The Chicago Bulls are pushing through their 2018-19 campaign. They currently hold a 4-13 record and sit 12th in the Eastern Conference. On Wednesday night, the Bulls will host the Phoenix Suns, a team sitting dead last in the Western Conference. This is the second of a three-game homestand.

The matchup should be a competitive one between two struggling franchises. It’s the exact palette-cleanser the Bulls need to bounce back from their last three games. Chicago has spent the last week taking on the Eastern Conference’s elite. It didn’t go very well.

Over the last seven days the Bulls had to face the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks on the road then host the Toronto Raptors. Those opponents are currently the sixth-best, second-best, and top teams in the East, respectively. It is, by far, the toughest stretch of schedule they have faced so far this season.

There were instances where the Bulls were competitive. Chicago was ahead 24-19 after the first quarter in Boston. In Milwaukee, they led by as many as 22 points and were up 63-45 at halftime. They even scorched the Bucks by shooting 64.7 percent from 3-point range in the first half.

However, things quickly fell apart in all three games. Boston responded to the Bulls’ sterling start by reeling off a 32-11 second quarter. Milwaukee also stormed back with a 46-17 third quarter. The Raptors, who were already in control of the game, dropped a 32-12 third quarter on a Chicago team that was without Zach LaVine due to an illness.

When it was all said and done, the Bulls finished the week 0-3. Each loss was by double-digits, the first time this year that has happened consecutively. Their -29.0 average point differential and -27.3 net rating were worst in the league over the past seven days.

This is in contrast to the previous seven games. Though Chicago went 2-5 over that span, none of the defeats (or the wins) were by more than eight points. Two games even went into overtime.

The Bulls defense left a lot of be desired over the past week, with their 112.7 defensive rating good for 22nd in the league. However, the crux of the team’s issues fall mostly on the offensive end.

Chicago could only muster 89.7 points per game and an 85.4 offensive rating over their last three. Both marks are obviously worst in the NBA over the past seven days. They did this on 39.4 percent shooting, second-worst in the league.

Their below-average 3-point shooting actually kept them afloat (33.7 percent, 19th). Meanwhile, they struggled mightily inside the arc, going a league-low 40.7 percent on 2-pointers in their last three games.

The Bulls’ offensive power outage is not the result of a lack of ball movement, but on an inability to capitalize on opportunities. Chicago averaged just 19.7 assists per game this week, tied with the Dallas Mavericks for fourth-least in the NBA. However, they also averaged 45.3 potential assists per game over the same span, sixth-most in the league. A team can only rack up so many assists if they aren’t making their shots.

Ultimately, the Bulls are a young team suffering from a rash of injuries. That fact never changed. It was only amplified over the past three games because they faced some of the higher-echelon teams in their conference.

There were instances throughout this streak where the team seemed self-aware of this fact. That manifested itself in careless turnovers (league-high 18.7 per game), settling for shots (36.0 percent of their shot attempts were 2’s outside the restricted area; they only made 29.5 percent of them), and missed defensive rotations.

In the end, though, the only thing the Chicago Bulls can do is continue to compete. Bad stretches like this can be disheartening. However, as long as they keep plugging away and learning from their mistakes, this team will be better equipped to handle bigger challenges when things finally come together.