The Bulls (10-15) fell to the Los Angeles Clippers (19-8) 125-106 at the United Center Friday night. A fun first half gave way to a flat final two quarters.
Here are 16 observations:
1. Billy Donovan got the lineup card correct and successfully inserted Garrett Temple into the starting lineup for this one.
2. The Clippers entered play without Paul George, who's been out with a toe injury their last three games. Then, Kawhi Leonard and Serge Ibaka each gimped off to the visitor's locker room within the game's first four minutes (Leonard returned later in the first quarter after subbing at the 10:19 mark; Ibaka returned in the first minute of the second).
3. The time between Leonard exiting the game and strolling back to the bench coincided with a 12-0 Clippers run after Coby White kicked off the game with two catch-and-shoot 3s to give the Bulls a 6-2 lead.
4. Daniel Gafford has had some ugly stretches since replacing the injured Wendell Carter Jr. in the starting lineup, but tonight's opening stint the cake. He committed two fouls and four turnovers in less than four minutes before Thad Young tapped him out at the 8:23 mark. He didn't check back in until the start of the third quarter and finished with eight minutes on the game.
5. After the Pelicans game, Donovan said he deployed Luke Kornet ahead of Cristiano Felício in the rotation in hopes that the threat of Kornet's outside shot would pull New Orleans' bigs (Zion Williamson/Steven Adams) out of the paint. Playing small by necessity again -- the Bulls started the second quarter with Tomáš Satoranský, White, Temple and Denzel Valentine on the floor -- Kornet got the nod once more.
He scored 5 points and hit a 3 in seven second quarter minutes, finishing with 7 points and 3 rebounds when all was said and done.
6. White built off his explosion against the Pelicans, scoring 17 points on 7-for-14 shooting, 3-for-8 from 3-point range. He made more nice passing reads than his 4 assists show and ended the evening with just 2 turnovers.
Moreover, he looked more in control of the game, on and off the ball, on the offensive end. And, for someone whose ball-handling and finishing have been (fairly) questioned, these were nice to see:
7. The turnover bug bit back with a vengeance. The Clippers turned nine Bulls cough-ups into 14 points in the first half. By night's end, they'd turned 13 turnovers (not terrible) into 24 points (yeesh).
The Bulls had quietly been averaging 12.3 turnovers per game in their last six games -- and outscored opponents in the points off turnovers category in each -- entering play.
8. Zach LaVine got off to a strong start, scoring 13 points and canning three 3s in the first quarter, and ended with 26 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists. That snaps a streak of three straight scoring at least 30.
9. Kawhi Leonard is inevitable. On an off night from behind the arc (1-for-6), he baseline jumper-ed the Bulls into oblivion, scoring 33 with 6 rebounds and 3 assists. 15 of those points came in a third quarter the Clippers won 32-24 and closed on a five-minute, 14-5 run.
10. 26 fourth-quarter points from Lou Williams (11) and Marcus Morris (15) helped nail the coffin.
11. The Clippers finished shooting 58.1 percent from the field and with an emerald-green shot chart. The Bulls' defense continues to leak.
12. Satoranský set new season-highs in minutes (30) and points (17), slinging 7 assists and going 7-for-7 from the free throw line. He's been sharp of late.
13. Patrick Williams again admirably took on the brunt of the Leonard challenge defensively, but was mostly invisible on the other end, scoring 3 points and taking just five shots. Only Gafford and Arcidiacono attempted less (removing Felício and Adam Mokoka's garbage time minutes).
14. After a 2-for-3 line from deep, Temple is now 4-for-6 from 3 in his last two games after entering the Pelicans matchup 8-for-41 in his previous nine games.
15. The Pelicans win was exhilarating and this one was hard-fought for a while, but it ends with the Bulls' seventh loss in their last 10 games. The returns of Lauri Markkanen, Wendell Carter Jr. and Otto Porter Jr. are still not yet in sight.
16. The Bulls played without Markkanen and Porter in their last matchup with the Clippers, too, and it went down the wire. This time, the Clippers sans George didn't mess around, outscoring the Bulls 67-52 in the second half.
Next up: The Bulls travel to Indiana to face the Pacers on Monday.
Postgame Report
Donovan, on Gafford's struggles: "Some of those things are in the pocket. I think that’s an area he has to get more comfortable. He had a lot of plays there early in the game where the ball got slapped out of his hand and he was rolling to the mid-pocket... He’s going to have to get better, because he’s just not always going to be able to roll and throw it up to the rim and get dunks... That’s just something we have to try to help him with, to help get more comfortable in those areas of the floor. He has to slow down a little bit."
Williams, on guarding Leonard: "I think I could have did better. Energy, defensively, just making it tough on him, I think he was a little bit too comfortable out there. That's on me."
... and on balancing his offense and defense: "Nothing's easy in this league. But for sure, when you work so hard on the defensive end, when it comes to the offensive end, it's kinda, that's your time to rest. But the player that I want to be and the person that I want to be in this league, I have to be able to do it on both ends. For example, like Kawhi. He's really good on both ends. So just watch his film, get better from it."
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