CHICAGO — The Chicago Bulls can’t survive in the Eastern Conference without their two leaders.

Wednesday’s 124-113 loss to the Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars marked the Bulls’ second consecutive game without Josh Giddey, who has been day-to-day this week with an ankle sprain. His absence has taken a visible toll on the Bulls, who have been without fellow guard Coby White all season.

But missing Giddey was no excuse Wednesday.

The Pistons played without four starters — Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren, Ausar Thompson and Tobias Harris — and listed seven players out with injuries. They leaned on deep rotational players such as former Bull Javonte Green to anchor a short-handed lineup.

The Bulls were the better-manned team, yet the Pistons entered with a unique intensity. Within minutes, the Bulls were being manhandled by players such as Daniss Jenkins, a two-way guard who went undrafted last year and had logged only 104 NBA minutes before dropping 18 points and 12 assists Wednesday.

Despite a significant size advantage, the Bulls struggled to create in the paint as starting center Nikola Vučević scored only six points in 26 minutes. Former DePaul star Paul Reed led the Pistons with 28 points and 13 rebounds and added six assists and four steals.

The game was never fully out of reach. The Bulls mounted a 27-5 run over the third and fourth quarters to cut a 23-point deficit to one. But without their top two players, the Bulls weren’t able to fend off the Pistons role players in a fourth consecutive loss that dropped them to 6-5, 3 1/2 games behind the first-place Pistons (10-2) in the East.

The Bulls are trying to prove something about their competitiveness this season. But this loss — and the ongoing skid — stand as serious points of evidence against their credibility.

Here are three takeaways from the loss:

Matas Buzelis is still learning

The last two games without Giddey have shown that Buzelis isn’t ready to take over games when injuries sideline the team’s best two scorers.

When the roster is whole, the Bulls don’t need the second-year forward to carry the offense. Buzelis still is learning how to create plays on the ball while also providing pop as a cutter in space. He has shown significant improvement in his overall versatility this season — and is shooting at a scorching 40% clip from 3-point range.

But despite his overall improvement, Buzelis couldn’t play hero on his own.

He logged his first double-double of the season with 21 points and 14 rebounds. Twelve of those points came in the fourth quarter as he helped spark a comeback. But Buzelis couldn’t overpower the Pistons without assistance, clashing physically with fellow 2024 draftee Ronald Holland II as he coughed up four turnovers against two assists.

The Bulls lack creativity

Giddey not only averages 21.4 points and 9.6 assists, but also catalyzes the offense with his playmaking style.

The Bulls rely on Giddey to create the majority of their downhill momentum. He averages 17.2 drives per game and averages seven shots and 6.9 passes off those movements. This is a crucial aspect of shot creation and offensive motion for the Bulls, who rely on the league’s third-highest assist ratio (20.3) to offset the roster’s lack of on-ball creators.

Without Giddey in facilitation mode, many possessions fell into the same lifeless rhythm — passing around the rim like an accelerated game of hot potato until a player took it upon himself to either cut or drive to the rim. This issue was painfully visible in the first quarter as the Bulls shot 9 for 23 and scored only 23 points.

They eventually jump-started the offense to pull within a possession by returning to their comfort zone in the open court, scoring 15 fast-break points in the second half. But it’s clear the half-court offense evaporates without Giddey or White on the court, creating a gaping weakness until either guard returns.

The Bulls abandon the 3-point arc

Three-point shooting was a lone source of offensive momentum in the first half. The Bulls scored 24 of their 52 first-half points from 3-point range, shooting 44.4% (8 of 18) from deep, a high volume that had a buoying effect in an otherwise stagnant stretch.

But when the Bulls began to mount their final comeback attempt, they abandoned the arc.

Despite the reliability of their shooting, the Bulls have been stingy from 3-point range all season. They’re shooting 39.9% from deep — the fourth-highest percentage in the league — but are taking only 34.3 attempts per game. Coach Billy Donovan defines that shot diet as a purposeful piece of the team’s attempt to create high-quality shots by attacking the rim.

After years of working to increase their 3-point volume, the Bulls are allowing their long-range attempts to diminish once again. Wednesday’s game reflected this pattern. The Bulls took only five 3-pointers in the first 11 minutes of the fourth quarter before heaving three desperation attempts in the final minute.

It’s too early in the season to diagnose what exactly this means for the Bulls offense — especially without the 3-point contributions of Giddey and White — but it’s clear this offense’s relationship to the arc has changed significantly as the Bulls rely more on points in the paint and at the free-throw line.

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