Turnovers Plague Chicago Bulls In Loss To Los Angeles Clippers

The Chicago Bulls played what could be considered their worst game of the short-lived NBA season on Saturday night against the Los Angeles Clippers. After the Clippers entered halftime with a 13 point lead, the Bulls were unable overcome their uphill battle in the second half of the game. Three things that stuck out from Saturday’s game against the Clippers is that Bulls turned the ball over 16 times; the Clippers outscored the Bulls in fast break points 26 to 10; and the Clippers had 48 points in the paint as opposed to the 36 points that the Bulls scored in the paint. Combine those three factors and it is rather easy to pinpoint why the Bulls lost 101 to 80 on Saturday night to the Clippers. Blake Griffin and Jamal Crawford led the way for the Clippers as Griffin scored 26 points and Crawford added 22 points off the bench. Griffin and Crawford were the only Clippers’ players to score 15+ points on Saturday.

November 17, 2012; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Clippers power forward Blake Griffin (32) turns the ball over against the defense of Chicago Bulls power forward Carlos Boozer (5), and shooting guard Kirk Hinrich (12) during the first half at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-US PRESSWIRE

For the Bulls, the leading man was Carlos Boozer. Boozer scored a team-high 22 points while gathering 12 rebounds. Kirk Hinrich had a game to forget as the point guard had 1 point to go along with 5 turnovers, though, the Bulls’ starting point guard did tally 10 assists in Saturday’s game against the Clippers. Both Richard Hamilton and Luol Deng scored 14 points. Joakim Noah had his worst game of the season as the Bulls’ starting center scored 4 points while only collecting 7 rebounds. The Bulls’ bench failed to provide any type of spark for the team, though, Nate Robinson was the high man off the bench with 11 points.

To simply put it, this was a sloppy game for the Bulls against the Clippers. The Bulls shot 33% from the field and that is not going to be enough to win against the contending teams in the NBA especially a team like the Clippers. The Bulls will look to regroup in Portland as the team takes on the Trail Blazers on Sunday.