The Chicago Bulls aren’t the best three-point shooting team. They sit somewhere in the middle of the pack in terms of makes and attempts this season, but on Monday night, they barely scratched the surface compared to their opponent. The Bulls took just 28 threes against the Atlanta Hawks on Monday, who chucked up 40.
Chicago ended up making just seven of their attempts, which put them at a serious disadvantage, as Atlanta made 19. That’s a 36-point difference on three-pointers alone. In the end, it was too much of a gap for the Bulls to make up, as they lost by a score of 113-101 in a game with serious Play-In seeding implications.
After the game, head coach Billy Donovan spoke about the difference in three-point shooting. (H/t Annie Costabile of the Chicago Sun-Times)
“Some of the threes were a byproduct of the battles at the point of the screens offensively and defensively,” Donovan said. “On both ends of the floor, [the Hawks] won those battles in a lot of ways. They shot the ball exceptionally, as well. You give them credit for that. We didn’t shoot the ball nearly as well, and certainly we didn’t generate nearly as many threes. . . . It’s more the corner threes for me that we have to be better at.”
If the Bulls want to make a run, they can’t keep getting outshot from distance like this.