Rare is the Bulls game that is decided by the start of the fourth quarter.

Blowouts in either direction this season have seen either Chicago hang around until  deep in the fourth quarter or fail to properly close out poor teams. Saturday night in New  Orleans was not one of those occassions.

With Anthony Davis fresh off his absurd three-point game-winner last night in  Oklahoma City, the Bulls promptly came out and engaged in the kind of sloppy, slow,  low-scoring affair that became their calling-card over the past few years.

The Pelicans’ first 20 points and first 18 field goals came in the paint, the Bulls apparently taking defensive innovation a step too far – or, conversely, the end result of trying to check Anthony Davis with Pau Gasol.

Davis should garner several more MVP votes after his impact on the game was displayed in rather stark terms. After a heavy fall on a dunk, Davis left the game and would not return with the score tied at 35-35 and five minutes left in the first half.

The Bulls would tear off on a 72-37 run the rest of the game, including a 20-3 run coming out of halftime that settled the game as a competitive affair. The final 35-point margin of victory was the Bulls largest of the season and most lopsided win since a January 2013 rout of the Atlanta Hawks. Only the opening-night laugher against the New York Knicks can come close this season.

Derrick Rose was his by-now customary mixture of shot-making despite weird shot selection, finishing with 20 points on 8-15 shooting. Pau Gasol was also his typical double-double machine, also scoring 20 points to go with 15 rebounds before he was pulled alongside Rose in the third quarter with the scoreboard heavily favoring the Bulls.

The brightest of all spots for the Bulls on a night to be fairly happy with was Tony Snell. Despite wildly fluctuating minutes – from playing 30 minutes some games to zero minutes in an entire week – he stepped into this game over Nikola Mirotic and came close to a career-high with 19 points, hitting five of his six three-point attempts as he was locked in from the moment he checked in.

While most players experiencing some kind of hot night would expect to see significant burn in their next contest, there’s probably an equal chance Snell ends up buried on the bench tomorrow night in Orlando, a fate that has befallen Doug McDermott most of this year and Nikola Mirotic tonight.

The Serbian, despite being among the candidates for Rookie of the Year and named to the Rising Stars contest, didn’t log a single minute in the first half and only entered the game when the result was beyond all doubt.

He immediately settled into his rhythm, displaying flashes of passing, shooting and ball-handling in his limited time. He made sure his absence would go noticed earlier in the game, throwing a pair of flashy passes to McDermott and one astonishing alley-oop for E’Twaun Moore that he pulled off with a nonchalant flick of his wrists.

McDermott finally saw court time after recovering from a lingering injury, some would suggest he also insulted a member of Thibodeau’s family or missed every flight and team bus over the past four weeks he’s been available such has been Thibs’ reluctance to use the player the Bulls felt necessary to make a major (by Bulls standards) trade on draft night to acquire.

McDermott scored a quick nine points on a backdoor cut, a nice three-pointer off a series of down-screens and a strong post-move against Pelicans bench players.

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So, that wasn’t much fun.

The Chicago Bulls opened February with the kind of flat, ugly effort we really haven’t seen from them in the last month or so, losing on the road to the New Orleans Pelicans, 88-79. Let’s just get this over with and figure out what we learned.

1. If the Bulls aren’t hitting their jumpers, they’re pretty screwed.

We pretty much already knew this, but this was a stark reminder. The Bulls scored 56 of their 79 points either in the paint or at the foul line. They were 17/34 in the paint and shot just 10/36 outside of it, including 3/16 from deep. The list of Bulls players who shot 50 percent or better: Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson. That’s it. That’s the list. Not coincidentally, they were the only two who didn’t rely mainly on jumpers.

2. Erik Murphy must be terrible in practice.

Tom Thibodeau somewhat uncharacteristically threw in the towel down 14 with just over two minutes left last night, yanking Joakim Noah, Jimmy Butler and Kirk Hinrich in favor of Nazr Mohammed, Tony Snell and Toko Shengelia. Taj remained in the game and Murphy remained stapled to the bench, which begs the question: How bad is Erik Murphy that he can’t even get on the court in garbage time? Like, seriously?

That’s really all I have. This game was really uninteresting, aside from DJ Augustin briefly entering God Mode in the first quarter and Anthony Davis destroying everything in his path. The Bulls have today off before they take on the Sacramento Kings in Sacramento on Monday.

