Bulls Break Losing Streak, but Clarity Remains Elusive

The Chicago Bulls didn’t lose Sunday.

After dropping 11 straight games in February, that alone felt like an accomplishment. 

The 120–97 win over the Milwaukee Bucks stopped a slide that hadn’t stretched that long since February 2001 and had crept within five games of the worst streak in franchise history.

There was relief in the building. You could feel it in the way the fourth quarter drifted instead of tightened.

The problem is the Bulls are still straddling two standings at once. They sit two games behind the Bucks for 11th in the Eastern Conference, yet Sunday’s result cost them ground in the reverse standings when the Memphis Grizzlies handled the Indiana Pacers.

Every win right now moves them in two directions.

The organization and the coaching staff are competing for different things.

That reality showed up in the rotation as much as the standings.

Leonard Miller was the clearest positive to come out of the afternoon. He ran up career highs in minutes (27), points (15), field goals (6) and 3-pointers (3) without forcing plays. He ran the floor, attacked closeouts, and maintained spacing. 

Billy Donovan praised his feel for the game afterward — his length, his passing, his impact. 

“With some of the guys that’ve been out, it’s given us an opportunity to play him a little bit more,” Donovan said.

Opportunity is the operative word.

If these final six weeks are about anything substantive, they should be about players like Miller, 22. Not because he’s a savior, but because he’s information.

The same can be said for Rob Dillingham. 

Acquired at the deadline in exchange for Ayo Dosunmu, Dillingham logged less than four minutes before garbage time Sunday. In fairness, he’s played more than 20 minutes in six of his nine games with the Bulls. But with Josh Giddey and Tre Jones back, the margin has shrunk. In three of the last six games, he’s played under 10 minutes.

Donovan didn’t bristle when asked about it.

“Rob didn’t play a lot tonight with the way the game was going,” he said. “When guys are playing well, I’m gonna probably stick with them.”

That’s the answer from a coach trying to win the night in front of him. The Bulls have suggested they’re trying to win something else long term.

Collin Sexton had 22 points. Giddey opened March with a 20-point, 14-rebound, 10-assist triple-double. Donovan won’t bench production for the sake of symmetry.

But in March, production and priority aren’t always the same thing.

For a team chasing the postseason, production wins the argument. For a team chasing clarity, priority should.

The Bulls insisted the trade deadline marked a shift — an acknowledgment that life in the middle had become stale. Yet the nightly mandate remains unchanged: compete, reward who’s playing well, chase the game in front of you.

Those goals don’t always conflict. Sometimes they do.

Ousmane Dieng offered a window into that in-between space. For about 24 hours, he was a Bull. He flew to Chicago, completed his physical, and was prepared to join the team in Toronto. 

Then, midair, he was rerouted.

“I was on the plane to Toronto,” Dieng told The Bigs. “I landed and flew back to Chicago and drove to Milwaukee.”

He never really spoke to coaches or imagined a fit beyond a passing thought.

“I think I can fit with any team.”

His itinerary isn’t unusual for deadline week, but it was revealing. 

For a day, he was part of a direction. Then he wasn’t. There was movement, but no clarity.

Even the wins feel provisional.

Sunday snapped a losing streak, avoided history and rewarded effort Donovan insists has been there all along.

What it didn’t do was settle the larger question hanging over these final six weeks. 

Even with the front office signaling a step back, Donovan’s rotation favors players who may not be part of the future. 

Each win comforts the present. 

Each loss nudges the team toward the plan they’re supposedly building.