Thompson, Warriors Make Absolute Mockery of Bulls
Rather than talk about the details of the Bulls’ 149-124 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Monday, the Warriors putting up 92 points in the first half or the fact that Klay Thompson scored 52 points while making an NBA-record 14 3-pointers, I think it would be better to discuss the bigger picture. When a game like this happens, everything becomes a blur. You tend to forget what your team did exactly because you were so taken in by what the opponent did. And I can’t recall seeing anything like this in my 22 years of watching Bulls basketball.
Yes, the Bulls are missing some key pieces right now, but you can’t excuse this. Don’t even attempt to because you’ll make yourself look foolish. This could have been a Duke-Chicago State matchup, and no one would have known the difference. That’s how lopsided this was.
By the time Thompson sank his final 3, even Stacey King didn’t hold back. He lamented about how frequently the Bulls left him open and paid for it. Indeed, it takes a special kind of bad to give up the second-most first-half points in NBA history. Ladies and gentlemen, the Bulls are in that class regardless of who they have available.
Everyone knows what the Warriors are capable of, so the idea is to prepare for them by countering with whatever talent you’ve got, even if it’s very little. From the opening tip, the Bulls had no idea what they were doing. Before the game got out of hand, it appeared the strategy was to make Zach LaVine play iso ball and have everyone else shoot wherever they could whether it made sense or not. For instance, I know Wendell Carter Jr. is a center who can make 3s, but unless you have Dirk Nowitzki in his prime, you shouldn’t allow your big man to unload from downtown early against an opponent like this.
Few are expecting the Warriors to not win another championship this year, but to take a loss like you did Monday, your inferior talent has to combine with worse game-planning. Fred Hoiberg will have a lot to answer for over the next 24 hours. Is it possible a lot of his questionable decisions in earlier games built up to this humiliation? Regardless if that was the case or if he misread absolutely everything about this matchup going in, you have to hold him and his staff accountable.
If the Bulls are indeed tanking, there’s a way to do so without having your pride completely stripped away. It sure doesn’t feel like there’s anything to be proud of right now. We can’t even rely on the young talent to give us hope because half of it is recovering from injuries. This must be how low things go.
Of course, we have to question how much worse it can get. With the remaining Bulls who have not been bitten by the injury bug, this hole might get even deeper. Lauri Markkanen, Denzel Valentine, Kris Dunn and Bobby Portis cannot return fast enough. However, they’ll be joining their teammates in being stuck deep without a rope to help them climb out by the time they do.
It doesn’t get any easier because the Bulls host the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday. There’s another team that’s gotten off to a good start, leading the Northwest. Despite this, with no place to go but up, the game has got to be more enjoyable than what we just saw. Then again, good times are not with the 2018–19 Bulls, so another colossal embarrassment seems far more likely.
