The Bulls didn’t give up 120 points on Saturday night.
They didn’t get outrebounded, they won the free-throw line battle, and shot better from three-point range than the Pacers.
All steps of progress.
One problem – they also didn’t win.
Thanks to a pump-fake pull-up jumper from 14 feet away as the final horn was about to sound, Indiana forward Pascal Siakam handed the Bulls a third straight loss, as well as their fourth in their last five games, sending the visiting team home 103-101.
How the Bulls have been losing was an obvious concern, especially after a stellar 5-1 start to the season, but who they have been losing to is the real punch in the face. They started the road trip against the two-win Pelicans and fell in New Orleans, tripped up against the four-win Hornets, and now were done in by the three-win Pacers.
The main culprit in all three was not getting key stops when needed, whether it was an offensive rebound by the opposition or simply letting opponents just blow-by for easy baskets. The defense remains a concern for Billy Donovan’s 9-10 crew.
“On drives that has been a challenge for us where we’ve had the ball driven through us quite honestly to the basket,” Donovan said. “I think we have to be better absorbing the first dribble. The rebounding has been a challenge for us, we’ve got to do a better job in those areas. I would say our biggest challenge has been the controlling of the basketball, in particular one-on-one and in space.”
Josh Giddey led the Bulls with 17 points and 11 rebounds.
If there was any good news to come out of the game was while Coby White was restricted from playing in the back-to-back because of a calf strain he suffered back in August, those restrictions are now off.
It didn’t help on Saturday, however.
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