Bulls falter in crunch time in 108-103 loss to Clippers

Coach Billy Donovan suspects the Bulls had a bit of a horseshoe on their side last season. And it’s looking more and more like he’s right.

“Our consistency has been a challenge,” Donovan said. “Some of the things that happened for us last year, we were on the side of good fortune in a lot of those situations.”

He pointed to last year’s thrilling overtime victory over the Clippers at the United Center, when DeMar DeRozan rescued the Bulls with a scintillating performance, scoring 50 points.

“We were down by [eight] points with like two minutes to go,” Donovan said. “Some of those games worked out for us. This year, they haven’t.”

When the Clippers returned Tuesday, the Bulls were in the midst of a season-long slog toward playoff contention, searching for the consistency and chemistry that sparked last season’s fast start.

They’re still searching. They lost a 19-point lead in the first half and led by seven in the second before fading again in the fourth quarter and faltering in crunch time in a 108-103 loss before a home crowd of 20,068 fans.

DeRozan again was in position to be the hero, but — typical of this season’s reversal of fortune — came up empty. After the Bulls (23-27) rallied from a 99-91 deficit with 6:38 left to trail 104-103 in the final minute, he aggressively drove the lane against Clippers guard Reggie Jackson, tried to spin, fell forward in the lane and lost the ball with no call with 36 seconds left.

“I got fouled,” DeRozan said when asked what went wrong. “What went wrong is they didn’t call it — simple as that. It’s frustrating being in that situation. I didn’t want to settle for a jump shot. As soon as I spin, his arm was reaching in and I couldn’t fully spin.

“I don’t know. It doesn’t make any sense to me. I tried to be aggressive. Tried to get downhill. Clearly it was a foul. It just sucks that I’ll wake up tomorrow and read the Last Two Minute Report [from the NBA office analyzing the officiating] and [it’s] something else [they] missed that possibly could have cost us the game. That’s the most frustrating part.”

After the turnover, Clippers guard Norman Powell was fouled on a drive with 10 seconds left and hit two free throws to give the Clippers a 106-103 lead. The Bulls, who hit 12 of 23 three-point shots, had a chance to tie. But they turned it over on the ensuing inbound pass when Alex Caruso struggled to get the ball to Zach LaVine in the corner, and that was it. That one final failure illustrated the frustration of a disappointing season.

“We didn’t execute the play,” Donovan said. “We’ve just got to be better in that situation.”

Explained LaVine: “The play was for me to go up top, but they were switching. I tried to make a cut and get open. Me and DeMar cut to the same area. [Caruso] just tried to make a play. Kawhi [Leonard] got his hand on it, and then we just scrambled for it.”

Nikola Vucevic led the Bulls with 23 points and 14 rebounds. LaVine added 18 points, a career-high 14 rebounds and eight assists. DeRozan had 20 points and five assists but also eight of the Bulls’ 20 turnovers.

“I take a lot [of the blame] upon myself,” DeRozan said. “That was too uncharacteristic. Just careless. I wouldn’t even give [the Clippers] all the credit. It was just us rushing some stuff, being careless with the ball. That killed us, too — all the turnovers. I had seven, eight — whatever it was, it’s entirely too much. We can’t let that happen.”

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