The cross-conference rivalry between the Chicago Bulls and Portland Trail Blazers was once so good that a video game was made out of it. These days, the franchises are closer to mirror images of each other in terms of being stuck in mediocrity. Chicago and Portland each entered their Friday night matchup with 34 wins, which is good enough for the Bulls to make the play-in tournament in the East, but not for the Blazers in the West.
Bulls and Blazers combined for worst NBA sequence of the year, and it somehow kept going
This is performance art from the Bulls and Blazers
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
The Bulls and Blazers showed fans what it looks like for two NBA teams playing out the regular season in April with one of the worst sequences you will ever see late in the first quarter. It started with a Shaedon Sharpe airball, and just got worse from there for five straight possessions.
Someone cue up “Yakety Sax,” because it’s the soundtrack that works for this. Watch the Bulls and Blazers make one miscue after another here:
Shaedon Sharpe’s airball begins the sequence. It’s continued with Kevin Huerter bricking a dunk, which leads directly into Dalano Banton getting stuffed by Dalen Terry. Josh Giddey then pushes the ball down the floor before getting stuffed by the rim, and it ends with an awful alley-oop pass from Banton to Sharpe.
It shouldn’t be possible to throw the ball too high for Sharpe on an alley-oop, because the young Blazers wing can jump out of the gym. It’s less surprising to see Giddey’s shot get rejected at the rim, because that’s been happening all year (he’s been blocked 66 times in 68 games).
The Bulls outlasted Portland, 118-113, to pick up win No. 35. The Bulls are already locked into the play-in tournament again even after getting rid of Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Alex Caruso over the last year. It’s likely that the season ends the same way for Chicago and Portland: with disappointment in the lottery. There’s some good stuff happening on both of these teams, but no superstars to speak of. The rebuilding phase isn’t easy. At least the Bulls will have a chance to play their win into the playoffs.
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