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Billy Donovan said frustration got the best of the Chicago Bulls in the shocking loss to the Detroit Pistons

The Bulls couldn’t make a bucket to save their life.

Stephen Beslic

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On Tuesday, the Chicago Bulls faced off against the team with the worst defensive rating in the league, the Detroit Pistons, and still failed to crack the 100-point mark. That should state a lot about the night the Bulls had. And, as head coach Billy Donovan pointed out in the post-game press conference, frustration might have been a big reason for their struggles.

Ghastly shooting

Donovan shared that it was just one of those nights for the Bulls as they went 2 for 29 from behind the arc–the second-worst shooting performance in league history. However, what got Donovan’s goat was how the Bulls seemed to let their poor shooting affect other aspects of their game.

“Certainly 2-for-29 . . . a total outlier game in terms of that kind of shooting,” Donovan said.

“But the other thing, too, and I’m hoping we can really learn from a lot of this is it wasn’t like we were down 25 because of it. I thought the loose balls, the hustle plays, the offensive rebounds into transition, we still had opportunities to overcome it.”

Have to make up for it in other ways

While the Bulls’ shooting performance was an extreme outlier, it highlighted the importance of not letting missed shots dictate the rest of the game. In Tuesday’s game, despite their abysmal shooting, the Bulls still had opportunities to win the game and were within one, 89-88, in the fourth. But instead of honing in, the Bulls appeared out of it late in the fourth, failing to box out and missing on defensive rotations.

“I always talk about the things we can control, and I do think that to a certain extent, frustration [crept] in a little bit. When things aren’t going your way, you’ve got to manufacture other things to try to offset that,” Donovan added.

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Stephen Beslic
STEPHEN BESLIC

Stephen Beslic is a writer on Sports Illustrated's FanNation Network. Stephen played basketball from the age of 10 and graduated from Faculty of Economic and Business in Zagreb, Croatia, majoring in Marketing.

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