Same Old Story: 19 Turnovers Doom Bulls in 116-108 Loss to Shorthanded Thunder

Jared McCain scored 20 points off the bench on four three-pointers, Isaiah Joe added 19, Aaron Wiggins 18, and the Oklahoma City Thunder — without reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who sat to manage an abdominal strain — beat the Chicago Bulls 116-108 on Tuesday night at the United Center. Cason Wallace had 17 points and Jaylin Williams came off the bench for 17 points and 16 rebounds as OKC won for the sixth time in seven games and improved to 48-15, the best record in the Western Conference. Chet Holmgren finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Collin Sexton led Chicago with 20 points off the bench, and Guerschon Yabusele posted a season-high 18 points and 12 rebounds — his third double-double in 11 games since arriving from New York at the trade deadline. The Bulls fell back to 25-37, ending a winning streak that had lasted exactly one game.

Josh Giddey narrowly missed his second consecutive triple-double, finishing with 14 points, nine rebounds, and nine assists but four turnovers in 33 minutes. Matas Buzelis scored 11 points in 20 minutes before rolling his right ankle after stepping on Jaylin Williams' foot late in the third quarter and did not return. Tre Jones added 15 points off 5-of-10 shooting and Nick Richards contributed 12 points and 13 rebounds off the bench. Chicago's 19 turnovers led to 25 OKC points — compared to just 7 points the Bulls generated off the Thunder's 9 turnovers — and OKC held a 20-6 edge in fast break points and a 10-3 advantage in steals. The Thunder led for 87 percent of the game and Chicago's largest lead was two points.

One Quarter Too Many

For two and a half quarters, this game looked like a meaningful test passed. Oklahoma City opened with a quick first-quarter burst, going up 22-12 midway through the period on back-to-back Jaylin Williams three-pointers and a McCain driving layup, but Chicago answered. Sexton hit a three off a Dillingham assist with fifteen seconds left in the first to trim it to 26-22, and then the Bulls won the second quarter 32-29, closing the half on Sexton's driving layup at the buzzer to make it 55-54 OKC. Into the third, the game remained genuinely contested: a Giddey three off a Yabusele assist tied it at 57 with about 11 minutes left, a pair of Buzelis free throws gave Chicago a 60-59 lead, and the United Center had the kind of noise it hadn't heard in two days. Then Chet Holmgren dunked.

From that Holmgren dunk at 10:03 of the third, Oklahoma City went on a 14-3 run — Wiggins and Wallace extending the lead, Holmgren adding free throws, Isaiah Joe knocking down a pair of mid-range jumpers — that turned a one-point Chicago lead into a 73-63 OKC advantage before the Bulls could respond. McCain took over from there. He hit a three at 6:03, another at 3:50, and a third at 2:15, going 3-for-3 from deep in the quarter for nine third-quarter points as OKC outscored Chicago 8-2 in the final three minutes to take an 87-76 lead to the fourth. Buzelis' ankle injury had removed him from the game by then, and Chicago — already depleted of its first-quarter rhythm — never found it again. OKC opened the fourth quarter on a quick 6-1 run to push the lead to 17, and though Sexton finished with a late fourth-quarter three to cut it to 112-106 with 54 seconds left, Cason Wallace's free throws and Jaylin Williams' free throws at the horn made the final 116-108.

The Good and the Familiar

There was enough here to point at and call encouraging. Yabusele's night — 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting, four three-pointers, 12 rebounds, and consistent positioning in Chicago's half-court sets — was his best performance since arriving from New York, and it came in a game where he had to carry the first-half offense almost alone. He scored 15 of his 18 points in the first two quarters, holding Chicago's offense together during long stretches where nothing else was working, and his third double-double in 11 games with the Bulls reflects a player who has genuinely raised the floor of this roster since the deadline. Richards was a force on the glass — 13 rebounds and 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting in 23 minutes, the one player in Chicago's rotation who finished with a clean plus-minus among the regular bench pieces. Dillingham was a net positive in 24 minutes with five assists and a plus-six, giving this team a secondary playmaker who can push the pace and relieve some of the creation burden on Giddey.

But the structural problems that derailed Chicago throughout February were back Tuesday night, and they were back in the most familiar way: turnovers. Nineteen of them. The Bulls' nine starters and bench regulars combined to give Oklahoma City possessions that became 25 points — an 18-point swing in itself against a team that only committed nine turnovers all night. Chicago actually outshot OKC from three (17-for-49, 35 percent, compared to OKC's 10-for-42, 24 percent) and matched them on the glass with 53 total rebounds to 51, but the giveaways turned a competitive game into a third-quarter rout before the Bulls had a chance to execute. Giddey's nine assists and near-triple-double underline what this offense is capable of in the half-court — when it isn't handing possessions away. The status of Buzelis following his ankle injury will bear watching before Thursday's game, as will whether this group can learn what it keeps getting taught. They competed. That part is real. The turnovers are real too.

Looking Ahead

The Bulls head to Phoenix on Thursday night for a 8:00 p.m. CT tip against the Suns. Chicago has now lost 12 of its last 13 games, with the lone win coming Sunday against a Milwaukee team without Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Buzelis ankle injury is the most pressing question before Thursday — losing him reduces the starting lineup's ability to space the floor and put pressure off the dribble, and his 20 minutes on Tuesday were already a shortened night. How the Bulls manage the remaining schedule matters, but for now the immediate focus is simply getting back to the version of this team that played for 36 minutes Tuesday night before the third quarter took over.

The Thunder, for their part, continue to answer every question asked of them. They won without their best player — again — and did it with balanced, disciplined basketball: nine turnovers, ten steals, and 20 fast break points in a game they controlled for the better part of three quarters. The Bulls at least gave them something to think about on Tuesday. It wasn't enough, but for the first time in a while, it wasn't nothing.