More Lackluster Play as Mavericks Defeat Bulls

Sure, Taj Gibson missed Tuesday's game against the Dallas Mavericks with left ankle soreness, but would it have made much of a difference?  The Bulls have been average both with and without him in the lineup.  So you never know which team is going to show up.  The bad version showed up in this game and Dallas came away victorious, 99-98.

The Bulls scored the game's first seven points, but it was very much an up-and-down contest from there.  Though the Mavericks outscored their hosts, 30-19, in the second quarter, they couldn't pull away and it came down to the final seconds.  A Jimmy Butler field goal broke a tie with 22.8 seconds left and Dallas, electing not to call its final 20-second timeout, ran a sequence that culminated in Wesley Matthews hitting a wide-open 3.  That gave the Bulls 11.7 seconds to salvage the game, but Matthews played tight defense on Butler, so Butler passed off to birthday boy Dwyane Wade, who missed a corner shot he really wasn't ready to take.

All five Mavericks starters reached double figures.  Harrison Barnes did the most damage for the victors by scoring 20 points.  Seth Curry was close behind with 18 and joined Matthews in shooting 3 of 5 from 3-point range.  Dirk Nowitzki achieved a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds while Deron Williams fell an assist short, though he scored 11.

Butler was one rebound shy of a triple-double, though 24 points and 12 assists while shooting 14 of 16 from the free-throw line is pretty good.  Robin Lopez came ready to play and showed by scoring 21 and grabbing all five of his rebounds on the offensive end.  Wade, now 35, scored 17 and Michael Carter-Williams added 10.

It's baffling how the Bulls can get swept by the worst team in the Southwest, making it five losses in their past six meetings.  But this is what you get with a club that's both average and plays to the level of its competition.  The defense comes and goes on a regular basis and that's not how you win in the NBA.

The Bulls played well enough to win and most definitely should have.  Sadly, it comes down to when a team makes the big plays and even the most statistically sound game can turn out wrong if you can't shut an inferior opponent down.  Then again, it might come down to the Bulls simply not having the talent to limit playmakers in the clutch.  Until they build a team that can do that consistently, losses to teams that shouldn't happen will continue.

After two days off, the season continues Friday against the Atlanta Hawks.  That's not very comforting considering Paul Millsap just blocked a potential game-winning layup from Derrick Rose in New York on Monday.  The way this Bulls game just ended, it's practically a given he'll make a similar stop in this upcoming contest if it comes down to the end.  Oh the joys of being 21-22.