Short-handed Chicago Bulls take a 115-92 beating by the Cleveland Cavaliers

When the Chicago Bulls brought only two-thirds of their roster to Cleveland on Wednesday, it didn’t come as a surprise that they left with one of their worst losses of the season.

They took a 115-92 beating at the hands of the Cavaliers after Matt Thomas on Wednesday morning became the fourth player in the last week to test positive for COVID-19.

Coach Billy Donovan received notification of Thomas’ positive test at 6:30 a.m. While Thomas prepared to drive home to Chicago — the second player to have to make an interstate trek after Javonte Green drove home from New York on Friday — Donovan scrambled to make a plan for the game.

The league granted the Bulls a hardship exception to sign an extra player, but there wasn’t enough time to get anyone to Cleveland before the 7 p.m. EST tipoff. So the Bulls took on the Cavaliers with only 11 players, struggling to adapt to the sudden lack of depth without DeMar DeRozan (COVID-19) and Alex Caruso (hamstring).

With the COVID-19 outbreak looming over his team, Donovan said after the blowout loss that the available players need to demand more.

“We’re better than that,” Donovan said. “And we need to be better than that. I don’t know when or who is coming back on what dates. My feeling is right now, we’re going into Miami with the same group, and if we don’t compete at a higher level, we’re going to get the same result we got here tonight. ... It’s not to say we’re going to win, but we can do a better job than we did tonight.”

The Bulls don’t lean heavily on their bench — their 26.8 bench points per game ranks second-to-last in the league — and with top bench players either sidelined or shifted into the starting lineup, they received no support Wednesday from their secondary rotation.

The Bulls bench didn’t score in the first half and finished with only 16 points, and the starters couldn’t shoulder the offensive load on their own.

Zach LaVine scored 23 points and Lonzo Ball added 19, but the Bulls struggled to maintain their tempo when either guard left the court. Without DeRozan to pull defenders into the midrange, the Cavaliers could swarm center Nikola Vučević with two or three bodies every time he got the ball in the post. The big man’s shot also fell dead when he attempted to pick-and-pop from long distance, finishing 1-for-7 from behind the arc.

By the third quarter, Vučević's frustration was palpable. He tossed a rebound off the backboard during one dead ball, then kicked the ball into the padding under the basket after another. He finished with 18 points on 34.8% shooting (8 of 23).

“For whatever reason, I haven’t been able to be consistent offensively,” Vučević said. “That’s something I take a lot of pride on. Throughout my career, I was always an efficient player. So it just frustrates me.”

Rookie center Evan Mobley compounded Vučević's shooting woes, terrorizing the Bulls in the paint to finish with 16 points, nine rebounds and five blocks — the most by a Cavaliers rookie since LeBron James. Mobley swallowed up layups by LaVine and Ball to quiet the Bulls stars around the rim.

It wasn’t an immediate surrender for the Bulls. They kept the game close through the first half, chipping away at an early 13-point Cavaliers lead. Ball tipped a steal into rookie Ayo Dosunmu’s hands in the third quarter, sparking a transition play that ended with Ball sinking a 3-pointer and earning a free throw for a four-point play that pulled the Bulls within five.

Dosunmu logged another hefty workload, playing 34 minutes in the second start of his NBA career. But he cooled off from his 11-point, eight-assist performance Monday night, finishing with five points and three assists.

The Bulls simply didn’t have enough ammunition to outscore the Cavaliers. Kevin Love dropped a three 3-pointers in the third quarter to ward off the comeback attempt, and the Cavaliers capitalized on 17 Bulls turnovers.

The Cavaliers emptied their bench for the final five minutes of the rout.

After their largest loss of the season, the Bulls face a major task ahead of Saturday’s game in Miami — maintaining their identity without some of their defining players.

“I don’t walk into the game like, ‘Woe us,’” LaVine said. “You understand it’s going to be obviously harder than it’s going to be with everybody back. So I’m just trying to gather the guys and trying to figure it out throughout the game. It’s not going to be perfect. Obviously it wasn’t tonight, but we can fight through it.”