Last season, Tristan Thompson called it the “blueprint.’’
Sounding part NBA analyst, part conspiracy theorist, the backup center that the Bulls rented for the second half of the 2021-22 campaign, was convinced that Memphis had figured out the best way to attack the Bulls defensively during a Feb. 26 win, putting it out on film for all to see.
More than a year later, it’s really not a blueprint as much as just common sense.
The Lakers showed that in the 121-110 win on Wednesday.
“They adjusted to doubling pretty much everything,’’ Bulls guard Zach LaVine said of the loss. “It slowed us up. I think we played really slow. They put us on our heels early … They were doubling me at halfcourt. I was trying to get off of [the ball]. Give the credit to the defense.’’
Or to the game plan that limited LaVine to 16 points on 8-for-14 shooting, including an 0-for-2 from three-point range, and DeMar DeRozan to 22 points on 9-for-15 shooting.
The Bulls duo, especially LaVine, gave the Lakers fits just three days earlier in Los Angeles, as LaVine and DeRozan combined for four three-pointers, with LaVine scoring a game-high 32.
So the counterpunch?
Blitz LaVine and DeRozan with two bodies whenever they had the ball – making someone else on the Bulls roster beat them.
The concern with doing that is how open the corner three usually is, but Los Angeles picked a great night to pull it off. Alex Caruso went 1-for-3 from three, with two attempts coming from the corner. Patrick Beverley went 0-for-5 from three, with three attempts from the corners. And Patrick Williams went 0-for-5 from long range, missing three from the corners.
A sustainable game plan for the six remaining opponents on the Bulls schedule? Not really. Only Memphis and Milwaukee – if the Bucks are even playing their starters at that point – have the personnel to blitz the Bulls at the top of the arc with physicality, have the defensive acumen to rotate properly, and then have a rim protector to clean up any breakdowns.
What should have the Bulls nervous, however, is the team they are currently lined up to face in the first-round play-in game in the Raptors.
Toronto took two-of-three from the Bulls this season – with both victories coming up North – and sit in the No. 9 spot. That means they would host the Bulls in that play-in game, and do so with the personnel to cause some issues.
Which makes the back-to-back losses the Bulls have now suffered sting even more.
The Bulls sit two games behind both Toronto and Atlanta, with all three teams having six remaining games on the schedule.
The Raptors have by far the toughest road, and a strange one, playing at Philadelphia, back-to-back games in Charlotte, back-to-back games in Boston and then back home for Milwaukee. It’s the third-hardest remaining schedule in the NBA, but one that comes with an asterisk.
The Bucks could sit everyone in the finale, and Boston could do the same in the second to last game if they have the No. 2 seed locked up by then.
If the Bulls were hoping to catch Atlanta, instead, they at least play the Hawks at the United Center next Tuesday. But Atlanta also gets a slumping Dallas team, the Wizards, and the Celtics in the finale, who again, could be in rest mode.
“I just want to play a good brand of basketball and wherever we fall we fall,’’ Beverley said of what lies in front of the Bulls. “We’re prepared for anything.’’
That’s good, but a blueprint says differently.
