The Chicago Bulls didn’t suffer the biggest loss in NBA history on Tuesday. The Memphis Grizzlies’ 73-point win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2021 still stands alone.
The Bulls also didn’t have the most anemic quarter or half in history against the Detroit Pistons, or even one of the bottom 10. In fact, they even won the second half by two points.
We are done listing the amount of reasons the Bulls have to feel better about their 132-92 loss to the Pistons.
A quirk of NBA blowouts is the final score often doesn’t reflect how ugly things got at one point. Enormous deficits can be softened by several minutes of low-effort, low-stakes basketball. The real mark of a blowout is when the arena accepts what is happening.
In the case of the Bulls, it was probably when they entered halftime down 71-29 after one of the worst offensive halves in the history of basketball. Here is the team dutifully reporting that fact
As a team, the Bulls shot 12-of-52 (23.1%). As a team, they were 1-of-23 from 3-point range (4.3% — yes, four percent). As a team, they committed 10 turnovers, two fewer than their field goals made).
And it was all against the Pistons, a solid team but definitely not among the elite in NBA defense. Detroit outscored Chicago 34-18 in the first quarter, which felt quite lopsided, and then they won the second quarter 37-11.
Rookie Matas Buzelis ended up leading the team in scoring with 12 points. Chicago emptied its bench so fully that every player on its active roster scored at least three points, which is an achievement in itself.
This kind of performance will never not be shocking from actual professional athletes, but the Bulls really don’t have much to play for at this point. Their 22-32 record actually puts them in the final NBA play-in spot, but they have more talented teams behind them in the Philadelphia 76ers (assuming they can field a healthy lineup two games in a row) and the Toronto Raptors, who just got Brandon Ingram in a trade.
Meanwhile, the Bulls just traded away Zach LaVine and should probably have traded away more players with both eyes on the future. As evidenced by the, ahem, 40-point loss on Tuesday, there’s not much reason to believe this roster has any reason to believe it can make use of a play-in spot.
