The Chicago Bulls can’t survive without Coby White and Josh Giddey.
This team was built around this pairing — White’s prolific shot-making from deep, Giddey’s exhaustive playmaking with the ball in his hands. When either — or, worse, both — of those pillars are removed, the rest of the structure crumbles away. And nothing proved this point more thoroughly than Monday’s 136-101 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Bulls took a major loss less than seven minutes into the game when Coby White came up short midway through a defensive possession. White grabbed at his right calf before attempting to return to the play, scrambling around the perimeter with a visible limp. But after trying to contest a shot by Donte DiVincenzo, the guard couldn’t gather himself enough to hobble back into the play. White headed straight to the locker room after an ensuing timeout was called and was later ruled out with a right calf injury.
Losing White was a blow — but it was one the Bulls were prepared to weather. The guard missed the first 11 games of the season, forcing Chicago to adapt to a reality without one of their central stars. But barely a minute into the second half, the Bulls seemed to suffer déjà vu.
Guard Josh Giddey pulled up awkwardly at the top of the key, tossing the ball to a teammate before grabbing at his left hamstring. Just like White, the guard headed straight to the locker room at the next whistle, shuffling awkwardly with assistance from head athletic trainer Todd Campbell. The team ruled Giddey out with a hamstring injury before the end of the third quarter.
For the Bulls, this one-two punch was lethal. Giddey averages 19.5 points and 9.2 assists per game. White averages 20.5 points and 4.9 assists per game. That roughly translates to more than a third of the team’s total offense.
The Bulls pride themselves on depth, but that didn’t seem to provide any resilience in the face of these two major injuries. The white flag went up with more than five minutes left on the clock as the Bulls cleared their bench to accept the 35-point defeat.
Here are three takeaways from the loss.
1. A big problem.
The Bulls couldn’t lean into their double-big rotation — which has been remarkably effective in limited usage this season — against the Timberwolves due to the absence of center Zach Collins.
Collins sprained his toe in Saturday’s loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. Ahead of Monday’s game, coach Billy Donovan said the Bulls anticipate the center will be sidelined for the rest of this week’s home stand, which includes games against the New Orleans Pelicans, Orlando Magic and Charlotte Hornets. Collins has only played in 10 games this season after missing the entire first month due to a wrist fracture incurred in the final game of the preseason.
This absence was painful against the Timberwolves, who typically clobber the paint with their big man trio of Rudy Gobert, Julius Randle and Naz Reid. The Bulls didn’t have the bodies to double up on bigs — and also continued to switch on defense — which forced larger wings like Ayo Dosunmu and Isaac Okoro to lean into their physicality to survive these assignments.
Centers Nikola Vučević and Jalen Smith were still the standouts of the game for the Bulls, combining for 35 of the team’s 101 points. But that production wasn’t enough to balance out the Minnesota frontcourt, which was powered by a 33-point performance from Reid.
2. Losing control
It’s no surprise that the Bulls struggle to protect the ball without their two leading ball-handlers on the court. But Chicago’s inability to create with the ball — or keep it out of Minnesota’s hands — limited the offense, which barely cracked 100 points in the blowout loss.
The Bulls gave up 24 points off 16 turnovers in the loss. The Timberwolves, in stark comparison, turned the ball over only three times — and only once before both teams emptied their benches for the final five minutes and 30 seconds. While the loss of Giddey and White impacted the Bulls’ ability to create sustainable offense, it was this discrepancy in mistakes — also caused by the pair’s absence — that defined Chicago’s stagnancy in the second half.
3. Anthony Edwards warmed into the blowout.
Many stars prefer to ease into a game before turning on the light show — and Anthony Edwards is no different. Edwards scored only a single point in the opening quarter. But that was no problem for the Timberwolves. The star was simply biding time to turn up the heat on the Bulls.
The onslaught began toward the end of the first half. After sinking a pair of back-to-back 3s, Edwards scored eight points in the final six minutes of the first half, in addition to forcing a turnover and assisting two baskets in the final minute to send Minnesota into the locker room with a five-point lead. He finished with 23 points for the Timberwolves.