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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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With health finally improving enough to let Joakim Noah return and allow Jimmy Butler to look much more comfortable than he has late since battling through a string of injuries.

This will be the second meeting with the Pelicans, the first being a memorable triple-overtime game with Anthony Davis on the sidelines in Chicago.

Since then, Davis has returned and picked up where he left off, his play making him one of the biggest of this season’s All-Star snubs.

However, Ryan Anderson has replaced Davis on the injury report, the Pelicans being forced to shut him down for several weeks with the sharpshooting big man suffering a herniated disk in his back.

The ongoing injury nightmare for New Orleans has also robbed them of Jrue Holiday thanks to a stress fracture.

The Pelicans’ season has largely been a story of wild inconsistency. Monty Williams has enjoyed a solid reputation as a defensive-minded coach, yet the Pelicans have ranked near the bottom of the league in several defensive statistics most of this season. This despite the presence of Anthony Davis, one of the best upcoming young talents on both sides of the ball.

New Orleans, 4-6 in their last ten games, has shown some signs of righting the ship with four wins their last six games, holding opponents to under 100 points in three of the four victories.

With Holiday out indefinitely, Brian Roberts has stepped into a starting role and has been surprisingly effective, averaging 13.0 points per game over the previous five games.

Probable Starters

Chicago Bulls

PG: D.J. Augustin, 6th season. 13.7 points per game, 6.0 assists per game.

SG: Jimmy Butler, 3rd season. 12.2 points per game, 4.6 rebounds per game.

SF: Mike Dunleavy, Jr, 12th season. 11.2 points per game, 3.9 rebounds per game.

PF: Carlos Boozer, 12th season. 15.1 points per game, 8.6 rebounds per game.

C: Joakim Noah, 7th season. 11.7 points per game, 11.4 rebounds per game.

New Orleans Hornets

PG: Brian Roberts, 2nd season. 7.4 points per game, 2.7 assists per game.

SG: Eric Gordon, 6th season. 15.9 points per game, 2.9 rebounds per game.

SF: Al-Farouq Aminu, 4th season. 7.7 points per game, 5.8 rebounds per game.

PF: Anthony Davis, 2nd season. 20.4 points per game, 10.4 rebounds per game.

C: Greg Stiemsma, 3rd season. 2.8 points per game, 4.2 rebounds per game.

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Well, not sure anyone could have expected that it was the Bulls-Pelicans game that was dead even after 60-plus minutes of action and Monday Night Football the 27 point blowout with backups finishing the game, and yet, that’s how last night panned out. Even the most hardcore proponents of tanking had to feel for the Bulls after a heartbreaking 131-128 home loss in triple overtime, especially with the heavy minutes played and standout performances. The only solace to this loss might be if the Basketball Gods decried that this was retribution for last year’s Game 4 triple overtime comeback over Brooklyn, but it would seem there’s no debt to be repaid, considering Derrick Rose hasn’t been healthy since 2011.

It didn’t always feel like it, but this was a close game throughout. At no point did either team hold a double digit lead, and while it’s more likely a testament to the flaws in these teams rather than their strengths, every time one side was poised to pull away, the other found a way to come back. As they have been since Rose’s injury, Chicago tried to establish Luol Deng in the post early in this one. He’s still awkward with the ball in the post, but this keeps him from having to dribble into traffic, which anyone who’s every seen him lead a fast break knows isn’t a strength of his. He’s effective enough, except that when Kirk Hinrich is the shooter on his side of the floor, Hinrich’s defender is going to have no reservation about coming down to trap Deng. Jrue Holiday was essentially playing free safety off of him at times and Hinrich was predictably unable to make New Orleans pay.

Here’s a couple examples of how little teams respect Hinrich on the perimeter:

Deng has just come off a screen from Boozer here, and notice how Holiday not only cuts off Deng’s driving lane but also takes away Joakim Noah as an option for Lu as well. He makes the correct basketball play to kick it out, but of course, Kirk misses, and even though it would have been a three pointer, it’s a shot defenses are more than happy to concede. Rose may not have gotten back to his standard of play before getting hurt again, but he had shown the ability to knock down threes when he could set his feet and make defenses pay.

From the third quarter here, this time Deng drives off the catch from Hinrich after a Boozer screen and Holiday ignores Kirk as he drifts left for an even cleaner look. Another pass, another miss.

