Chicago Bulls: Team’s offensive struggles continue

The Chicago Bulls’ offensive struggles continue following a 111-82 loss to the Boston Celtics.

For the second straight season, the Chicago Bulls are experiencing more than their fair share of difficulties. With an 111-82 loss to the Boston Celtics on Wednesday, Chicago slipped to 4-11 overall and has dropped five of its last seven games.

Early on, most of the discussion about the team’s issues had to do with defense, and rightfully so. After all, the Bulls are ranked 22nd in the league with a defensive rating of 111.3, and the team has not fared much better in points allowed, ranking 21st in this category while giving up 112.3 points per outing.

As bad as the defensive numbers are, another ugly trend has started to unfold as well. The trend in question has to do with how poorly the team has performed from an offensive standpoint.

For starters, over the last six games, the Bulls are averaging just 96.8 points per outing and they have failed to reach the century mark in five of those games. The overall shooting numbers haven’t been anything to write home about either.

During the recent six-game stretch, Chicago has shot below 40 percent from the field in four of those contests and the story gets even worse in regards to 3-point efficiency.

How bad have the Bulls been from 3-point range as of late?

Well, they have connected on 30 percent or less of their attempts from distance in five of the past six games and they are shooting just 28.4 percent from downtown during that stretch. Simply put, it will be difficult for this young Bulls squad to beat anyone if they can’t shoot the ball at an efficient clip.

With four key rotational players missing in Lauri Markkanen, Kris Dunn, Bobby Portis and Denzel Valentine, the lone bright spot for the Bulls had been Zach LaVine. On the heels of an offseason in which he and the Bulls agreed to a four-year, $78 million deal, LaVine began the season on a positive note, proving that he was worth every penny of that contract.

In eight October games, LaVine compiled averages of 28.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists per contest on 51 percent shooting overall and 38 percent from downtown.

Because he has been the team’s only reliable scoring option, however, opposing defenses have keyed in on LaVine and his efficiency has dipped a bit as a result.

In the seven games the Bulls have played in November, LaVine is still averaging over 23.4 points per game, but he’s shooting 36.8 percent from the field and just 24.4 percent from 3-point range. This includes a 10-point, 3-for-11 effort against the Celtics, which ended his impressive streak of 20-point performances at 14 games (15 if you include his last outing in 2017-18).

"“It’s tough,” LaVine told the Chicago Sun-Times. “We’ve got to find a way to put the ball in the hoop. We’ve got to find something, because if I’m not getting 25 or 30, it’s not looking very good.”"

The schedule doesn’t get any easier for this Bulls team, as they prepare to take on a pair of conference powerhouses in the Milwaukee Bucks and the Toronto Raptors this weekend. Last season, the Bulls managed to produce only three wins through their first 23 games.

Initially, it appeared that they would be ahead of that win-loss total this year, but with key players still working their way back from injuries, along with the absence of a consistent secondary scoring option, Chicago may be in too deep of a hole to climb out of — even when it is at full strength again.