PHILADELPHIA – Philadelphia big man Joel Embiid finished with 43 points, 14 rebounds and three blocked shots.
His partner in crime, James Harden? All the bearded one did was score 16, handout 14 assists, and grab eight rebounds in the 15 point win.
Not bad for the second-best duo on the court Monday night.
That was Zach LaVine’s story a few weeks ago, and the Bulls guard was sticking to it after the latest loss to Philadelphia. Oh by the way, a 121-106 loss that gave the 76ers the series sweep this season.
“We got to figure out how to win some of these games,” LaVine said after. “I’ll take me and DeMar against anybody in the entire world. I feel strongly about that, and I still do. But it doesn’t matter if you don’t win games. We have to start going out there and putting some of these Ws up.”
Specifically, Ws that carry value.
In losing their fifth straight game and going 1-5 out of the All-Star Break, there’s a narrative this Bulls team – now at 39-26 – just can’t escape.
Well, a narrative the media was making up, according to Tristan Thompson.
Of the three teams sitting ahead in the Eastern Conference, the fourth-place Bulls were now 0-4 against Philadelphia, 0-3 against Miami, and 0-2 against the Bucks. When facing the best in the West, the Bulls were a combined 0-4 against Golden State and Memphis, and 0-1 against the conference-leading Suns.
The only wins they have over teams with a winning percentage of .600 or better was a split with Dallas, and beating Utah back on Oct. 30.
That’s a combined record of 2-15 against true contending teams.
Thompson, who won a championship with the Cavaliers in 2016, pointed out the fact that his Cleveland team got beat up all season against Atlanta, and then come playoff times “kicked their ass.”
His point was that this Bulls team wasn’t going to panic over regular-season results.
When informed that this Bulls team doesn’t have LeBron James, Thompson didn’t hesitate in speaking on that.
“We’ve got a lot of good players,” Thompson said. “We’ve got a ‘Big Three’ that’s really [bleepin’] good. And they’re [bleepin’] All-Stars. I think it’s on you guys to create that narrative on whatever our record is. We just got to ask, ‘How can we get better?’ each and every day.”
Hard to do with yet another key player down, as Nikola Vucevic missed the game with a right hamstring strain.
Thompson got the start against Embiid, but like many opposing bigs do, eventually got in foul trouble. What remained troublesome, however, was the consistent ways this group – short-handed or not – continued letting the league’s best beat them.
Too many fouls, too many untimely turnovers, too many bad shots when it matters.
Actually, life without Vucevic couldn’t have started any better on the evening. The Bulls starters came out of the tip-off with urgency, especially on the defensive end, and through the first eight minutes of that first quarter, they even looked to have the 76ers on the ropes, with the home team down eight points and searching for a rhythm. Searching for anything.
They found it – courtesy of the Bulls bench. Over the final four minutes of the first, Philadelphia turned the deficit into a five-point lead.
It was quicksand after that, as the Bulls had a few runs, but never came close to threatening Philadelphia. So what now?
Bulls coach Billy Donovan wants everyone looking in a mirror, starting with himself, to figure out how to fix what’s broken.
LaVine said it’s about finding an identity.
“It’s not the end of the world,” LaVine said. “We have to go out there and compete, and find an identity with whoever is on the floor.”
