On a night Bulls should have zigged, they zagged in losing to Cavs

CLEVELAND — The Bulls aren’t much into conventional wisdom. Early in the season, when much of the NBA believed they should zig, they zagged. When the season seemed lost in February, they went all in. And when they could have gone hard with their starters Tuesday night to try to improve their seeding in the Play-In Tournament, they sat four of them and made it a bench game.

When the smoke cleared against the Cavaliers, the short-handed Bulls (36-43) — who last week clinched a spot in the tournament — had lost 135-113, leaving more questions than answers.

Coach Billy Donovan attempted to explain.

“If you take away the standings and take away all that stuff, it’s OK. What’s in the best interest of the guys’ health?” Donovan said. “That’s what it came down to. You can always play devil’s advocate. . . . You’re making one of these decisions, but you also play this side of, ‘Why wouldn’t we rest these guys? We’re in the Play-In [Tournament].’ All of a sudden, so-and-so is out for a week now, and was playing those guys in a back-to-back too much?

“Listen, every time these guys step across the line, they’re always putting themselves in harm’s way. Anything can happen. With some of the things they’ve done load-wise, there was just a concern with what’s coming down the road.”

Nikola Vucevic (calf/injury management), Coby White (rest), Josh Giddey (wrist) and Kevin Huerter (neck) were all held out, despite the Bulls entering the evening at No. 9 in the Eastern Conference, a half-game in front of the Heat and a game behind the suddenly sinking Hawks.

The Heat — against whom the Bulls hold a tiebreaker — were idle and play in Chicago on Wednesday night. But the Hawks lost to the Magic, so it was an opportunity lost.

And the kicker, according to a source, was that three of the four starters who were held out wanted to play but were overruled by the Bulls’ medical staff. Huerter was the only one seriously hampered by injury but was still looking to return against the Heat.

If the Bulls and Hawks end the season tied, the Hawks have the tiebreaker.

“Just being on a team like this, ‘next man up’ is something we try and live by, just knowing if we stick to our identity and play the way we’re supposed to play, we can be in any game,” reserve guard Talen Horton-Tucker said after the game. “That’s pretty much it.”

It was an uphill battle most of the night, but the Bulls had some good moments, specifically in the third quarter, as they made the Cavaliers work to clinch the No. 1 seed in the East.

Patrick Williams scored a season-high 21 points, rookie Matas Buzelis was impressive with 19, and Horton-Tucker chipped in 17 off the bench. But without the 1-2 punch of White and Giddey or Vucevic’s presence, the Bulls suffered from a talent deficit, even with the Cavs sitting All-Star Donovan Mitchell.

“They’ve got a lot of pieces,” Horton-Tucker said. “I feel like they’re a complete basketball team. When they’re hitting shots, they’re pretty hard to beat.”

The Cavs finished 25-for-50 from behind the three-point line.

The Bulls now must quickly flip their focus to the Heat, who could push them to the bottom play-in seed with a win Wednesday. They’ll close the regular season against the Wizards and 76ers.