When the Bulls entered the locker room at halftime while trailing by 28 points to the Hornets, a home crowd in Chicago booed loudly from the stands of the United Center.
After the franchise went on to drop its fourth consecutive game to a top-10 team in the Eastern Conference, all of which have come as double-digit losses, All-Star guard Zach Lavine admitted that the reaction from the fans was warranted.
“They should,” LaVine said of the boos after Chicago’s 133–117 loss to Charlotte. “It’s embarrassing. We’re a really good basketball team, and we’re not playing like it. They know that. We know that. It’s understandable. We understand that they have our back, but we got to play better.”
The Bulls began the season near the top of the Eastern Conference, but have plummeted down the standings in recent weeks. Since the All-Star break, Chicago is 7–15 and ranks 27th in offensive efficiency and 25th in defensive efficiency.
“Everybody is upset, man,” Lavine said of the team’s mood in the locker room. “We’re getting our ass kicked.”
“They just jumped on us,” he continued. “We singing the same story, and I always try to be very uplifting and try to see the bright side, but I’m tired of talking. We say a lot of words and we say the right thing, but we got to figure it out. We’re not doing that, plain and simple.”
The Bulls have just one regular season game remaining against the Timberwolves on Sunday, but are locked into the No. 6 seed in the conference regardless of the outcome. Chicago will then face Milwaukee, Boston or Philadelphia in the first round of the playoffs.
This season, the Bulls are a combined 1–10 against those three teams.
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