For nearly two minutes in Monday’s 132-107 win over the Memphis Grizzlies, the Chicago Bulls played basketball to a soundtrack of gasps and groans.
It was the type of cheers that accompany relief. The beleaguered Bulls were doing their best to put on a show at the United Center, powered by a smattering of 3s from Matas Buzelis and another triple-double from Josh Giddey.
But the crowd truly reached its fever pitch when Rob Dillingham
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— one of the smaller players in the league at 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds — floated to the basket and slammed down a one-handed dunk before flashing a wink at his teammates on the bench.The Bulls aren’t accustomed to the comfort afforded by a double-digit lead. On Monday, they reveled in it. This is a team that has won only four games in nearly six weeks since the Feb. 5 trade deadline. As the losses piled up, so did the frustration.
Winning should be a relief. But for the Bulls, every win is a blade that cuts with a double edge. The Bulls can’t stand losing. They also can’t afford to keep winning — even if it’s just a chance to blow off a little steam in front of a home crowd.
The Grizzlies didn’t want to beat the Bulls. Memphis entered the game eighth in the draft lottery order, with a 26.3% chance at a top-four pick and a 6% chance at No. 1. The Bulls were ninth with 20.3% top-four odds and a 4.5% shot at the No. 1 pick. With the loss, the Grizzlies extended their cushion to 4½ games over the Bulls, who now are only a half-game ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks.
The stakes were clear — but only one team understood them. The Grizzlies gave their starters plenty of rest in the second half. The Bulls, meanwhile, kept Giddey and Buzelis on the court well into the fourth quarter to throw down reverse dunks and extend their lead past 20 points.
These wins don’t come with hope. The Bulls are six games behind the surging Charlotte Hornets for the last spot in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament. Most betting lines have fully removed their odds to make the playoffs. There isn’t a way to claw out of this mess. The Bulls are simply stuck in the middle once again.
There’s no easy fix now. Sure, the Bulls should shut down players such as Jalen Smith and Tre Jones — winners who can prop up the rest of the flailing offense against a truly tanking team — for the rest of the season. They shouldn’t entertain the possibility of returning injured players Anfernee Simons and Jaden Ivey. And they probably should slap Buzelis and Giddey with a hard minutes cap, a well-earned respite after both players logged close to 40 minutes on back-to-back nights in Los Angeles last week.
But this team refuses to follow that path. With 14 games left in the season, the Bulls still are chasing wins. They’ve won four of their last eight games. The franchise can’t provide a cohesive argument to defend its insistent pursuit of a middling standing. The Bulls seem to be content to be bad — just not bad enough to make a difference.
This ethos bleeds into every aspect of game and player management. Coach Billy Donovan revealed pregame that he doesn’t want to play Dillingham as the primary point guard in any rotations at this point in the season, instead preferring to pair him with Giddey or Jones. This forces Dillingham to adapt to off-ball play — but Donovan said it’s worthwhile because it protects the player and the team from his inexperience as a primary playmaker.
This type of logic would make sense if Donovan had been the one traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves, forcing him to balance the development of a young guard with the pressing concerns of a team attempting to make a deep postseason run.
But the Bulls shouldn’t care whether they lose games because of mistakes Dillingham makes. Their goal is to develop a young player by giving him substantial reps at his preferred position, something Donovan is eschewing in preference of chasing late-season wins for a team that will not — barring a miracle (or disaster) — make the playoffs.
This is a boring line of logic to keep hammering as the season drags on. Fans want to see their team win. They certainly don’t want to hear that they shouldn’t cheer for a win.
Even more, they want to see their teams commit — to a plan, to a star, to a system of ideals. A fixation on tanking creates a monotonous dialogue around a team, especially when ownership and leadership refuse to actually apply themselves to the concept.
But that monotony is the status quo in Chicago. There is no way up or down for the Bulls. The middle is all that exists — yesterday, today, tomorrow, perhaps forever.