Ricky Rubio shows Hoiberg’s Bulls some pace

Not too much to say for this latest debacle, the Bulls were out several key guys and were blown out early and often against a not-great TWolves team on Sunday afternoon.

It was a matinee of the Ricky Rubio show, who had 17 points and 11 assists in 33 minutes, and led his team towards getting an absurd 56 points in the paint in this game. Some of his performance was an outlier (a couple and-one conversions, making 6-6 from the line) but watch as he totally carves up the Bulls with ease.

The Bulls defensive collapse was a combination of having nobody to effectively stop Rubio at the point of attack, and the rest of the defenders being their typically unaware selves.

The Bulls are still in the top-half of the league in defensive efficiency (13th) but I’m not sure how. Having Butler and Niko out (the latter because it meant lots of Portis) didn’t help, but this was real bad.

Meanwhile, the Wolves backup PG Kris Dunn was abysmal, with 0 points and 3 turnovers in 12 minutes while accumulating a +1 in a game where his team was demolishing the Bulls otherwise. Dunn was highly coveted by the GarPax Analog Hoopsketball Scouting Service, so it makes sense he blows.

Zero Bulls had a good game

Don’t let the box score fool you, everybody sucked. McDermott was meant to step up in these situations and tied for the scoring lead with 16 points and hit 4-7 from three, but took until two minutes left in the first half (when they were already down 25) to score his first points in the game. And he was a train wreck on defense. You could see it in some of those Rubio highlights where he kept losing his man behind him...tough to even think Doug gets to the stereotyped level of ‘heady team defender tho’ because he’s a total space cadet. And, sure, Doug is actually a better athlete then you’d think...he’s still not much of an athlete.

Bobby Portis also had 16 points but was somehow even worse defensively. He is seemingly either too small or two slow for any assignment.

Rondo and MCW had ok counting stats but combined for 11 turnovers. Jerian Grant had an efficient scoring line but was worked by Rubio. Normal stalwarts in Robin Lopez (shot 5-11) and Taj Gibson (early foul trouble leading to zero impact) weren’t good either, and worse their presence meant Stacey King was calling for post-ups for 48 minutes. Cult hero Cristiano Felicio couldn’t even supply sweet Twitter Vids as he blew a wide-open dunk. Isaiah Canaan came into the ballgame for an immediate spurt, but then missed his next 5 attempts.

This somehow could’ve been even worse?

As mentioned in the recap, the Bulls were 10/25 from three, while Timberwolves were 6/24. It was only after a couple late bombs by Nemanja Bjelica after the game was well decided that even got the TWolves to that level, for most of the game the difference was even more lopsided yet the Bulls were still getting trounced.

At one point in the 3rd quarter the Bulls had made 5 straight triples (non-Rondos were 9/12), part of a run to get them at their closest (13 points). Their defense couldn’t hold up for more than a few possessions at a time for it to make any difference.