There’s backing in, and then there’s backing down.
In a 123-105 loss to the depleted Hawks on Tuesday at the Uniter Center, the Bulls did both. And no matter how much it ends up hurting them in the Eastern Conference standings — which could be a lot — it was embarrassing and inexcusable.
How’s that bland season tasting, Bulls fans? Even less satisfying now.
In a game they had to win — and despite having every conceivable advantage with Hawks star Trae Young and third-leading scorer De’Andre Hunter both out of the lineup — the Bulls took the floor in lights-out mode. As in, the lights were out and they were ready for a nice, ill-timed nap.
What is it with this team?
“I think our battle and our struggle this year has been the consistency point,” coach Billy Donovan said beforehand.
The Bulls underlined those words, circled them and probably would have shouted them from the rooftops — but that would have required some energy.
The Bulls (38-41) and Hawks (40-39) were eighth and 10th, respectively, in the East standings coming in, but the Bulls missed a great opportunity to move up. A win would have pulled them even — just behind the 40-39 Raptors — with a tiebreaker edge for beating the Hawks in the season series. At the least, it would have put the Bulls in position to host the 9-vs.-10 game, potentially against the Hawks, in the play-in tournament.
Instead, with only three games to go, the Bulls are just about out of hope of finishing above 10th. Whether that will necessitate a trip to Atlanta or Toronto remains to be seen.
By the time the buzzer sounded, it felt like it almost didn’t matter.
But, hey, the 11th-place Magic lost Tuesday, locking the Bulls into the play-in. So they’ve got that going for them.
Given all the scattered ups and downs of an NBA season — especially for a middling team that has been under .500 since it was 6-6 in early November — was it naive to think the Bulls would benefit from a carryover effect after their essentially perfect second half Sunday against the Grizzlies? The Bulls turned a 15-point halftime deficit into a 128-107 runaway in that game, fueled primarily by an unheard-of 31-0 edge in points off turnovers. The Bulls’ three turnovers for the game tied a franchise-record low.
That was the opposite of giving away a game — nice, wasn’t it? — which the Bulls have done too much of in recent seasons. It doesn’t do them any good now to think of the worst examples of that, but this late skirmish for play-in positioning could have been a lot easier had they not blown 20-plus-point leads in losses to the Cavaliers and the Pacers in January and the lowly Pacers again in February.
Bogdan Bogdanovic started for Young, who has a non-COVID-related illness, and led the Hawks with 26 points. Saddiq Bey, in for the third straight game for the injured Hunter, had 18, while Jalen Johnson scored a career-high 16.
Six weeks since firing coach Nate McMillan while sitting in eighth place in the East at 29-30, the Hawks have gone 11-10 — including a 2-0 mark with assistant Joe Prunty in an interim role — and 9-10 under McMillan’s replacement, Quin Snyder.