It wasn't just the final rebound that cost the Bulls against Phoenix

The Bulls gave the game away by not boxing out in last night's game

Let's get to that last Phoenix possession, which was a total dumpster fire for the Bulls:

Jeff Hornacek made a very smart move by not calling a timeout and letting the guys play after recovering Rose's miss. Hoiberg had subbed in Gasol and Mirotic after his timeout, so both had to stay out and play defense.

As a result, the Suns ran a nice play, getting a wide open corner 3 for Jon Leuer because of Gasol's slow footspeed. The Bulls got very lucky that Leuer missed that shot. They couldn't escape luck again though, as nobody boxed out Teletovic. You can debate if it was a foul or not, but the Bulls should never have been in that position in the first place if they had boxed out.

Even worse, Leuer ran to the basket completely unimpeded after that Teletovic shot. Had Teletovic missed, the Suns probably would have won anyway on a Leuer tip in.

Bulls' Defensive Rebounding and Box Outs:

Sometimes, the ball bounces funny and teams luck into offensive rebounds. Last night was NOT one of those situations. The Suns earned every one of those rebounds by getting in better rebounding position than the Bulls and outworking them. Let me repeat that. The Suns' rebounding was not flukey, it was a direct result of lack of effort by the Bulls.

The Suns got 7 second chances off shots in the last 5 minutes of the game (2 offensive rebounds by Bledsoe, 1 by Knight, 1 on Teletovic's game winner, and 3 team rebounds where they got the ball back out of bounds).

That's what most teams get in an entire half. To give that up in the last 5 minutes of crunch time in an incredibly close game is flat-out unacceptable. Most of those crunch time rebounds were gimmes for the Suns because multiple players on the Bulls failed to box out.

Here are some egregious examples of those 7 crunch time boards:

The only reason the Bulls didn't give up an 8th second-chance opportunity is because Teletovic made his game-winner. Otherwise, the Suns would be singing the praises of Jon Leuer's tip in.

Hoiberg called his team out in the post game presser. He noted, "We couldn't find a way to get a rebound. When we did get a stop, they got the rebound."

The rebounding and late-game execution was the difference between a W and an L tonight. Had Hoiberg called the correct timeout or the Bulls get any of those defensive rebounds, the team probably would have won.

The saving grace is that this was just an early regular season game. I think Hoiberg deserves harsh criticism for last night, but I don't agree with Haralabos that this game is indicative of Hoiberg's coaching acumen in general. There's still time to right the ship, but this one was ugly.

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