Tony Snell only played 22 minutes, as he was not part of the Hinrich-Dunleavy-Deng-Gibson-Noah unit that played most of crunch time and the overtimes, but continued to impress, especially with this second quarter pick and roll with Noah:

Snell showed an advanced level of timing on this play. Noah sets a good screen on Eric Gordon, and Snell, dribbling with his off hand, hesitates just enough to sync his drive with Noah’s roll, leading to this great pass:

Snell makes the pass at just the right time and Jason Smith fouls Noah to send him to the line for two. It doesn’t register as an assist for Snell, but that kind of timing takes a long time for some young players to develop, if they get it at all. Plays like this support the growing cries for Chicago to at least experiment with a no point guard lineup.

These spotlights have neglected to mention Taj Gibson. He was an absolute monster last night in a season-high 44 minutes. Replacing an ineffective Carlos Boozer, Tom Thibodeau made the correct call to let him finish the fourth quarter, and that led to him playing all three overtimes. He scored a career-high 26 points, had 14 rebounds and with five blocks finished one shy of tying his career-high in that category as well. Not only did he put up numbers, but he also impacted the rest of the offense with his energy and physicality. Even when Boozer gets hot from midrange, it doesn’t really change the equation all that much. Defenses more or less accept whatever outcome occurs and the game continues. However, when Gibson plays like he did last night, and largely has this entire season, his ability to bully his way to the basket forces defenders to help, and with good passers like Noah and Mike Dunleavy, that can lead to great looks as the defense rotates.

For New Orleans, Ryan Anderson picked up the slack for the injured Anthony Davis, as he dropped a career-high 36 and did his best Dirk Nowitzki impression. In a game-high 56 minutes, he hit 7-11 from distance as well as a beautiful fadeaway over Noah in the second overtime. He might be the only player who can touch Stephen Curry when it comes to just assuming the ball is going in when he shoots. Chicago gave him too much room to shoot, though to be fair, he’s a matchup nightmare, and as good as Noah is at defending perimeter players, he’s more used to defending isolations after switches than actually guarding in space for whole possessions.

Holiday hit the game winning layup in the third overtime after a bad gaffe by Hinrich, an and-1 that put a bow on a 19 point, 8 rebound, 12 assist performance. The numbers are all kind of skewed because of the overtimes, but Holiday was great at managing the game. The Pellies have a little bit of a “too many cooks in the kitchen” problem, as it seemed like they went 2010-2011 Miami Heat with their three guards. At times, it felt like there was a specific “your turn, my turn” thing with Holiday, Gordon and Tyreke Evans, but Holiday never let himself get too out of rhythm and sealed the win for them.

Notes:

-Speaking of Evans, he sliced the Bulls and got to the rim numerous times, and simply missed a couple finishes at the rim that would have made his line look even better.

-Mike James serves no purpose on this team. He airballed from short, he airballed from midrange. With Marquis Teague headed to the D-League however, it looks like his minutes in the rotation are safe for now.

-Boozer got demolished by a couple of Smith’s pump fakes. One ended with a Smith dunk while Boozer got bailed out on the other as Smith shuffled his feet for a travel.

-All screencaps from NBA.com

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Harshad Sharma | Flickr

Does anyone else think it’s unfair that the Chicago Bulls have had to play a total of four overtime periods since losing Derrick Rose? I mean, bad enough that we have to suffer through four quarters of Rose-less basketball, but adding overtime on top seems like cruel and unusual punishment.

Anyway, the Bulls lost to the New Orleans Pelicans in triple-overtime last night, and really it wasn’t even as bad as I made it sound in that first paragraph. Even with Rose and Anthony Davis out, there were enough exceptional individual performances on both sides to make things interesting. The outcome could’ve been better, sure, but each loss inches us closer to the top of the draft. We’re playing with house money, at this point.

Whatever. On to the things that were learned.

1. Taj Gibson is OK at basketball, I guess.

Less than a week after establishing a new career high of 23 points in Detroit, Taj came back home and slapped up 26 points and 14 rebounds (7 offensive) to go with 5 blocks. He’s become the centerpiece of the offense when the second unit is out there and not only is that not inherently objectionable, it’s working! He was incredible tonight, as he has been for a large chunk of the season, and the result was Carlos Boozer finding himself stapled to the bench for the entire fourth quarter and all three overtimes. Thank you #BasedTaj.

