5 takeaways from Chicago Bulls’ 116-102 loss, including Zach LaVine’s foot injury and Coby White’s thunderous 3-point performance

Zach LaVine missed his first game of the season for the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday as he sat out the first of four road games with a foot injury.

LaVine described the injury as a midfoot sprain in his right foot. He began to notice pain in his right foot during the first home game against the Miami Heat on Nov. 18, cutting the tape off his foot at halftime in an attempt to alleviate discomfort.

“During the Miami games, it was bugging me,” LaVine said. “Obviously, just trying today, it felt the same if not worse. Did a lot of warmups, a lot of treatment over the last couple of days. It didn’t feel right. Giving it a day, see how it feels. We’ll figure it out and get me feeling better.”

The Bulls (5-11) couldn’t find an offensive spark without LaVine in the lineup, falling 116-102 to the Thunder (11-4).

LaVine played through discomfort in the second Miami game on Monday, but said adrenaline kept the injury from inhibiting his movement throughout the game. He averaged 13 points and 5.5 assists across those two games, taking a lower volume of shots than usual as the Heat targeted him with traps.

The Bulls medical staff opted to hold him out of Wednesday’s game as pain persisted. Coach Billy Donovan said LaVine’s availability will be monitored on a game-by-game basis. LaVine said his recovery timeline is “nothing major” and he could return as early as Friday’s game in Toronto.

This is a critical period for LaVine, who has fallen under a harsh spotlight since he reportedly voiced interest in seeking a trade out of Chicago. The week following that initial report has been highlighted by scrutiny, both for his hit-and-miss shooting nights and for an incident when he refused a postgame broadcast interview.

But LaVine shrugged off any concerns about missing games amid trade rumors, focusing instead on his availability for the team.

“I mean, I don’t like sitting out of basketball,” LaVine said. “I’ve missed enough games in my career. I try to play through everything. I could care less if it’s looked at or not. It’s more the fact that I don’t like missing games. That hurts more than anything.”

Here are five takeaways from the loss.

1. A stagnant shooting start without Zach LaVine.

The Bulls were already struggling to break out of a streak of sluggish starts the past two weeks as the lowest-scoring first-quarter team in the league. That trend only became more dire without LaVine.

Donovan was forced to call his first timeout four minutes into the game as the Bulls slid down to a 10-5 deficit. It wasn’t the worst start the Bulls have recorded in the last week, but there was nothing Donovan could do in that timeout to jolt the offense into gear.

The Bulls scored only 14 points in the first quarter and 39 points in the first half. They made only four shots that weren’t 3-pointers in the first half as they went 4-for-22 (18%) inside the arc.

This was the fifth different starting lineup in the opening 16 games of the season for the Bulls due to LaVine’s injury, DeMar DeRozan’s one-game absence due to a family issue and Donovan’s experimentation with the power forward position.

2. Coby White powers first-half offense with a thunderous 3-point performance.

Coby White was the only offensive force for the Bulls in the first half. He scored all 18 of his first-half points behind the arc as he went 6-for-9 from 3-point range, providing nearly half of the team’s total scoring in the first two quarters.

White cooled off in the second half, making only one more 3-pointer to finish the game with 23 points and a season-high seven 3-pointers.

3. DeMar DeRozan nearly wills the team back into contention.

DeMar DeRozan wasn’t immune to the slow start, opening the game shooting 0-for-7 from the field. But he corrected that offensive form in the second half, when he scored 21 points to nearly lift the Bulls to a comeback. DeRozan went 5-for-9 from the field in the second half and scored 11 points from the free-throw line, where he finished a perfect 13-for-13 on the night.

DeRozan also notched another historic moment when he scored his 22,000th point in the fourth quarter. He is the 36th player in NBA history to reach the milestone as he continues to climb the league’s all-time scoring list, sitting only 103 points back from Stephen Curry and 191 points back from Clyde Drexler.

4. The defense can’t contain Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

The Bulls knew their main defensive target entering the game: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, one of the preeminent scorers in the league. Despite planning their defensive scheme around the guard, the Bulls allowed Gilgeous-Alexander to lead the Thunder with 40 points.

Gilgeous-Alexander scored seven points and assisted two baskets in the opening three minutes of the third quarter to counter the Bulls’ improved offense. He logged 11 points in the fourth quarter, 10 of which were scored from the free-throw line.

Donovan voiced frustration after the game, acknowledging the Bulls were slow in their defensive rotations and struggled to adapt to throw traps and to overload Gilgeous-Alexander as he continued to find his spots in the second half.

“He’s obviously really great with the ball and really shifty and crafty,” Donovan said. “I think our rotations out of it were a little bit slower. I think we could have done a better job of not fouling him. We could have done a better job when we were trapping of containing him better than we did. But give him credit, he’s seen that before and he did a really good job.”

5. The fourth-quarter finish deepens poor record in clutch games.

Despite their meager start, the Bulls came within three points in the third quarter and then five points in the fourth quarter.

They entered the final four minutes of play trailing by five points with the game within reach, but a series of errors kept them from completing the final steps of the comeback. The Bulls gave up a shot clock violation with 3:40 left in the fourth quarter.

The final nail was hammered in with 1:58 left on the clock when Isaiah Joe sank a 3-pointer while being fouled by White, making the ensuing free throw to take a 110-99 lead. The Thunder finished the game on a 16-7 run that put the Bulls away for a second-straight loss.

The Bulls are second in the league in total clutch games this season, finishing nine of their 16 games with a deficit of five points or fewer in the final five minutes. But they’ve only won three of those games.