As their head of basketball ops said after the trade deadline, his Bulls are not meant to compete with the best in the league, and it was good that Kevin Durant was traded out west. So they only had to face him once and get summarily dismissed.
The Bulls are in competition with a couple tiers lower: the Hawks, Wizards, Raptors, and today’s matchup the Indiana Pacers.
The Bulls are only a game above them in the standings, and just lost to them a couple weeks ago.
This game is, crazily, important for the play-in chase.