Buckle up, this week could be tough! To start, the first three matchups on the Bulls’ schedule this week will begin at 9:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m. and again 9:00 p.m. Not ideal! The game against the Clippers also starts at 3:00 p.m.
Three of Chicago’s four opponents this week are firmly in the playoffs or Play-In tournament, and the Jazz are the first team outside of it in the West. So we’re going to need an effort that’s a little more inspired than the one against the Bucks on Friday night.
There is some good news, however. The Bulls had two nights off between games and – based on recent outings – two nights off might be good for Coby White. In 60 games this season, Coby has already played a career record number of minutes. He is 7th in the NBA with 36.6 minutes per game. Coby is most certainly still contributing, and credit to him for finding ways to help the team when he’s in a shooting slump, but the shooting has most certainly fallen off over the last few weeks .
Outside of October (the Bulls only played four games), Coby shot 39 percent or better from beyond the arc through February 1. Last month, the 24-year-old guard saw his three-point percentage drop to 34 percent. He also had his worst field goal percentage of the season (again, not counting October), shooting just 39 percent from the field.
The positive thing, however, is that Coby’s rebounds and assists per game have not decreased. In fact, he averaged his most assists per game of any month this season at 6.2 and was above his season rebounds per game average with 5.4. So while the scoring took a hit and we hope it comes back a bit, it’s been really nice to see him find ways to influence games despite a drop in shots.
Let’s get ready for some late nights this week as the Bulls venture out west. If Chicago can put together a 2-2 effort in their four games this week, I would call that a big win.
Meet the bulls’ opponents
3/4 among the Kings: Let’s try not to give them a 30-point lead this time.
3/6 at Jazz: Staying up late to watch Lauri Markkanen drop 30 on us is going to cause some major scares.
3/7 at Warriors: Anything but another vintage Splash Brothers performance would be lovely.
3/9 to the Clippers: This would be a great place for a load management game, Clippers! Please?!
Bulls: Alex Caruso QUESTIONABLE (hamstring), Torrey Craig OUT (knee), Patrick Williams OUT (foot)
Kings: De’Aaron Fox QUESTIONABLE (knee)
Jazz: Lauri Markkanen QUESTIONABLE (quad), Keyonte George QUESTIONABLE (illness), Walker Kessler QUESTIONABLE (foot), Otto Porter Jr OUT (not with team),
Warriors: Brandin Podziemski QUESTIONABLE (knee), Andrew Wiggins QUESTIONABLE (personal)
Clippers: Russell Westbrook OUT (hand)
(Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
What to watch out for
Bulls: The rest of the season for Chicago is all about staying healthy and preparing for the Play-In tournament. DeMar DeRozan has played more minutes than anyone in the NBA. He seems to be okay with that, but going a little easier on him over the period might not hurt. The same goes for Coby White. If the Bulls want to get out of the Play-In and make the Playoffs, they’ll need a full-strength Coby. Getting him out of his bad patch is huge for this team down the stretch. This is new territory for Coby, and in the long run, enduring such a heavy workload is probably a good thing. But for now, he has to fight his way through this wall. As for the rest of the team, let’s see Ayo keep rolling. He’s going to be given a lot of minutes in the final month of the season, and it will be a good test for him as well.
Kings: De’Aaron Fox is questionable tonight. But he took part in the shooting this morning, so it’s unlikely he’ll stay out. Last time against the Kings at the United Center, the Bulls did the thing where they sleepwalk, fall behind big, then race back and narrowly miss. You can’t start slow against teams like the Kings who can score in bunches. A fast start tonight, or at least a start that seems stuck in molasses, is imperative.
Jazz: I joked earlier that I didn’t want to see Lauri Markkanen drop 30 against us, but there’s a chance he misses Wednesday’s game. He has already been ruled out with a quad bruise for tonight. It wouldn’t hurt if they played it safe with him again on Wednesday. As for the team, it is in difficulty. Since January 18, the Jazz were just 5-14 and have really struggled defensively. If there’s one game where Coby can get out of a scoring skid and the Bulls can shoot well, it’s probably this one. Utah had been trailing in the Play-In race for a while, but their slippage — combined with the Lakers and Warriors starting to figure things out — put them 5.5 games back from last place.
Warriors: The good news is that the Warriors just lost by 52 points to the Celtics on Sunday. No, that’s not a typo. They lost 140-88. The bad news is that they are 13-4 in their last 17 games and Steph Curry still looks great. Veteran teams like Golden State are usually good at putting bad losses like that in the rearview mirror, so that’s what I would expect from them. The Warriors’ turnaround unsurprisingly coincided with Jonathan Kuminga’s breakthrough. The former lottery pick shot 54 percent from the field or better in each of the last three months and averaged more than 18 points per game in January and February.
Clippers: So I’m waiting for the wheels to fall off Clippers, and they continue to move forward. The addition of James Harden has worked very well, although the playoffs will obviously be the ultimate test. Paul George and Kawhi Leonard are relatively healthy. Overall, this team has just played very complete basketball all season. It’s a strange situation because this team has always found a way to implode, but so far this year there have been no signs of that. Of course, with this group, they have to prove it come playoff time, but since the start of the Kawhi and Paul George era, this seems like the best and most complete group we’ve seen.
