The Bulls’ 17-point loss Thursday to the Celtics surprised absolutely no one associated with the organization.
It was just another reminder of how flawed the thinking of this front office has become.
Sure, there was hope going into the game. Hope that the Celtics would have an off-night from three-point range. Hope that they would take the Bulls lightly out of the All-Star break. Hope that one of their stars would tweak a hamstring.
That’s where Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas is these days. He is relying on hope and disguising it under an umbrella of ‘‘competitiveness.’’
There are two factors working against Karnisovas & Co., however: math and reality.
First comes the math component for a team that is 26-30 with 26 games left and sits No. 9 in the Eastern Conference.
While the Bulls have played better since their 5-14 start, all they really have done is beat the teams they’re supposed to beat. That means they’ve been very good at beating bum teams.
In 22 games against teams below .500, the Bulls are an impressive 17-5. In 34 games against teams .500 or better, they are a quite-different 9-25.
In their next 11 games, the Bulls will face nine teams that are above .500 right now. Overall, they will play 16 games against teams above .500 the rest of the way. If they play the way they have to this point against winning teams, they won’t reach the .500 mark.
The Bulls entered play Friday trailing the No. 8 Heat by 4½ games and the No. 7 Magic by five. Both those teams have easier remaining schedules and likely will finish with the tiebreaker against the Bulls, so No. 9 feels pretty much locked in at this point.
The good news is that still might get the Bulls a home play-in game in the No. 9-No. 10 meeting against a dysfunctional Hawks team.
The Hawks not only are chasing the Bulls, but they have a tougher remaining schedule, too. The teams play one more time this season, but the Bulls already have the season series in their pocket.
There aren’t a lot of teams the Bulls match up well against, but they seem to have the Hawks’ number. If that continues, that means the Bulls will find themselves in the familiar spot of fighting for their play-in lives against the loser of what right now would be a game between the Heat and Magic.
Last season, the Bulls — then a No. 10 seed — beat the Raptors in their first play-in game, then got a full dose of Jimmy Butler in crunch time in a loss to the Heat in their second.
But what if hope smiles on the Bulls and they get out of the play-in tournament? Their reward would be a first-round matchup against the No. 1 Celtics, who have outscored them by 44 points in two games.
Now we come to the reality component.
The Bulls announced Friday that forward Patrick Williams will have season-ending surgery to repair an injury to his left foot. It wasn’t a real surprise, considering he had missed the last 10 games, but his absence will leave them with a lack of physicality on defense.
Add in a sprained right knee for forward Torrey Craig, who will be reevaluated in two to four weeks, and there’s a reason rookie Julian Phillips was the sixth man against the Celtics.
Then there are minutes concerns for starters DeMar DeRozan and Coby White, not to mention coach Billy Donovan being forced to use guards Alex Caruso and Ayo Dosunmu to defend bigger players on a nightly basis.
The Bulls’ hope is that it will be sustainable. Then again, hope is all they have.
