There are a few bright spots in Chicago. Nic Claxton made his Bulls debut off the bench in that Philly loss with 4 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks in 17 minutes, and he looked comfortable next to Noa Essengue, who had 10 and 7. Rookie Caleb Wilson's 18 that night pushed him past Derrick Rose for the most points by a Bulls rookie through 9 games. Josh Giddey went for 19, 15 and 7.
The scores tell you why the Bulls are 1-8. In the last 5 they've given up 133, 125, 126, 135 and 127. They've been scoring enough to stay close, then losing anyway. Points have been easy to come by against them, and Atlanta just put up 139 on Washington. Chicago's offense, with Giddey running it, isn't the problem. The problem is that nobody has stopped anybody, and a Claxton-Essengue frontcourt only 1 game old is the best shot at fixing that.
Atlanta's bench is thinner than its record suggests. Henri Veesaar is done for the year with a torn ACL, Mouhamed Gueye is coming back from foot surgery, and Asa Newell (toe) and Keshon Gilbert (knee) both sat against the Lakers. Chicago's 2 question marks are Norman Powell (shoulder) and Zach Collins (illness), both day-to-day and both out against the 76ers. Powell matters most. He's the Bulls' most proven scorer, and the Spurs game should tell us whether he'll be ready Friday at 7:00 PM CT.
