Bulls vs. Hornets final score: Bulls dead on arrival

Tonight's game in Charlotte was the last of this horrific road trip, and was the Bulls 3rd in 4 nights. And a lot of guys are out hurt or limited. So it's not super surprising they didn't have much in the tank.

But it was a bit surprising that Derrick Rose called off last-minute due to general body soreness.

Still, timing was strange. Hoiberg said post shootaround he would stick with same starters. Then lineup sheets are passed out w/o Rose in it

— Nick Friedell (@NickFriedell) February 8, 2016

So Derrick didn't want to play, and the rest of the team really didn't either. They got pasted early, allowing 17 points on the Hornets first 9 shots, on their way to allowing 38 points in the first quarter. Big games from Kemba Walker and Nic Batum all the way down to Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Spencer Hawes. The Hornets spaced the Bulls out and ran effectively in transition. Hornets coach Steve Clifford must've tossed all the knowledge Thibs gave him and embraced Hoiball after seeing some YouTube videos, because that's some efficient offense that only a select few coaches can understand!

Don't worry, the Bulls offense sucked too. Their only chance was some out-of-ass-pulling game from Hinrich and Brooks, and that didn't happen in the least as they shot a combined 3-20. The Bulls as a team missed 8 of their first 10 three-pointers and were already down 25 midway through the 2nd quarter.

This isn't a team that can really pull off a big comeback because their bench (now the deep bench, given the injuries) is riddled with some truly horrid defenders like Brooks, McDermott, Portis, and Bairstow. Those guys played a lot! In fact Bairstow played a long stretch of consecutive minutes in the 2nd half where the Bulls at least got the deficit to 12, making sure to annoy the Hornets into putting back their starters to seal their win.

But it was a loss from the pregame warmup. The Bulls collectively went into this game as a loss, so I suppose I shouldn't put much more effort into a 'recap'. I guess it was neat that Mike Dunleavy hit a couple threes. And less neat and more annoying that Pau Gasol just started gunning for his threes, as he shot 3-5 from distance. It was that kind of game, Cody freakin' Zeller hit a wide open corner three, his first of the year.

To finish, here's Doug McDermott (who, when the game turned into summer league, put on a Doug summer league performance offensively) with some goofy help defense, to add the collection.