The Chicago Bulls are in a tough spot. In addition to Zach LaVine missing the entire month of December, Nikola Vucevic has been out since December 23. Without Vucevic in the lineup, the Bulls have been rolling with Andre Drummond. And while the big man has been dominant on the glass, Drummond can’t do it all by himself.
Outside of Drummond, the Bulls don’t have much help at the center position. They called up two-way big man Adama Sanogo from the Windy City Bulls, but he’s not getting any playing time. Instead, it’s going to be on the Bulls as a team to crash the glass.
After the Bulls’ recent loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, DeMar DeRozan spoke about the importance of working as a team to make up for their injury absences.
“We scramble, we try to help each other, we move around as much as we can, understanding that we’re down in size, we’re down a man,” DeRozan said via Julia Poe of the Chicago Tribune. “We’re just trying to work with one another, trying to make it as difficult as possible for the opposing team.”
In addition, head coach Billy Donovan noted that Chicago has enough out there. They just need to be more active.
“There’s enough out there,” Donovoan said. “When Patrick went out in the first half [Tuesday], that certainly made us a lot smaller, but we didn’t get pounded on the backboard. There was just opportunities that we could’ve been a little bit more physical, provided a little bit more help, been a little bit better contesting, and I think that would have made a difference for us winning tonight.”
Joel Embiid snagged 15 rebounds on Tuesday night, but the Bulls managed to win the rebounding battle. It just wasn’t enough to help them get the win.
