The Chicago Bulls’ dream start to the 2025-26 NBA season ended emphatically on Sunday with a 128-116 loss to the New York Knicks. New York shot 20-for-42 from 3-point range (47.6 percent) and 13-for-21 (61.9 percent) in the first half — a statistic that highlighted the Bulls’ overlooked inability to defend the three-ball.

Billy Donovan’s squad has been one of the league’s most pleasant surprises over the year’s first few weeks. Chicago started 5-0 for the first time since the 1996-97 campaign and was the second-to-last team to finally draw an “L” (the defending-champion Oklahoma City Thunder are the only remaining unbeaten).

Of course, the Bulls were never going to go 82-0; a road loss to one of the Eastern Conference’s title favorites shouldn’t be construed as a massive disappointment. But some parts of Chicago’s hot start were less sustainable than others, and one of those came crashing back to reality in Madison Square Garden.

Chicago Bulls struggle to defend the 3-point line

The Bulls entered Sunday’s tilt allowing opposing teams to shoot just 30.1 percent on threes. That was the best mark in the NBA.

This is where small sample sizes truly come into play.

The Detroit Pistons shot 29.2 percent from deep in Chicago’s opening-night 115-111 win. They’re up to 34.8 percent as a team through six games.

The offensively inept Orlando Magic shot 12.5 percent from three in game two; they’re shooting 33.5 percent on the year. The Atlanta Hawks shot 34.4 percent from long range, a game in which the Bulls had to rally late to win. The Sacramento Kings hit just 25.0 percent of their threes; they’re one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the league at 37.0 percent.

It’s fair to say that Chicago benefited from its opponents missing an unusually high number of shots from deep. Even after the Knicks loss, the Bulls are the NBA’s sixth-best team at defending the 3-point line, holding opponents to just 33.8 percent on the year. The league-wide 3-point shooting percentage is two entire points higher at 35.8 percent.

Cleaning the Glass has a helpful stat called location effective field-goal percentage, which calculates a team’s field-goal percentage allowed if its opponents shot the league average from every spot on the floor. Despite sitting third in 3-point percentage against, the Bulls are dead last in Loc eFG%.

It’s a fancy way of saying the Bulls are giving up good looks from everywhere. Teams just aren’t making them.

Chicago wasn’t good at defending the three last season, and despite how the numbers look so far this year, they’re still not great at it. The Knicks exposed a weakness that is easily repeatable: Shoot a decent amount of 3-pointers and make them at an even average clip, and the Bulls could bleed points.