Who said monsters aren't real? Bulls find out hard way with Wemby

Tiago Splitter knows the 7-foot-4 monster all too well.

After all, the last time the coach saw Victor Wembanyama up close and personal, he was ending the storybook postseason run for Portland last April, throwing a 35-point Game 1 on Splitter’s Trail Blazers and finishing the gentleman’s sweep with four blocks per game.

So now even with a new team, there were rules Splitter was stressing to his Bulls players the last few days in dealing with the MVP candidate:

“We’ve got to shoot the ball well,” Splitter insisted. “You’ve got to have a team that is going to shoot the ball well, and sometimes it’s hard to have everything, but to beat the Spurs you’ve got to shoot the ball well from three.”

A box that was checked in the first half, as the Bulls went 10-of-15 from long range.

“You’ve got to force (Wembanyama) to get out of the paint,” Splitter continued. “That’s going to create easier shots at the rim. If you just try to get at him the whole game that’s in their favor.”

Another check through the first two quarters, as the Bulls shot 66% from the field to build a 14-point lead going into the locker room.

But there’s a reason why the French import continues to change the entire geometry of the game, as the visiting Spurs erased that deficit just six minutes into the second half – and of course Wembanyama was a big reason why – handing the Bulls (1-9) the 124-119 defeat and an eighth-straight loss.

“We talked about the third quarter before we even went out there,” Splitter said afterward. “We just didn’t have it. We were careless with the ball.”

The coach didn’t even have to point any fingers because Matas Buzelis took care of that, pointing it at himself and the four of six turnovers he committed in that third quarter alone.

“Weak with the ball,” Buzelis said. “Mainly me. That’s unacceptable, man. That was our game to win. I feel like I lost that game for us. They turned up the physicality and we didn’t punch back, I didn’t punch back.”

Wembanyama’s presence didn’t help as he finished with a game-high 32 points and added five blocks.

No wonder Splitter had nothing but praise for the rising star.

“I think he’s honestly one of those players that is going to change the game,” Splitter said. “There’s no comp. You can’t comp him to anybody. That could be good or bad, but I think he’s changing the league. He was close to winning a championship last year and I think he’s going to be one of the greatest to ever play this game.”

The hope was it wasn’t going to be the case on Wednesday. San Antonio was finishing a four-game road trip in Chicago and looked like it had caught up with them, especially in the opening stanza in which the Bulls bench helped build the lead to as much as 13.

As been the case far too often this season, however, third quarters seem to doom this young Bulls team. The Spurs game was just the latest example of that.

Maybe it was the visiting team getting its legs back under them or former Bulls coach Billy Donovan – now an assistant with San Antonio – reiterating the weaknesses of his former core players, but it turned ugly quickly.

Having a paint eraser like Wembanyama didn’t hurt.

“I mean that’s amazing, not only for French (basketball fans) but for Europe,” Bulls second-year forward Noa Essengue said of his fellow countryman in Wembanyama and his takeover of the league. “That just shows how much talent we have over there. That’s just a great example of that. Not that many people are watching Euro basketball and just the way he has shown up on how much he can impact the league, not only offensively but defensively is just amazing.”