Snatched in double overtime, the Bulls’ victory against the Sixers caused a lot of talk since, for the first time in his career, Joel Embiid lost to the Chicago franchise.
Of course, with a rematch two days later, Billy Donovan’s players were forewarned and knew the All-Star pivot was going to want to respond. The coach had also conveyed this message to his troops, comparing this victory to a playoff match.
“I talked about it with the guys even before this meeting”starts the trainer for The Athletic. “This game was, for me, very similar to Game 2 against the Bucks in the playoffs last season. »
With a huge DeMar DeRozan (41 points), the Bulls had managed to snatch a victory on the floor of the defending champion at the time. But what followed was less glorious: a 30-point loss at home in Game 3, with a one-sided first quarter for Giannis Antetokounmpo and his gang.
Billy Donovan probably had flashes of the night on Wednesday night, when he saw his players concede a 23-1 in the first six minutes! “They didn’t do anything new, they didn’t come here with a new attack”observes and reminds the coach for the Chicago Sun Times. “Our intensity was not there. »
Would the Bulls have been too focused on the reaction of Joel Embiid, expecting a big game from him, and forgetting the other players?
“We knew they were going to start the game in a strong way”, concedes Zach LaVine. “They did everything right, they made the adjustments. We must highlight the work of Embiid too, we wanted to take the ball out of his hands and he did it very quickly. And the others put the shots open. »
In addition to this heavy defeat, the evening was tarnished by the injury of DeMar DeRozan. She is proof that, despite eight wins in twelve games before this slide, the Bulls remain a fragile team.
” Yes “, confirms Nikola Vucevic for NBC Sports. “It’s one of those games where nothing goes our way. You have to throw it in the trash. They were hot. We have to learn from this, so it doesn’t happen again. »
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Demar Derozan | 65 | 36.8 | 51.2 | 33.9 | 87.0 | 0.5 | 4.3 | 4.7 | 5.1 | 2.2 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 2.6 | 25.4 |
| Zach Lavine | 67 | 36.4 | 48.0 | 38.2 | 85.0 | 0.6 | 4.1 | 4.7 | 4.1 | 2.6 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 2.1 | 25.0 |
| Nikola Vucevic | 71 | 34.3 | 51.1 | 35.0 | 82.7 | 2.0 | 9.3 | 11.3 | 3.3 | 1.7 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 2.3 | 17.8 |
| patrick williams | 71 | 28.6 | 46.7 | 41.5 | 87.1 | 0.9 | 3.2 | 4.1 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 1.8 | 10.1 |
| Coby White | 63 | 22.6 | 42.3 | 36.3 | 85.5 | 0.2 | 2.5 | 2.7 | 2.3 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 1.6 | 8.9 |
| Ayo Dosunmu | 69 | 26.8 | 49.6 | 31.3 | 81.1 | 0.6 | 2.3 | 2.9 | 2.6 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 2.4 | 8.8 |
| Patrick Beverly | 12 | 29.5 | 42.4 | 34.0 | 45.5 | 1.5 | 4.7 | 6.2 | 3.8 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 3.6 | 6.4 |
| Goran Dragic | 51 | 15.4 | 42.5 | 35.2 | 65.9 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 2.7 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 6.4 |
| Andre Drummond | 58 | 12.7 | 60.7 | 0.0 | 53.8 | 2.0 | 4.5 | 6.5 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 1.9 | 5.9 |
| Javonte Green | 29 | 15.8 | 58.7 | 38.2 | 67.4 | 0.9 | 2.0 | 2.9 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 1.7 | 5.7 |
| Alex Caruso | 59 | 24.0 | 44.5 | 36.1 | 81.2 | 0.6 | 2.4 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 1.2 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 2.4 | 5.6 |
| Derrick Jones | 54 | 13.7 | 50.5 | 32.2 | 76.7 | 0.9 | 1.4 | 2.4 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 1.3 | 4.9 |
| Terry Taylor | 2 | 2.9 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 2.0 |
| Dalen Terry | 28 | 4.9 | 46.3 | 37.5 | 50.0 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 1.8 |
| Tony Bradley | 12 | 2.8 | 50.0 | 60.0 | 100.0 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 1.6 |
| carlik jones | 2 | 11.4 | 20.0 | 0.0 | 25.0 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 1.5 |
| Malcolm Hill | 5 | 1.8 | 50.0 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 1.0 |
| Marko Simonovic | 3 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 |
