Wednesday’s loss to the Washington Wizards forced the Chicago Bulls to answer a pointed question — what is this team without DeMar DeRozan?
DeRozan sat out his first game of the season, spending a rare night on the sidelines decked out in a pink sweatsuit as he recovers from a right quad strain.
This question might seem unfair. Stars are signed to multimillion dollar contracts for a reason — to sit at the top of the statsheet. It makes sense any team would be listless without their leader on the court. But studying a team without its top star can also help illuminate weak points in a team, a learning opportunity which was on full display in D.C.
The Bulls brought Alex Caruso back into the primary rotation to replace DeRozan, sticking with a smaller lineup with backup forward Javonte Green unavailable. The game started slow with a scoreless opening three minutes for the Bulls, signaling the oncoming night of shaky offense as they sputtered out to a 100-97 loss.
It makes sense that the recently-prolific Bulls offense would crash land into its third sub-100 game of the season without DeRozan. The offense became increasingly reliant on the trio of DeRozan, Zach LaVine and Nikola Vučević as it rose to an 115.6 offensive rating (12th in the league) over the last 15 games, contributing 61% of all scoring. DeRozan accounted for 25.9 (22.4%) of those points.
LaVine and Vučević stayed right on track in DeRozan’s absence — LaVine scored 38 points and hit a tying 3-pointer with 30.1 seconds remaining, while Vučević added 15 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.
So where were the missing points?
The first place to look are the remaining starters — particularly Patrick Williams, who scored only six points in the loss, going 3-for-8 from the field and 0-for-2 from 3-point range.
Williams’ scoreless night from behind the arc highlighted the ongoing weaknesses of the Bulls’ 3-point shooting, which is virtually nonexistent outside of LaVine and Vučević. And while Williams has upped his aggressiveness in recent games, he disappeared in a game that desperately needed him, taking only one shot in the final quarter.
The Bulls bench is one of the best defensive secondary units — seventh-best 52.5 defensive rating in the league — but it’s balanced by a lack of scoring. The bench is 22nd overall in offensive rating (53.7) and that number has only trended down as the Big Three shifted the offense into second gear.
This disparity was highlighted in the third quarter, when the Bulls were outscored 41-21. Although the Bulls have been prone to deflation after halftime, the severity of this drop-off showcased the lack of cohesive scoring. LaVine scored 10 points and Vučević scored five; the remainder of the team tallied only six points.
The Bulls hope they won’t have to face the DeRozan question often.
DeRozan has played in all 82 games twice during his career and featured in 90.9% of all possible regular-season games in 14 seasons. He had to be convinced to take a night off for the season finale last year, sitting out with his fellow veterans to rest up for the playoffs.
But Wednesday’s loss without DeRozan served as an important reminder — stars can’t do it on their own. Consistency from the supporting cast is the only way the Bulls will consistency find the win column, an issue that will become more pressing with each game in the latter half of the season.
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