The Chicago Bulls Suffer a Late Fourth-Quarter Meltdown Against the Dallas Mavs

Earlier today, the Chicago Bulls suffered perhaps one of their biggest late-game breakdowns this season. Up by 12 with less than four minutes left in the game, the Bulls only managed to score one more point after that.

For the Bulls, the last four minutes of the game were plagued by turnovers, bad shot attempts and missed free throws, which allowed the Dallas Mavericks to make a heroic comeback led by Dirk Nowitzki.

Turnovers

The Bulls are averaging 14.6 turnovers this season, which is 12th among all other teams in the NBA (per Team Rankings). The first turnover, which occurred under the four minute mark was a bad pass from Nate Robinson, which was shortly followed by a bad shooting foul called on Carlos Boozer.

The other bad turnover was a travel called on Kirk Hinrich a few possessions later when the Mavericks were starting to find their shot and ignite their comeback.

Although they took care of the ball relatively well for most of the game, committing just 11 turnovers in 44 minutes, the two careless mishaps by the Bulls' point guards were unfortunate and they can't expect to win without staying focused for the entire game.

Missed Free Throws

Down the stretch with less than a minute left in the game, the Bulls missed three out of four possible free throws. The first miss was on the second free-throw attempt by Boozer after he got fouled on a putback attempt by Vince Carter.

However, the most crucial free throws were missed by Jimmy Butler. With 16 seconds left in the game, Butler was intentionally fouled by Carter and missed both free throws, which could've given the Bulls a three-point lead going the other way.

Butler struggled to score throughout the entire game and went just 1-for-8 from the field in 44 minutes of playing time. A loss shouldn't be blamed on one particular possession or play, but his two missed free throws were just an accumulation of Butler's poor performance.

Missed Layups

Even though the Bulls missed a few long jumpers, they still gave themselves a chance to win by driving to the basket and attempting high-percentage shots. But the shots just didn't fall.

Luol Deng, Robinson and Butler all got to the rim on several occasions down the stretch, but they just could not convert on their attempts at the rim. It wasn't like the Bulls were unable to create good shots at the end of the game—it's that they just didn't go into the basket.

The playoffs are quickly approaching and the Bulls cannot suffer any late-game collapses like this one, or they'll find themselves packing for vacation earlier than they expected.