MILWAUKEE – The final score of games is inconsequential at this point.
But just in case, the Bulls dropped a second straight, and did so in embarrassing fashion, losing to the Bucks 131-115 on Tuesday.
Not a big change from Sunday’s throttling in Miami, in which the Bulls were down by 54 at one point.
What this current group did grab, however, are bragging rights in becoming only the second time in franchise history to have back-to-back 20-point halftime deficits, with the last one happening in January of 1969.
A product of a team that might be letting go of the rope at 24-27? Or maybe a team that felt gut-punched by the fact that locker room favorites Kevin Huerter and Nikola Vucevic were traded in two different deals hours earlier?
Likely both.
Either way, if help is walking through that door anytime soon it has until the Thursday trade deadline to manifest itself.
“Losing high-value players, players that played a lot of minutes for us, but it’s the NBA,” forward Jalen Smith said. “It’s the job we signed up for. We’ve got to be ready to play at any point and time. It’s a next-man up mentality.”
All well and good, but even with the additions of Jaden Ivey and Anfernee Simons – both guards – it’s basically Smith and rookie Lachlan Olbrich patrolling the paint. That changes if the front office adds a big, obviously, but that was still an if.
“You just got to come out and play hard,” Smith said. “Find a way to impact the game. Losing a lot of key pieces is going to be tough for us, but we signed up for this challenge.”
Matas Buzelis led the Bulls with 22 points, while Coby White chipped in 21 with 10 rebounds.
One toe down
Unless the Bulls are adding another big soon, the idea of playing games with a big lineup won’t be happening.
They did get Smith (calf) back for the Bucks game, but with Vucevic traded the frontcourt has gotten very small. The hope was Zach Collins would be back from a toe injury sooner than later, but now it may be never. At least as far as this season was concerned.
Coach Billy Donovan was asked if that is now a reality and replied, “That could happen. As they put him two more weeks into the boot, I think how he comes out of that is going to tell a lot. He’s going to need a ramp-up period in order to run. If he comes out of that boot and he’s still feeling some discomfort … the whole thing right now has been trying to prevent surgery.”
Collins injured the toe on Dec. 27 and hasn’t played since. Before the toe, he missed the first six weeks of the season with an injured wrist, before making his debut on Dec. 5.
“The biggest thing is when he comes out of the boot would there be a runway for him to play?” Donovan said. “He’s doing everything he can to play, wants to play, but can he get healed in time? That’s going to be the biggest question.”
Street clothes
Because the Bulls were short-handed with the trades they made, Tre Jones was listed as available (hamstring) but there was no intention to actually play him.
Jones is close to a return, continuing to get on-the-court work in pregame, but was only dressed as an emergency player.
As far as Josh Giddey and his hamstring issue, Donovan said the guard was still dealing with tightness in that area so there wasn’t an exact timetable for a return.