Not much was said between Chicago Bulls center Nikola Vucevic and his Bulls teammates after they held another team meeting following a 116-110 loss to the Indiana Pacers, the Athletic Bulls senior writer Darnell Mayberry wrote on Tuesday.
“Honestly, there’s not much to be said,” Vucevic said. “There’s nothing you can say. It’s just a lot of frustration. We did all the talking. So we’ve just got to do it or this is where we’re going to be.”
Nikola Vucevic scored 20 points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished five assists in the six-point loss, scoring all of his shots from either inside the paint or from the 3-point line. He made five shots in the first half, including two straight 3-pointers in the opening quarter to push the Bulls to a 6-0 lead against the Pacers.
Chicago ended the first half with a 62-46 lead over Indiana, a lead the Pacers were slowly able to chip away at until they tied the game up at 100-100 after center Myles Turner made a free throw with 4:57 remaining. The Pacers erased a first-quarter lead despite playing without guard Tyrese Haliburton and entering Tuesday night on a seven-game losing streak, wrote Mayberry.
“A game like this, we’re supposed to win,” Bulls guard Zach LaVine said. “Especially the way we played in the first half. You can put that on us not being able to close the game out and execute down the stretch.”
Guard Goran Dragic put the Bulls on blast when the team collapsed during a mid-December matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
“We’re not playing for each other,” Dragic said. “It’s as simple as that. Somebody told me — and he was right — it’s easy to talk about sacrifice. But somebody else’s sacrifice is easier to talk about. But when it comes to you, that you have to sacrifice for the team, then it’s a different story. You have to accept it. But it’s tough.”
The Bulls will tip off against the Charlotte Hornets at 6:30 p.m. CST on Thursday in the Spectrum Center. The game will be broadcasted on NBC Sports Chicago.
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