The Bulls have closing issues, but Zach LaVine isn’t the main culprit

The Bulls have a closer on their roster.

Make that had a closer.

It’s easy to forget what Kris Dunn did during his inaugural season (2017-18) with the Bulls, especially in the first half when Zach LaVine was recovering from ACL surgery, and Lauri Markkanen was a baby-faced rookie just learning his way.

Two clutch free throws with seven seconds remaining helped beat the Knicks on Dec. 9. A dagger of a jumper with 22 seconds left came against Utah four days later. Another crunch-time jumper and a free throw downed Detroit on Jan. 13.

Former coach Fred Hoiberg anointed Dunn the closer, and he embraced it.

“Down the stretch I definitely want to have the ball in my hands,’’ Dunn said then. “My team, my coaching staff, they give me the confidence to do it, so I’m going to go out there and try and make the right play, the right read, keep being aggressive.’’

Through Jan. 1 of that season, it’s easy to forget that Dunn was the second-leading fourth-quarter scorer on the team, shooting a ridiculous 49 percent from the field.

It wasn’t that long ago. It just feels like it recently.

This season’s version of the Bulls has lost three consecutive close games and 17 overall. Who do they have as a closer?

Not only have the starters been bad late in games when coach Jim Boylen has

reinserted them for crunch time, but individually, LaVine has been trying to fill that hero role and has fallen short.

The Bulls have taken steps to further embrace analytics this season, so here’s a look at just how bad they are late in games statistically, and where the blame really should go.

There’s a fun little stat called net rating, which is the differential of points per 100 possessions. As a team, the Bulls have a -3.1 net rating overall through the first 25 games.

In the last five minutes of games when the score is within five points either way — basically when Boylen has his starters back in there, with the exception of times when he has kept the hot hand over a starter — that net rating is a -10.6. The Bulls have had played 14 games in that scenario.

In the last three minutes of games where that score is within five — 11 games so far — it drops to -14.5. So while it has been easy to point a finger at LaVine in the last-possession games played this week, the starting group as a whole has failed.

LaVine shouldn’t be in that situation if the closing unit as a group wouldn’t stumble in the last three-to-five minutes.

That’s why Boylen was so animated after the 93-92 loss Monday to the Raptors.

“The starters’ job is to come back in, get re-engaged in the game, and close it out,’’ Boylen said. “That’s what [the Raptors] did. They brought their guys in and they closed the game out. We have to learn how to do that. That’s the growth plate. We’re close, we’re right there. That’s the next step.’’

What numbers can’t answer, however, is will this group even be capable of closing? Is it in their DNA?

“I coach by faith,’’ Boylen said. “I coach and teach every day on where I think we’re going to be. When that’s going to happen, when that’s going to break through, I’m not sure. But I’m going to keep coaching that way.’’