Bulls’ defense struggles guarding three-point line, offense falters in loss to Nets

After being fouled with 4.9 seconds left Friday, Bulls guard Zach LaVine had an opportunity to redeem himself. It had been a rough fourth quarter for LaVine, who had missed some defensive assignments and couldn’t buy a basket.

LaVine made the first free throw to cut the Nets’ lead to two. Center Andre Drummond then checked in, signaling an intentional missed free throw was coming. LaVine missed the free throw and the Bulls got the rebound, but LaVine couldn’t make the jumper to send the game to overtime.

The Bulls’ 109-107 loss was a result of a bad defensive performance and an inability to knock down the three-point shot.

Coach Billy Donovan benched forward Patrick Williams, electing to start Torrey Craig in his place.

‘‘We didn’t, in the first quarter, do a good enough job defensively,’’ Donovan said. ‘‘It’s nothing to do with Torrey being in there and Patrick being out. We didn’t do a good enough job defensively.”

Entering the game, the Bulls were second-to-last in the league in three-point field-goal percentage, but they shot 50% from three-point range in the first half. But the Bulls’ defense struggled guarding the Nets’ three-point attack all night. While the Bulls opted to take tough two-pointers, the Nets hunted the three-point line at every opportunity. They made and attempted more three-pointers than the Bulls did.

The Nets elected to start forward Dorian Finney-Smith at center and space the floor. The Bulls were a step behind on rotations, allowing the Nets to get some open shots. The Nets shot 40.5% from three-point range.

‘‘We had a hard time keeping up with him, quite honestly,’’ Donovan said of Finney-Smith, who led the Nets with 21 points and made five three-pointers. ‘‘I think once we switched and started switching one through five, that helped us slow it down, and then they got into a little bit more isolation.”

Craig said the Bulls’ defense will improve in help situations.

‘‘We’ve just got to do a better job of guarding the ball,’’ Craig said. ‘‘When the guy guarding the ball is beat, we need to do a better job rotating in helping each other out instead of just letting them get layups, layups and layups at the rim.’’

Offensively, the Bulls continued to lack continuity. The ball continued to stick, which led to some forced shots. That was particularly the case in the second half. The Bulls shot 40.8% from the field and 18.2% from three-point range after halftime.

‘‘In the second half, we were getting downhill,’’ LaVine said. ‘‘We didn’t get to the line for as much as we were driving the ball. But it’s a work in progress. We look really good at times. Some other times, we had some real ugly possessions. But we battled through it. Just got to figure out a way to win the game at the end.’’

Despite having the size advantage, the Bulls shot only 14 free throws and were outscored 46-44 in the paint.

Guard Coby White shot only 2-for-8 from three-point range, but he actively attacked a Nets defense that was allowing opponents to shoot 67.6% at the rim, according to Cleaning The Glass. White’s 18 points were his most since the second game of the season, but the Bulls need his three-point shot to start falling to help fix an offense ranked 26th in the league.

At a critical juncture of the fourth quarter, the Bulls forced a miss, but LaVine turned the ball over. That immediately led to a three-pointer by Mikal Bridges that gave the Nets a 96-93 lead, and they never trailed again.