Chicago Bulls: Lack Of Killer Instinct Is Becoming Transparent

The Chicago Bulls’ lack of consistency is the major culprit in the team’s recent pair of losses.

There is only word there comes remotely close to describing the play of the Chicago Bulls this season: inconsistent.

While the Bulls have posted home wins against teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers, Oklahoma City Thunder, the Indiana Pacers and the San Antonio Spurs, they have not found a way to consistently play with the killer instinct needed to put away their opponents in crunch time.

One example that supports this assertion took place when they hosted the Charlotte Hornets on Dec. 5. In a game that was close going into the final 12 minutes, it was the Hornets who made plays down the stretch, as they outscored the Bulls 30-21 in the final frame en route to a 102-96 victory.

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Then, in Monday night’s game against the Phoenix Suns, the Bulls had managed to keep their counterparts at arm’s length for most of the night. And being that they had held the Suns to just 10 points on 4-for-20 shooting in the third period, it was all but a foregone conclusion that the Bulls had the game wrapped up, as they led by a sizable 77-61 margin going into the final frame.

But that is when things got ugly to put it mildly. After posting their best defensive quarter of the season, the Bulls would follow that up with their worst defensive effort of the season.

How bad was the fourth quarter?

Well, the Bulls were outscored by a whopping 42-24 margin. And as a result of their subpar effort on defense, the Bulls were on the wrong end of a 103-101 loss to a Suns team that was playing its fifth game in seven nights and had dropped four straight prior to this contest.

Along with that, the Suns were 0-3 in games decided by three points or less and were 1-5 in games decided by five points or less, (per CBSSports.com).

Needless to say, Fred Hoiberg was not pleased with his team’s implosion down the stretch and had this to say via ESPN:

"“We got a 16-point lead, play our best defensive quarter of the year, outscore them 26-10 in the third and follow that up with our worst defensive quarter of the year. And just couldn’t find a way to get a rebound. They score 28 second-chance points, a lot of those came at key times.”"

And none of those second-chance baskets that Hoiberg referred to were as painful as this one.

Although it is still somewhat early in the season, the importance of games such as this one was not lost on Pau Gasol, who offered this assessment to ESPN Chicago’s Nick Friedell:

"“We got to understand what’s going on. How bad do we want this? Because games like this and games like [Saturday against] Charlotte you just can’t afford to lose. It’s a big difference winning those types of games and then losing them at the end of the season. We’re putting ourselves out of the playoffs right now — the Eastern Conference is too tight. It’s wide open but you got to go for it. If we want to be up fighting for something, we got to change things up a little bit.”"

With the exception of last season, this Bulls team always played with a great deal of effort under former coach Tom Thibodeau regardless of who was missing from the lineup. But so far under Hoiberg, they are having a difficult time generating the kind of effort required to finish games.

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And although it may be too early to hit the panic button at this point, if this ball club doesn’t find a way to solve this troubling trend, the season will have an all-too familiar ending.