NBA scores 2016: It turns out the Bulls are as ill-fitting as we thought

The Chicago Bulls fleeced us all. They won their first three games this season on the way to a 8-4 start, and while we knew none of the wins were against terribly impressive competition, they were wins nevertheless. But all the questions asked this offseason about how the Bulls would work are reappearing without clear answers. And the early season start that quieted the concerns looks more and more deceptive.

The problem with the Bulls is that their offense requires superhuman efforts from Jimmy Butler nearly every night. In a 95-69 loss to the Bucks on Friday, Butler struggled with a seven-point evening on 3-of-14 shooting. Chicago barely managed to even shoot 30 percent from the field without him.

The spacing is a wreck, as we knew it would be. Dwyane Wade improved his three-point shooting for a few weeks when Chicago was winning, but he’s shooting 22.7% (5-of-22) from distance in the month of December. It was fun to imagine that he would suddenly turn into an average shooter simply because he practiced them more, but no one can be surprised to see the numbers return back to his career averages. Wade hasn’t been a good three-point shooter his whole career — asking it to happen now, in Wade’s 13th season, is akin to that famous definition of insanity.

Rajon Rondo rebounds and gets assists, but his true shooting percentage (43.7 percent) is a career low and damn near unplayable. He’s shooting 31 percent on threes, but that’s with some teams basically ignoring him. Teams will live with him shooting open jumpers all game, and Rondo’s athleticism has waned so there’s no much he does to address his glaring flaws.

It was a poor effort from Fred Hoiberg, too, who has had few favors done for him by Bulls management but still looks over his head all the same. Chicago played Milwaukee on Thursday, too — a home-and-home for two neighboring teams. After a 108-97 loss the day before, you’d expect Hoiberg to come up with something to make the Bulls more competitive. Instead, they lost by 26 points as Giannis Antetokounmpo ran all over them once again, and Chicago was booed off the United Center floor by its home fans.

It’s true Nikola Mirotic was a DNP-CD because he missed a morning walkthrough, but the Bulls really could have used his shooting. And by the fourth quarter, Hoiberg benched pretty much all his starters for a bench unit — although you could argue that game was over by then, anyway.

Whatever the case, the Bulls are floundering. They’ve lost six games in their last eight, and it really doesn’t seem like this team fits. The loss officially dropped them into the No. 9 seed in the playoffs — and at this rate, you have to wonder if they’ll even get back into it.

Coming into this season, the NBA record for three-pointer attempts was 49, set by the Mavericks all the way back in 1996 (when the line was briefly moved in). Earlier this year, the Rockets snapped that with 50 attempts. On Friday, they shot 61. My goodness.

Here’s the 24 made threes they did hit out of those 61 attempts, which is a new regular season record for the NBA — but failed to reach the 25 made triples the Cavaliers put up last playoffs. Still, it’s mesmerizing to watch a team just keep hitting them.

The Rockets only attempted 33 two-pointers. That’s almost twice as many threes as twos. They’re currently the league leaders in three-pointers made and attempted, and it’s not close. We will always remember Mike D’Antoni’s Phoenix teams, but this Rockets squad is an even further revolution. And it’s breaking everything we know about the NBA.

Rodney Hood with the winner to beat the Mavericks.

This hand switch is too nice.

It turns out DeMarcus Cousins blew up at a reporter in the locker room earlier this week because of a negative column that mentioned his brother, too. Boogie can’t scream at a reporter like this, but a lot of people are talking about how shoddy coverage by the newspaper in question caused this to happen, too.

And on a lighter note, here’s a ballboy almost getting run over.

Wizards 122, Pistons 108 (Bullets Forever recap | Detroit Bad Boys recap)

Magic 118, Nets 111 (Orlando Pinstriped Post recap | Nets Daily recap)

Hawks 125, Raptors 121 (Peachtree Hoops recap | Raptors HQ recap)

Celtics 96, Hornets 88 (Celtics Blog recap | At the Hive recap)

Lakers 100, 76ers 89 (Silver Screen & Roll recap | Liberty Ballers recap)

Bucks 95, Bulls 69 (Brew Hoop recap | Blog a Bull recap)

Clippers 102, Heat 98 (Clips Nation recap | Hot Hot Hoops recap)

Kings 96, Grizzlies 92 (Sactown Royalty recap | Grizzly Bear Blues recap)

Rockets 122, Pelicans 100 (The Dream Shake recap | The Bird Writers recap)

Jazz 103, Mavericks 100 (SLC Dunk recap | Mavs Moneyball recap)