Dwyane Wade had a simple explanation when asked about the Bulls’ 101-91 loss Saturday to the Los Angeles Clippers.
The offense got bogged down, the ball stopped moving and the fast-break game slowed, but Wade didn’t go into all that.
No, Wade’s response was Jamal Crawford.
“Crawford went one-on-one, and you can’t do nothing when he’s going like that,’’ Wade said. “It wasn’t so much defensive breakdowns as it was [Crawford] making shots.’’
The former Bull shot 7-for-10 from the field in the second half, scoring 17 of his 25 points in just under 16 minutes.
And as Crawford was heating up, the Bulls (31-31) were falling apart because of missed calls and missed shots.
Coach Fred Hoiberg pointed out the difference from the first half, in which they built a 61-55 lead.
“We go out in the first half, we’re free-flowing,’’ Hoiberg said. “We scored 61 points, we had 13 in transition, we had 19 assists, the ball was moving and everybody was playing for each other. In that second half, we missed shots, we didn’t get calls, and it affected us. It affected us on the other end.
“Got to find a way to fight through the tough times, understand what makes us a successful team. When we get it up the floor, we’re pretty tough to stop, but that all stopped in the second half.’’
The loss dropped the Bulls to the No. 7 spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race with 20 games left.
They have four of their next five games on the road.
Payne and gain
Hoiberg still won’t say if there’s a plan in place to hand the starting point-guard duties to Cameron Payne over the last 20 regular-season games, but if this game was any indication, it won’t be happening soon, if at all.
Payne remained a second-quarter sub and seemed like he was still finding his way in a new system.
“We’ll just talk about [Saturday],’’ Hoiberg said, avoiding the question about Payne starting soon.
Hoiberg has insisted that the front office has not mandated that he start Payne to make the trade with the Thunder look better.
A trip to Doc
Clippers coach Doc Rivers, who coached Rajon Rondo in Boston from 2006 until Rivers left in 2013, said he was pleased with how Rondo has handled himself this season, especially after the benching.
“I’ve talked to him, and I was really proud of how he handled the benching or the not playing,’’ Rivers said. “I thought he needed to immerse himself back with his teammates.
‘‘At first, he kind of pulled away. And then he came back. I was happy that he did that. I was proud of him. And I told him that. I said, ‘That’s all you can do. You’ll never be the guy who controls the minutes. You’ll be the guy who controls your attitude.’ ’’
Rivers, however, refrained from commenting on Rondo’s Instagram post after Wade and Jimmy Butler blasted their teammates in January.
“I missed the whole Butler thing, so I don’t have a lot of comments on that,’’ Rivers said.
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Email: jcowley@suntimes.com