Another frustrating game for the Chicago Bulls.

The Bulls lost a close one when Wesley Matthews of the Dallas Mavericks hit a trey in the final seconds to send his team ahead. The Bulls had the ball in the last possession but failed to score and dropped a 99-98 decision at the United Center.

Chicago trailed Dallas 54-47 at the half and one would have thought they could have made up the difference to team that is struggling. But, the Bulls,  have a hard time with under .500 clubs, and could not score enough when it really counted.  If the Bulls don’t make the playoffs, they might want to look at this game as a reason why. The Bulls did not play a strong game against a weak opponent.

Jimmy Butler finished with 24 points, 12 assists, and 9 rebounds, one board short of a triple-double. Robin Lopez scored 21 points, his season high, and Dwyane Wade had 17 points for the home team.

Fred Hoiberg, the coach of the Bulls, has been noted for his offensive schemes. This current team has trouble scoring. They rank as one of the lowest teams of the Conference in field goal percentage and three point shots. The reason why they are somewhat competitive is this team ranks high in rebounding and gets many second-chance points. Sometimes that helps, Tuesday night it did not.

Dallas won despite Dirk Nowitzki just scoring ten points. In the past, he has killed the Bulls, but Harrison Barnes led the Mavericks with 20 points. Seth Curry had 18.

Chicago shot 45.1% from the field. Dallas had a better night, going for 47%.  The bench for the Bulls was relatively quiet. Doug McDermott went 3 for 10 and had 7 points. Rajon Rondo played 22:34 and scored no points.  Forward Cristiano Felicio had 8 off the bench.

Again, it was too little, too late, and the Bulls fall to 21-22 for the year.