Deflating

When I concluded my last post, I gave a rallying cry that the Bulls should give Sacramento Kings fans a lasting image since last night's game could have been the final time they seem them.  That lasting image was given all right:  one that says the Bulls are pushovers on the fast track to being sent into oblivion.  Somehow, the worst defensive team in the NBA sent their guests away with an embarrassing 121-79 defeat.

I'll skip the top individual players and just dive into the relevant team stats.  It was that much of a blowout.  Feel free to skip to the next paragraph any time.  The Kings had 27 fast break points to the Bulls' 17, scored 23 points off 17 Bulls turnovers while giving the ball up just five times themselves.  They won the steals battle 9-2 and the shooting contest 54 percent to 39.  Or how about this?  The Bulls shot 2-of-21 from three-point territory, a stat a park district team of 9-year-olds could compete with.  For Bulls fans, the game quickly became unwatchable and unlistenable.

This team has had a lot of bad losses to bad teams this season, but this could have been when the bottom finally fell out.  We know about their inability to stay healthy of late and that's its own issue.  This game might have swayed everyone who had been in denial that their badly fatigued.  When you've trotted the same few players out there for some time now, it's going to catch up to you and it did so in a big way last night.  The Train in Sleep Train Arena came out and just ran this group over without mercy.  Before they knew it, they were out of the game well before halftime.  It's just further proof that any NBA team, even the worst, can beat you down if you're not ready, which was clearly the case with the Bulls last night.

What worries me most is how this affects the team going forward.  When you've lost four of five and just played one of the most forgettable games in franchise history, it can't do wonders for your self-esteem.  Considering all the trouble they've had to deal with, you just don't know how they'll respond.  As they continue to wait patiently for Derrick Rose's return, they have no choice but to press on.  The NBA season stops for no one.  Although they've more or less locked up a playoff spot, how well they play from here on out depends on who they'll play.  If they don't find some way to weather this storm soon, they could ultimately be looking at a quick sweep by Miami as the eighth seed.  There's no disgrace involved with that, but they were in much better shape earlier in the year and you don't want your seed to be a testament of how fast you fell.

The Bulls will have to put this behind them and play the Golden State Warriors tomorrow.  That's a Western threat you don't want to have to deal with, especially in their building.  Again, they just have to make the best of it.  That's what professionals do after all.