Short-handed Bulls get schooled by Joel Embiid and the 76ers

PHILADELPHIA — The 76ers’ slip-ups this season have been few.

Of the 10 losses they’ve suffered, only the Celtics and Bulls have beaten them twice.

A 110-97 victory Tuesday against the Bulls in the ‘‘City of Brotherly Love’’ was retribution — and then some.

The 76ers opened the game with a 20-8 run, scored 43 points in the first quarter and led by 31 points at the half.

Considering the 76ers are one of the better defensive teams in the Eastern Conference, the Bulls (15-20) might as well have started warming the buses early.

Reigning NBA MVP Joel Embiid returned after missing the last four games with a sprained ankle and had 22 points and eight rebounds in the first half. Even more impressive was that he handed out six assists in the half, which was one more than the Bulls had as a team going into the locker room. Embiid finished with a 31-point, 15-rebound, 10-assist triple-double.

Back to the first half, however. The 76ers shot 50% from three-point range (10-for-20) to the Bulls’ 10.5% (2-for-19), had 20 assists to the Bulls’ five and had only two turnovers to the Bulls’ 8. It was a butt-kicking of epic proportions in the Bulls’ first game of 2024.

‘‘It sucks,’’ forward DeMar DeRozan said afterward. ‘‘You definitely don’t want to lose like that. Give credit to them. They responded how they were supposed to respond, especially knowing that we came in here and beat them [two weeks ago] and then just beat them [Saturday] at home. You gotta give them credit. We came out and couldn’t make nothing.’’

That wasn’t the Bulls’ only issue.

‘‘The way we shoot the basketball cannot impact the physicality that we have to play with defensively, and I thought that they pretty much were getting whatever they wanted,’’ coach Billy Donovan said.

‘‘I’m not a big flush-game guy. I think there is always something to be learned in any situations, but we have to move forward from this.’’

The Bulls must do that in a hurry, with a game at the Knicks coming Wednesday. And they might will be even more short-handed.

The Bulls played Tuesday with Zach LaVine (right foot), Torrey Craig (plantar fasciitis) and Nikola Vucevic (groin) back in Chicago rehabbing injuries, then lost forward Patrick Williams to a recurring ankle injury in the first half.

According to Williams, he tweaked the ankle last week against the Pacers, played through it, reinjured it Saturday and played through it again.

On Tuesday, however, the ankle simply wasn’t responding.

‘‘A lot of times, just the adrenaline of the game or when your body gets going, it starts to loosen up,’’ Williams said. ‘‘This time it didn’t. Trying to be smart about it. The ankle or lower extremities is nothing to play with.’’

To make matters worse, guard Coby White suffered an ankle injury in the second half. And while it isn’t thought to be serious, he sat out the rest of the one-sided affair.

Next up for the Bulls will be a matchup against the Knicks and former coach Tom Thibodeau, who has gone 11-5 against them with the Timberwolves and Knicks since his firing.

‘‘With Embiid coming back, we knew this was going to be a challenge,’’ DeRozan said. ‘‘But you’ve got to flush it. As much as you don’t like it, we’ve got to move on and get ready for [the Knicks].’’