Nobody predicted the Bulls and Grizzlies would replicate last night’s 128-122 Suns-Thunder offensive supernova, but this was as ugly as basketball gets.

The Bulls failed to score for the last 3:15 of the game and scored just two points the final 5:40 as Memphis ground out a huge win in their race to secure a Western Conference playoff berth.

Both teams hold similar win-loss records, yet the Bulls could claim the 4th spot in the weak East while Memphis was on the outside looking in before tonight’s game.

The game began to turn in the Grizzlies’ favour late in the third quarter with a barrage of offensive tip-ins from their energetic big men and threes from the likes of Mike Miller.

Miller would finish with 14 points on 5-7 shooting including 4-5 from behind the arc.

Marc Gasol added 18 points and 10 rebounds, while his frontcourt running mate also recorded a double-double with 10 points and 11 boards.

Kosta Koufos was the difference maker down the stretch for Memphis, the Greek big man contributed 12 points largely on put-backs from missed shots that kept the Grizzlies ahead.

Losing the rebounding battle was always going to be a decisive factor in this game, though the Bulls lead the fight at halftime. Memphis, however, would dominate the second half glass, outrebounding Chicago 27-14. The Grizzlies pulled down 10 offensive rebounds compared to Chicago’s 12 defensive rebounds.

Looking back to the offense, while Joakim Noah’s stellar passing and scoring repertoire has received ample praise the past week, the Bulls’ offense tonight was a car-crash. Far too often they’d dump the ball to the post and hold, looking for a cutter or dribble hand-off.

These plays work well for the Bulls but when not moving the ball much becomes your primary offense, good defenses like Memphis’ will shut down the passing lanes emphatically. The Bulls gave up several turnovers from the second quarter onwards as Noah tried to thread the ball through gaps that didn’t exist.

Combined with this lack of motion, the Bulls contrived to miss 11 of their 13 three-point attempts.

The first quarter set the low-scoring tone, Memphis leading 15-12 after the first frame as both teams combined for appallingly low shooting percentages.

Joakim Noah played his usual all-round game, finishing with 15 points, eight rebounds and six assists, though his passing was often interrupted and he had several mindless turnovers at critical moments, once throwing away a pass instead of attempting a shot before a travel in the post all but sealed the game.

Taj Gibson kept Chicago afloat at times, leading the Bulls with 18 points and continued his excellent shooting from the baseline, comfortably knocking down a shot that has increasingly become a staple of his game.

He will continually find himself open as Augustin and Noah draw defensive attention with solid pick-and-roll action.

Augustin ignited the Bulls offense in the second quarter, scoring 12 in the period but made too many poor decisions, culminating in his airball on a foot-on-the-line three with the Bulls down six in the closing minutes. Augustin was the third of just three Bulls to score more than 10 points.

This game was supposed to mark the victorious start of a six-game Bulls home-stand. Now the task must be to bounce back, a tough job considering the opponents in the stretch at the United Center includes Houston, San Antonio, Miami and Oklahoma City. We will know much more about this team, especially offensively, very shortly.

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Keep that in mind when you read his line against the Bulls – 24 points on 10-14 FG shooting, 8 rebounds, 6 blocks, 3 assists and three steals. Davis was everywhere on defense with several more passes tipped and shots altered, instances invisible in the box score.

The game served as yet another in a long list of games that make it scarcely believable Davis was overlooked for a spot on the Western Conference All-Star team, at least as a reserve. Few could suggest multiple Western Conference big men playing better than the second-year star.

Davis largely powered the Pelicans throughout the latter stages of the game but it was Eric Gordon who helped the home team to a fast start scoring the game’s first 7 points as the Bulls went 0-2 with a turnover for their first three possessions.

The game descended into another in which the Bulls failed to generate enough clean looks to be of any trouble to New Orleans, shooting just 38.5 percent from the field and even worse from behind the arc – 3-16 for 18.8 percent.

Although the Bulls failed to score from the field, they did enjoy plenty of trips to the free-throw line courtesy of some very tight officiating. However, the charity did not help with the Bulls combining to convert just 66.6 percent of their 33 foul shots, unable to take advantage of a 33-10 lead in FTAs.

It’s not often one can say this about the Bulls, but on this night they were thoroughly out-hustled by their opponents and, most surprisingly, outworked down low.

New Orleans at one stage enjoyed a 40-18 edge in points in the paint while also outrunning the Bulls 10-2 on the break and topping the Bulls’ reserves 23-3  before Taj Gibson helped limit the bleeding late in the game.

D.J. Augustin, again given the start ahead of Kirk Hinrich, proved why the chatter surrounding both his short-term future as the starting point guard and long-term as the backup to Rose is well warranted. Augustin again ran the offense competently, dishing out 7 assists to go with his team-high 23 points albeit on 8-16 shooting.

Joakim Noah performed admirably against a formidable frontcourt, hauling down 16 boards to go with his 14 points and 5 assists. Noah did however battle foul trouble for most of the game, having to sit the final five minutes of third quarter having picked up his fourth foul. He also suffered a nasty cut to the chin after hitting the deck hard, but played on.

Jimmy Butler also continued his resurgency, although he only finished with 10 points on 9 shots he looked more confident in his shot and more comfortable than he has done recently.

Next up for the Bulls is a back-to-back taking in the sights of Sacramento and Phoenix on Monday and Tuesday respectively.

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In the end, the Bulls, again, showed that they simply don’t have enough talent to win. They were without Luol Deng who sat with his sore Achilles tendon and Kirk Hinrich who sat with a sore back. Although given how bad Hinrich’s been so far this year, his absence may have actually been a benefit to the Bulls. DJ Augustin had a decent outting with 15 points on 10 shots in 36 minutes of time along with 5 assists. He committed 5 turnovers, which is not great, but it’s much better production than I’d have expected from Hinrich. Oh, and Jimmy Butler got hurt again, which totally stinks. Butler rolled his ankle in the first half and did not return.

The Bulls continued to shoot poorly, converting on just 37.7% of their attempts. This game could have been much worse, but the Bulls had a 39 to 14 advantage in free throws attempted, as they seemed to benefit from just about every close call for much of the game.

Outside of Augustin playing relatively well, the only other bright spot for the Bulls was, unsurprisingly, Joakim Noah. The big man dropped in 23 points on 17 shots, grabbed 12 rebounds, dished 3 assists, and snagged 2 steals and a block in just 29 minutes of action. He was kind of everywhere. It didn’t matter.

The rest of the Bulls were pretty terrible and they just don’t seem to know what they want to accomplish on offense. I’m not sure different offensive sets would work better, but it might be worth it to run even more of the offense through the bigs, as the guard play, aside from Augustin tonight, has just been so very bad.

Credit should go to the Thunder as well, obviously. Kevin Durant is just insanely great. He was 65% from the field tonight and 80% (4-5) from 3 . He scored 32 points, wrangled 9 boards, and added 6 assists, 3 steals, a block with just 1 turnover in 33 minutes of playing time. So yeah, KD did KD stuff. Similarly, the Bulls let Russell Westbrook be Russell Westbrook. The explosive point guard scored 20 points on just 12 shots and dished 10 assists in just 28 minutes. Reggie  Jackson continued his strong play on the season dropping in an efficient 18 points to go with 5 assists off the bench.

The Thunder are just blitzing the league right now and the Bulls are a sinking ship with parts falling off- due to injuries- so this result was pretty expected, even if it doesn’t really make it sting less.

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