points), but we got it to DeMar in the middle of the floor and he's been just incredible for us from that area the whole entire year. It didn't work out.

The Bulls had a timeout in their pocket, and according to Donovan, planned to trap Memphis after punching in the quick two points, so the strategy wasn’t completely ill-founded. It was just one of those nights.

4. The Grizzlies entered play first in the NBA in both offensive rebounds and second-chance points per game, and burned the Bulls in both categories. Memphis pulled down a whopping 19 offensive rebounds (eight from Steven Adams, alone) and converted them into 20 second-chance points.

“We could not secure rebounds when we forced misses,” Donovan opined. “It seemed like there was four straight possessions where we got them to miss and we couldn't come down and secure rebounds.

Fact-check: True. The Grizzlies pulled down five offensive rebounds in a three-possession span between the 1:56 and 40.9 second mark of the fourth. Those extra possessions were back-breaking, as two of them combined to result in five points (on Ja Morant free throws to go up 108-105 at 1:51, and a Desmond Bane 3 to go up 111-107 at 1:21).

5. In that vein, Adams’ impact was immense. He notched 12 points, 21 rebounds and five assists, bullying the Bulls on the interior and attracting a ton of attention on the glass all game.

6. The Grizzlies’ potent offense ground to a halt during the Bulls’ mad early fourth-quarter dash, but Morant dragged them from the depths down the stretch. After the Bulls pulled to within 101-99, Morant scored 10 points on 2-for-4 shooting (6-for-7 on free throws) in the game’s final four minutes, generating shots in the painted area and at the charity stripe with knifing dribble-drives.

Morant finished with a career-high 46 points on 15-for-28 shooting. He notched 30 of those in the second half (20 in the third quarter), and 22 in the paint, building on his NBA-leading average of 16.5 paint points per game. The Bulls struggled to contain his drives, and pick-and-roll with Adams, throughout.

7. Coby White closed the contest over Ayo Dosunmu, who, as many do, struggled with the Morant assignment while going scoreless on 0-for-2 shooting at the offensive end. 

Donovan said he rolled with White because of his shooting, and the third-year guard delivered, knocking down three of six 3-point attempts, including a snipe that pulled the Bulls within 106-105 with just under two-and-a-half minutes to play.

8. Zach LaVine didn’t look quite in-rhythm Thursday against the Hawks, nor in the first quarter of this one, after returning from a three-game, knee-soreness-induced absence (which was lengthened seven days by the All-Star break). 

But he had a LaVine-esque scoring spurt between the second and third quarters, making five of six field-goal attempts after starting 2-for-8. In all, he finished with 28 points, six assists and shot 3-for-3 from 3-point range.

9. Tristan Thompson finished with a team-best plus-14 plus-minus — to go with five points and four rebounds — for his energetic contributions during the team’s early-fourth-quarter run. While Donovan said he never wavered in his intention to close with Nikola Vučević (who shot 5-for-17 and was minus-18), he did say he left Thompson on the court longer than he initially planned to because of the success of that lineup.

10. With the loss, the Bulls are now 6-14 against the top six teams in each conference (i.e., playoff teams as of Feb. 26). They’re 0-2 against the Grizzlies, Heat and Warriors, 0-3 against the 76ers, 0-1 against the Bucks and Suns, 1-1 against the Celtics, Cavaliers and Mavericks, 1-0 against the Utah Jazz and 2-0 against the Nuggets.

Shorthanded or not, it’s a concerning dynamic. But they’ll have plenty of opportunities to correct it down the stretch.

Next up: At the Heat on Monday.

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