The Chicago Bulls have not been over .500 at any point of a season since 2017, a remarkable stat that puts into context just how draining this rebuilding process has been for the last four years.
They spoiled one of their best chances to finally post a winning record Wednesday night, losing 128-124 to the Sacramento Kings to, at least, slow down some of the positive momentum the now 4-5 squad had been building.
The rest of the West Coast trip only gets harder from here with two games in Los Angeles: first on Friday night against the defending champion Lakers and then Sunday afternoon against the Clippers.
Before the Bulls prepare for the back half of this trip, here are three takeaways from Wednesday’s game:
1. Coby White sets a career high with 36 points.
There will be games this season, as coach Billy Donovan acknowledged once again, in which Coby White’s development as a point guard in the NBA will be a work in progress. The Bulls are hopeful, however, that games like Wednesday night — when White showed off his still-high upside as a player — will be more common throughout his second season.
White set a career high with 36 points and dished out seven assists without committing a turnover in 36 minutes. It was his best performance this season, and after some early struggles, he is starting to settle into a groove.
“He’s young. He’s in his second year,” Donovan said. “I told him this: He got to this level because of what he can do scoring. And if you ask him what he really wants to become, he’ll tell you he wants to become a really point guard. So there are going to have to be some things that he’s going to have to go through a little bit, right?
“It’s going to be a work in progress with him. He’s always had a mentality of looking to score and aggressive. It’s OK to be aggressive. But a lot of times as a point guard, you have to understand there are four other people that are relying on you organizing things.”
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Through nine games, White is averaging 18.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 5.6 assists and shooting a strong 37.3% from beyond the arc. He has been given more responsibility to run the offense, and though there have been some growing pains, he has been one of the team’s bright spots in building off an impressive end to his rookie season.
“He was sharing the ball, running this team, making timely baskets, big baskets” guard Garrett Temple said. “Only shot nine 3s, so he attacked the rim. He played really really big for us tonight, and we are going to continue to have to have him play big for us to win games. I can’t say enough about him.”
2. Kings rookie Tyrese Haliburton is going to make teams regret passing on him in the draft.
It’s still early, but Kings rookie Tyrese Haliburton looks like an early favorite in the race to win the NBA Rookie of the Year — and someone a few teams are going to regret passing on in the draft.
Haliburton, who slid to Sacramento at No. 12, helped seal Wednesday’s victory with 15 points in the fourth quarter, including a 3-pointer with 12 seconds left to put the Kings up six.
“For him to hit a couple of pump-fake, slide-by 3s, honestly we did what we were supposed to do on those plays,” Temple said. “It wasn’t anything we didn’t do. You’ve got to give up something.”
The Bulls have been encouraged by the early returns from rookie Patrick Williams, who was limited to 22 minutes after spending part of the first half Wednesday in the concussion protocol. But Haliburton was all over the floor, flashing his set of skills that filled the stat sheet.
He finished with 17 points, six assists, seven rebounds, three steals and a block, all without committing a turnover. It helped the Kings weather the loss of guard De’Aaron Fox, who was limited to just five minutes because of a tight hamstring.
“He made some key shots, took some big shots,” Donovan said of Haliburton. “Give him credit for that. He’s long. He’s lanky. He has really good vision. He’s a good passer. He’s going to be a very good player. He is kind of built and reminds me a little of (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) or Dante Exum.
“Sometimes you watch him and it doesn’t look like he has great explosiveness or speed, but he has a really good first step. He’s going to be a really good player because he can shoot it and pass and he’s got really good vision.”
3. It was a surreal night of games amid the scene at US Capitol.
After the wave of protests and demonstrations from the NBA bubble this summer, the league and its players found themselves in an awkward position on how to respond to another surreal night in America.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Capitol was stormed by a mob of domestic terrorists, supporters of Donald Trump aiming to overturn an election that had been encouraged by the president and his allies for weeks.
Notably it once again laid bare the stark differences in the way law enforcement responded with militaristic force to Black protesters over the summer during civil unrest compared with the way the largely white mob was allowed to move with impunity throughout the Capitol.
Around the NBA, there were demonstrations and symbolic gestures and more kneeling, but Temple — one of the vice presidents of the National Basketball Players Association — summed things up perfectly about why he did not find it difficult to play Wednesday night.
“This is something that honestly I saw coming because of the leadership we’ve had the last four years,” Temple said. “When some people incite these types of things and put out lies like that, a lot of people will take them as truth and try to do things like you saw today. It wasn’t tough for me (to play tonight). I wasn’t embarrassed.
“None of the people that stormed the Capitol represent anything about me or the people that I care about, so it wasn’t tough for me at all to play today.”