Bulls unable to match Pistons' physicality in late loss

DETROIT — Bulls coach Billy Donovan was fed up.

His team had just given up a wide-open dunk to center Isaiah Stewart in the fourth quarter because of poor defensive rotations, so Donovan called a timeout and walked onto the court, gesturing towards his players with his palms toward the roof of Little Caesars Arena, trying to understand how a miscue could happen at such a pivotal point in the game.

Both the Bulls and Pistons were undermanned in Wednesday’s game. The Pistons were down All-Star Cade Cunningham and rising center Jalen Duren, while the Bulls were without Coby White and Josh Giddey. But even without their two best players, the Pistons stuck to their rugged defensive identity and benefitted from a career-high 31 points from Stewart.

The Pistons know who they are; the Bulls are still searching after a 108-93 loss to the Pistons.

On one possession in the fourth quarter, Pistons guard Chaz Lanier knocked down a three-pointer to put the Pistons up 10 after Daniss Jenkins secured an offensive rebound. The Bulls had no answer to defending the Stewart-Jenkins two-man game — Jenkins finished with 14 assists.

Wednesday’s loss was worse than the Bulls’ defeat to a full-strength Boston team on Monday. The Bulls’ defensive help left a lot to be desired in the fourth. They did well to match Detroit’s physicality for the first three quarters but succumbed in the fourth quarter.

The Bulls were outscored 32-16 in the fourth. The Pistons did a good job of bodying up Bulls defenders and taking advantage of their lack of ballhandlers. The Pistons scored 18 points off 17 Bulls turnovers.

“Some of it was communication [on the] defensive end,” said center Nikola Vucevic, who scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. “We had some careless turnovers with their physicality [that] definitely affected [us]. We weren't able to execute our offense [and] get open plays from those.

“They also were able to run a bit [in transition and get some easy ones. But in that fourth, we just didn't sustain, or actually [we] even had to bring up our physicality an extra step to be able to have a chance.”

Offensively, the Bulls sorely lacked the shot-making and scoring of Giddey and White. The Bulls only attempted one more three-pointer than the Pistons, and if the Bulls aren’t attempting a ton of threes — and experiencing multiple breakdowns — their margin for error is very slim.

“I love the way we competed,” Donovan said. “I love the mentality going into the game. But the bottom line is [it’s] not enough. I know our margins are small, but I do think that to control both things, we can be better. The game kind of got away from us because of some of the things that you had mentioned. We can't have that. We have to be better in those areas.”

The Bulls don’t get a reprieve as they host the Heat tomorrow night. The absence of centers Zach Collins and Jalen Smith was also felt in Wednesday’s game. Their unavailability left the Bulls small in the frontcourt, and the low man for the Bulls most times was a smaller player. The Bulls don't have the players to match up with bigger teams.

“We knew [it] was going to be a physical game,” Donovan said. “As we're down bodies in particular, in the frontcourt, everybody's going to have to help to a certain extent, and we all got to probably be a little bit better.”