Bulls vs. Spurs recap: a very poor defensive effort dooms Chicago

To say the Chicago Bulls were an unequivocal disaster on the defensive side of the ball in a 131-122 loss against the San Antonio Spurs on Friday night would undersell just how bad the Bulls were.

The Spurs shot 52.6 percent from the field, 43.2 percent from 3-point land and basically got whatever open look they wanted all night long on the offensive end. The Bulls also only forced seven turnovers the entire game. Thirty five of the Spurs 50 field goals were assisted so they were just shredding the Bulls all night.

After the game, Zach LaVine summed up it pretty eloquently.

It’s almost like the Chicago Bulls are missing their two best defenders or something....

The Spurs were not able to bust open a lead until early fourth quarter when they surged ahead to a 13 point margin. The Bulls never re-gained the lead, getting within a possession at times but allowing too many late baskets.

The Bulls awful effort defensively contrasted sharply with what they did on the offensive end. Both LaVine and DeMar DeRozan scored over 30 points which normally means good stuff is happening for the Bulls. Nikola Vucevic was an efficient 8-for-14 from the field and

Coby White was really good, especially early in the game dropping 18 points on 7-for-9 from the field (four of his field goals were from 3-point land).

Overall, tonight was the most points the Bulls have scored in a losing effort this season.

It was DeRozan’s first game back in San Antonio since joining the Bulls this summer. It was cool to see him play well in his homecoming and the Spurs made a pretty cool hype video to honor him. After controversially not getting the nod as an Eastern Conference All-Star starter, it was nice to see LaVine put up a big game offensively as well.

The injury situation isn’t helping things right now obviously, but even in games the Bulls should still be winning it seems like the team is struggling. Chicago has dropped seven of their last 10 contests and had to scrap and claw to beat teams after blowing big leads in two of their wins against the Oklahoma City Thunder and Toronto Raptors.

Miraculously, the Bulls still have the second best record in the Eastern Conference, but expect them to drop a bit if they continue playing like this.