Anfernee Simons' breakout isn't over, C.J. McCollum picked up right where he left off after six weeks on the sideline and Jusuf Nurkic has taken advantage of his increased role as a scorer. But the Portland Trail Blazers entered Sunday's tilt with the Chicago Bulls at a surprising 8-6 in January not due to significant team-wide improvement offensively. It's been their strides on the other side of the ball that have most allowed the Blazers to stay afloat with Damian Lillard sidelined.

Unfortunately for Chauncey Billups, though, his team's defense never got off the plane to Chicago.

Portland fell to the Bulls 130-116 at United Center on Sunday, losing touch with DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine and company on the scoreboard once its jumpers stopped falling after the first quarter. Chicago shot a scorching 59.2% from the field and doled out 21 assists before intermission, sprinting into halftime with a 73-65 lead that quickly reached double-digits once the third quarter began. The Blazers never got closer than nine points after falling behind by 17.

Even in a game it shot 51.8% overall and connected on 18 triples, defense prevented Portland from being competitive in the second half.

“We let 'em get comfortable. When you let a team get comfortable in particular at home, man, it's tough to walk it back,” Billups said. “You look at 'em, they had 21 assists at halftime, and that's not just one guy catching fire and going crazy. They were moving the basketball, everybody was making shots. We were never really able to get them under control.”

DeRozan dropped 23 points and 10 assists for the Bulls on 9-of-13 shooting. Nikola Vucevic was just as efficient en route to 24 points and 14 rebounds, and LaVine also reached the 20-point mark. The Bulls scored 40 points off the bench, too, racking up a 134.0 offensive rating—their second-best mark of the season.

“I just don't think that we competed hard enough at the onset of the game,” Billups said, “and it hurt us.”

The Blazers' defense has tumbled to 21st in January, surrendering 114.5 points per 100 possessions, per NBA.com/stats.  Nassir Little's season-ending injury won't make their subtle progress on that end over the last few weeks much easier to come by again, either.

But don't mistake Billups' frustration in the moment for disappointment at Portland's growth defensively since the season tipped off. Even after giving up 130 points for the second time in three games, he still believes his team is headed in the right direction on defense.

“We just didn't have it today,” Billups said.