{"id":432600,"date":"2025-12-08T05:42:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T05:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/432600\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T05:42:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T05:42:15","slug":"chicago-bulls-drop-a-lifeless-loss-to-golden-state-warriors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/432600\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Bulls drop a lifeless loss to Golden State Warriors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The white flag came out early for the Chicago Bulls in their seventh consecutive loss.<\/p>\n

Coach Billy Donovan sent in the end-of-bench players with four minutes and 21 seconds remaining in Sunday\u2019s 123-91 loss to the Golden State Warriors at the United Center. It was a rare surrender formation for the Bulls, who have prided themselves on keeping losses close this season.<\/p>\n

Barely seven minutes prior, the Bulls were clinging to a minuscule shred of hope. A fast break layup from Jevon Carter had cut a 24-point lead down to single digits. That should have been enough to spark a little life \u2014 or at least some desperation \u2014 into a team that spent the last three weeks preaching urgency.<\/p>\n

Spoiler alert: it did not.<\/p>\n

The Bulls melted, as they have been<\/a>. The Warriors battered the defense with a 21-5 run to open the fourth quarter, squashing out that last little spark. It\u2019s cold in Chicago \u2014 on defense, on offense, everywhere on the court. And whatever the Bulls needed to overcome their worst losing streak since February 2020, they didn\u2019t have it.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the version of the Warriors most teams are scared to face. No Steph Curry, no Draymond Green. It was clear that Jimmy Butler still relishes the opportunity to play his former team all these years later, cracking a small smile as he knocked down his second 3-pointer of the fourth quarter to knock the Bulls fully out of the game. Still, the Warriors were stretched thin on the second night of a road back-to-back.<\/p>\n

\"GoldenGolden State Warriors forward Jimmy Butler dunks the ball in the first quarter during a game against the Chicago Bulls, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, at the United Center in Chicago. (Dominic Di Palermo\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

This was another game that should have given the Bulls a chance to compete. But those appearances haven\u2019t translated into reality for a team that can\u2019t seem to stop the bleeding a quarter of the way into the season. Even Butler didn\u2019t gloat after the latest episode in a saga of stagnant performances by the Bulls.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll figure it out,\u201d Butler said. \u201cThe city deserves that. The city deserves to win, to be in the playoffs and compete.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are three takeaways from the loss.<\/p>\n

1. Begging for effort.
\n\"ChicagoChicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan gestures at his players in the second quarter during a game against the Golden State Warriors, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, at the United Center in Chicago. (Dominic Di Palermo\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

For seven straight games, Donovan has bemoaned a lack of consistency in effort from every player on the roster. It\u2019s unclear when \u2014 or how \u2014 the Bulls will fix this key aspect of their losing patterns.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the big picture. Shooting is an issue. Defensive personnel is a clear sticking point. But for the Bulls, the most lacking characteristic is an intentional effort to win the marginal aspects of the game. Every team meeting and film session focuses on this same weakness, yet nothing has changed.<\/p>\n

Against the Warriors, the Bulls gave up 15 offensive rebounds and lost the second-chance point battle 23-14. They failed to fight for loose balls and gave up the game in transition. On paper, these statistics tally up to create a clear deficit in points. But in live action, they transform into something worse \u2014 a lifeless, disconnected style of play.<\/p>\n

\n

Photos: Golden State Warriors 123, Chicago Bulls 91<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI think this is a group that gets along very, very well,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cThey all like each other. But (we can\u2019t win) until they start to love each other enough to block out and then dive on the floor \u2014 and do that not for themselves but for the guy next to them. Because we don\u2019t have the luxury of Jimmy Butler putting the game away on a 3 and a couple of drives. We have to do it together.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. The bench is no longer mobbing.
\n\"ChicagoChicago Bulls guard Jevon Carter (5) goes up for a layup in the fourth quarter during a game against the Golden State Warriors, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, at the United Center in Chicago. (Dominic Di Palermo\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

The Bulls had no help from their bench in Sunday\u2019s loss. Before the fourth quarter \u2014 in which bench players logged the majority of the minutes \u2014 the bench logged only 23 points of total scoring. The secondary unit ultimately finished with 32 points, 13 of which were scored by Jevon Carter, who knocked down three of the team\u2019s 11 3-pointers.<\/p>\n

The Bulls have prided themselves on the concept of their perceived depth, posting the second-highest bench scoring in the league (44.2 average) so far this season. But that production tumbled to 35 points per game in the last six losses as the Bulls offense continued to stall out.<\/p>\n

Injuries clearly contribute to this steep drop-off. The Bulls had to rotate two-way players like rookie Lachlan Olbrich into the back end of the rotation in recent games to account for the dearth of available players. But Sunday\u2019s bench rotation still struggled despite featuring mainstay second rotation players like Patrick Williams, Dalen Terry and Zach Collins.<\/p>\n

3. Warriors torch from outside.
\n\"GoldenGolden State Warriors forward Jimmy Butler makes a 3-point field goal over Chicago Bulls forward Matas Buzelis in the fourth quarter, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, at the United Center in Chicago. (Dominic Di Palermo\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

The Bulls made a mistake in their opening defensive strategy \u2014 showing up in a zone, as if daring the Warriors to sit back and sling it from the 3-point arc.<\/p>\n

The Warriors eagerly welcomed that dare, knocking down a trio of 3s before they shook the Bulls out of their defensive scheme. This early flurry was enough to send Golden State ahead 11-2 in the opening 120 seconds of play.<\/p>\n

The Bulls knew the arc would be a threat against Golden State, which still hasn\u2019t strayed from the model that won this franchise its dynastic series of trophies. The Warriors take nearly half of their shots from long distance. They sank 22 shots on 47 attempts (46.8%) against the Bulls, replete with volume from youngsters Quinten Post (5-for-10) and Brandin Podziemski (5-for-9).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The white flag came out early for the Chicago Bulls in their seventh consecutive loss. Coach Billy Donovan…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":432601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,3127,200775,3140,5386,1818,6326,59706],"class_list":{"0":"post-432600","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-chicago-bulls","10":"tag-coach-billy-donovan","11":"tag-golden-state-warriors","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-illinois","14":"tag-nba-basketball","15":"tag-united-center"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115682355221966125","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}