2. Kirk Hinrich giveth and Kirk Hinrich taketh away.

Kirk Hinrich finished with 13 points, 6 rebounds and 11 assists. Yay! Kirk Hinrich shot 4/15 from the field and 0/8 from beyond the arc. Boo! Kirk Hinrich saved the Bulls momentarily at the end of the second overtime when he drew an offensive foul on Ryan Anderson with New Orleans up two. Yay! He flopped pretty blatantly in doing so. Boo! And that’s without even mentioning his horrific defense on Jrue Holiday’s game-winning layup. (Boo!)

Such is life when Kirk Hinrich is your starting point guard. But what’s fun is how much better he is than either Mike James or Marquis Teague. And by fun, I mean awful.

And, now that I’ve said that, the Bulls will announce sometime today that Kirk ruptured his spleen or some such and will miss two months. Alas.

3. #FreeMarquisTeague!

Look, Teague has been bad. I acknowledge this. However, Mike James is very nearly as bad and he’s not going to get better any time soon. Teague at least has shown flashes of maybe being OK. Can he at least see the floor occasionally? More than the 5.7 seconds he got last night, anyway. That’s all I ask.

4. #GETTHATMONEYLUOL

Luol Deng seems to have transformed himself into a homeless man’s James Harden on the offensive end, minus the ability to dribble. 7 turnovers aside, slapping up a 37/8/7 and playing nearly 56 minutes is pretty impressive. The isos were pretty rough, but you take the good with the bad, I guess. The way Deng is playing right now, he might well get  the 4-year, $56 million contract  that Josh Smith got over the summer. Frankly, I kind of feel like the Bulls should hurry up and trade him while he’s playing well, but we’ll see.

That’s all I got. Bulls have two days off before they take their talents to South Beach to play the Miami Heat on Thursday.

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Tonight, Anthony Davis makes his debut back in Chicago against Derrick Rose and the Bulls! Yeah, about that…

If this game were on Sunday Night Football, it surely would have been flexed out. With Davis having broken his hand in a road win in Madison Square Garden last night and Rose out for the rest of the year, this once-juicy matchup is hardly the most appealing thing on the menu tonight, an honor which, speaking of football, belongs to Monday Night Football’s Saints-Seahawks showdown. The Pelicans (8-8) will surely feel the loss of one of the most influential defenders in the league in Davis, who is neck-and-neck with Roy Hibbert as the league leader in blocks per game (3.6), especially considering that they’re playing the second end of a road back-to-back. Also, as one might expect of a young team like the Pellies, they’ve been a poor road team thus far. Their offense ticks three points lower than their average on the road at 102.7 points per 100 possessions, and their defense takes an even sharper hit, as their 103.8 points per possession overall skyrockets to 109.6 away from home.

Trying to analyze if the Bulls can take advantage of this seems like a fool’s errand. The Bulls had an opportunistic row of opponents to stabilize their attack right after losing Rose, as they faced the Clippers, Utah, Detroit and Cleveland, and their offense looks as messy and laborious as ever. While those were all part of the same lengthy road trip, it seems unlikely that they’ll turn things around, even at home versus a poor road team without their best player.

From there the question becomes, is that even a bad thing? It’s rather confusing watching the Bulls, or whatever’s left of them at the moment, as the guys on this team are very much worth rooting for, yet the NBA’s incentive structure makes it so that every win they scratch and claw their way to takes them further from long-term success. What is clear is that while winning games is no longer profitable in the long run for Chicago, the performance of a couple players is. Joakim Noah has struggled badly this season, and while the observations of this season can still be marked with a disclaimer of small sample size to an extent, if he continues to play this poorly for much longer, it will become all the more worrisome.

On the other end of the spectrum is the brightest star of Chicago’s dark, bleak sky: Tony Snell. Not only does he look more confident by the game, he is showing an ability to handle the ball and make plays, something this team has desperately lacked in the Rose Era. No Bull’s playing time is more important right now. He needs as much playing time as he can handle (wait, wait, Thibs, it’s only a figure of speech!) and should shoulder more of the ball-handling responsibilities as he gets more comfortable. It’s a lost season, but he represents an opportunity to salvage something very meaningful.

We’ll have a full recap of the game here, so if you just can’t stomach watching this team, at least for a night, remember to check back here after the game for a recap and go get ready for some football.

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