Ten observations from Bulls 113, Hawks 97 . . .
1. At least the Hawks' throwback unis looked pretty cool. Pretty much everything else was ugly for the Hawks, who fell behind by 13 points early and never manufactured a sustained rally. The Hawks were looking for their first winning steak of the season and third victory in four games but turned in a clunker against the team that once seemed to be their main rival for worst record in the league but now is much better than the Hawks.
"A lot of credit to Chicago," Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said. "They played really well. They were the more aggressive team, they were the more physical team, the more active team. . . . They played better than us in every facet of the game."
2. Three-point shooting has been the one positive aspect of their offense this season, but the Hawks were 5-for-40 against the Bulls before garbage time. Ersan Ilyasova, Marco Belinelli and Taurean Prince combined to shoot 1-for-16 on threes. Bad shooting nights happen but the Hawks couldn't muster any other kind of offensive production. What could they have done better? "Share the ball a little bit more," Dennis Schroder said. "Make the unselfish play (and) go from a good shot to a great shot. Move the ball a little bit more. But I think (the Bulls) shot the hell out of it and did a good job moving it. Got to give them credit."
3. The Hawks were 2-for-23 on 3's in the first half. They got to the free-throw line for 13 attempts, but missed five of them. And the Hawks collected only two of their 29 missed shots. All of that added up to just 38 points on 43 shots for the Hawks. It wasn't any better in the second half.
4. The Hawks couldn't rely on their defense to keep it close as Bulls bigs Robin Lopez and Luri Markkanen punished them in the paint. Lopez made eight of his first nine shots on the way to 20 points on 13 shots. Sharpshooter Markkanen (17 points on 15 shots) was 0-for-4 on 3-pointers, but hurt the Hawks with baseline cuts. Budenholzer: "We really wanted to take the three-point line away from Markannen. I guess we won the battle and lost the war. . . . And then Lopez, he was operating with a lot of space because we were giving so much attention to Markkanen and (Nikola) Mirotic."
5. The Bulls ran to a 20-7 lead with five dunks among eight field goals and 14 points in the paint. Part of the problem for the Hawks is that they kept getting caught in mismatches on one-five switches, forcing Schroder to guard bigs near the basket. "We've got to get off to a better start and make sure we make it easier for the guys coming in," Prince said.
6. John Collins had four rebounds and earned four free throws during a five-minute stint of the first quarter before going to the bench after his second foul. He didn't come back until late in the half. That seemed to be either an oversight or too-conservative foul management by Budenholzer. Collins finished with nine rebounds, four assists and three fouls in 24 minutes.
7. In the first half, Schroder (18 points on 17 shots, five assists, one turnover) didn't seem interested in trying to get to the basket against Chicago's defense. He did take some of the available mid-range jumpers but wasn't making them. Schroder began the second half with a strong drive for an and-1, the start of a more-aggressive approach after halftime, but struggled to finish at the rim.
8. Malcom Delaney's first-half run helped the Hawks keep the Bulls reasonably close: five points (five shots), three rebounds, three assists and zero turnovers in 11 minutes. He and Tyler Dorsey made for a good duo for a stretch.
9. Prince (seven points on six shots in 19 minutes) looked like he was on the verge of getting something going offensively in the third quarter. But then he went to the bench after earning his fourth foul chasing down Zach LaVine on a breakaway.
10. For the first time this season the Hawks listed no players on the injury report. Budenholzer: "It feels great. It feels like we've been close to that, especially our bigs. Having them back and healthy has been nice. Marco (Belinelli) I think is in a good place. It's a rarity in the NBA, so we will take advantage of it for as long as we can hold it."
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