SAN FRANCISCO — Before Wednesday’s game, John Paxson was digging through the salad bar inside the Chase Center media room when he was asked when he might break his public silence.
“When I’m ready,” said Paxson, the executive VP of basketball operations.
He scurried along to a dining room seat, but not before looking back to add one thing.
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“It could happen on this trip,” he said.
That was before this three-game West Coast road swing began with a 104-90 loss to the worst team in basketball, the wounded but gritty Golden State Warriors.
Must have been some plane ride to Portland.
Paxson wasn’t the only high-level executive who watched live as the Bulls suffered their newest No. 1 inexcusable defeat. Team president Michael Reinsdorf sat courtside with Warriors part owner Joe Lacob, just one seat between them. In the final minutes, Lacob was standing, cheering, fist-pumping and shooting fingers at his juiced and jacked-up players. Reinsdorf could only watch as the Bulls lost for the 13th time in 19 games.
Paxson and Reinsdorf’s grand plan got exposed before their eyes. Again.
“This is not the defining moment of our season,” Bulls coach Jim Boylen said.
Oh, yes it is. It might not be the last. But through a quarter of the season, this Thanksgiving eve defeat was it.
The Warriors entered with a league-worst 3-15 record. They had lost 10 of 11 and had only nine players available, few of whom you’ve probably heard of. Golden State had $100 million in player contracts on the injury report, including Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson (who served as the sideline reporter for the game) and D’Angelo Russell. The Bulls had everyone but Otto Porter Jr., yet for the third time this month against a shorthanded opponent they got slaughtered.
Warriors center Willie Cauley-Stein and his feisty teammates held Tomáš Satoranský and the Bulls to just 90 points in an easy win at the Chase Center. (Kyle Terada / USA Today)
Two time zones away from the United Center, the Bulls didn’t function as a professional basketball club whose stated mission was a return to relevancy.
The season has been filled with home blowouts and Bulls fans cheering for opposing stars. There are increasing empty seats at the UC and a swell of criticism from fans. The Bulls haven’t just lost. They’ve consistently looked terrible. They’ve blown big leads and looked like a mess in fourth quarters. They’ve gotten blown out and have been bullied by teams missing their best players. These trends have been constants.
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A week ago, this three-game trip loomed as a chance to get right. The Warriors were wounded and in last place. Portland was playing poorly and losing. Sacramento would be without De’Aaron Fox and Marvin Bagley. We knew these Bulls to be inconsistent. This trip was a chance to prove they’re not inept. And they couldn’t.
“There’s no shame in this game tonight,” Boylen said. “We played hard. And we competed. And we battled.”
Veterans Zach LaVine and Thaddeus Young agreed. But one young player did not.
“Nah, it’s some shame in this loss,” Bulls center Wendell Carter Jr. said. “In my opinion, it’s some shame in every loss — especially to a very hurt and wounded Warriors team. I’m brutally honest, We should have won that game. Just looking at paper and looking at the players on the court, we should have won that game. No disrespect to them, because they’re fantastic players. But we just didn’t show up and play.”
It wasn’t like the Bulls got outclassed by Kevin Durant and Draymond Green, Golden State’s old forward combo. They were destroyed by Eric Paschall and Omari Spellman. Those two bullied the Bulls inside, powering layups up, over and sometimes through Bulls defenders, as they took turns supplying highlights against Chicago’s frontcourt. Spellman flushed a forceful putback dunk over Daniel Gafford, splashed in a 3 over Young and viciously swatted Carter twice at the rim. Paschall posterized Luke Kornet, who appears to be back in the rotation for some reason.
Meanwhile, Boylen is maintaining belief in his schemes despite growing criticism from more significant corners. Two nights ago against Portland, LaVine conceded that the team’s defensive scheme forces difficult, fast and furious rotating. Following the Warriors loss, Carter spoke candidly after one of his more obvious failed attempts to be both a ball stopper on the perimeter and a rim protecter inside the paint.
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It started with a phantom ball screen on the left wing by Warriors center Marquese Chriss for Alec Burks. Carter jumped out wide. As he did, Chriss slipped, Burks swung the ball back to the top of the arc, and Green delivered a bullet over the defense to Chriss cutting in the paint. All it took were two smart, quick passes for the Warriors to devour the Bulls’ halfcourt defense.
Boylen: "We're going to keep defending this way [blitzing]. And we're going to keep getting better."
Warriors: pic.twitter.com/NHSdLCdsJC
— Stephen Noh (@StephNoh) November 28, 2019
“That is exposed in that coverage we do,” Carter said. “I mean, any basketball player would know that. That’s why I have to be up a little bit higher. If they get a quick swing across the top, it’s like lunch meat at that point. Either you can hit the roller, or if that man helps, you can hit the corner. That’s something we give up when we play our coverage.”
Are the players not good enough, are the coaches not shrewd enough or was this roster never strong enough? It’s at least one of the three, with no rule that says it can’t be all three.
“I’m not a guy that’s going to blame any coaches,” Carter said. “I’m not a guy that’s going to blame any players. I feel like, individually, everybody has to come and do their job. If everybody can come in and know that, ‘OK, I’m going to do my job and I’m going to do it to the best of my ability,’ if everybody can say that, we’ll be successful.”
Carter said he wouldn’t be surprised if the team has a no-holds-barred meeting soon. Some old-fashioned truthfulness has helped these Bulls find their way before, most notably following last season’s 56-point home loss to Boston. Maybe it’ll help again. In the meantime, it seems everyone is walking on eggshells, like they’re protecting a secret they’re just dying to share.
They’ve lost so much, in so many different ways, it’s become difficult to discern whether the Bulls, as a whole, even believe they’re capable of winning. They certainly don’t play with any confidence, never for 48 minutes. Does Boylen see a confident bunch that believes it can not just compete, but win?
“I think at times, yeah,” he said. “I think at times we’re very confident and I think at times we struggle with that. I think that’s what young teams do. And I go back to consistency. We’re looking for consistency.”
Carter took it a step further when posed the same question.
“If not, it’s not a league for them,” he said. “I’m just going to keep it honest. If you don’t think you can go out there and win a game, there goes our problem right there.”
(Top photo: Noah Graham / NBAE via Getty Images)
Darnell Mayberry is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Chicago Bulls. He spent 12 years at The Oklahoman, where he handled the Thunder beat before moving into an editor’s role. Prior to The Oklahoman, Darnell covered the University of Akron men's basketball, preps and recruiting at the Akron Beacon Journal. He is the author of "100 Things Thunder Fans Should Know And Do Before They Die." Follow Darnell on Twitter @DarnellMayberry
