INDIANAPOLIS – The Bulls’ locker room is not soundproof.
The outside world is screaming at them to lay down and lose games as the regular season continues to dwindle to an end, and they hear it. They hear it all.
Their message to that plea?
Save it.
“We all understand the narrative outside this locker room,” Bulls guard Josh Giddey said on Sunday. “ ‘You got a get a high draft pick, not make the playoffs,’ all that stuff. You can never tell guys not to compete because guys are playing for their lives, their livelihood, contracts, things like that.
“Everyone in this locker room wants to win games, wants to compete, and that’s the way it’s been all year. We respect the game and that’s the way it’s going to be these last 20-plus games.”
As Giddey and his teammates found out against the Pacers, however, wanting to win is one thing, but doing what it takes to win – and being short-handed – was a hill that couldn’t be climbed.
Thanks to an onslaught from three-point range (19-of-44), Indiana shot the Bulls out of the Gainbridge Fieldhouse, beating them 127-112.
A tough loss for a 24-37 Bulls team still holding down the last play-in spot in the Eastern Conference?
Maybe, but as far as Giddey was concerned, just some more tough lessons that will benefit this team moving forward.
“Winning is a learned trait,” Giddey said. “It is. And you have to start with building winning habits. Whether you win or lose, I think you can get something, some kind of lesson out of every game. The best experience for these guys, and for me as well, is to go through these learning experiences. Whether it’s just getting to the play-in or advancing and getting to the playoffs, it’s all going to help us moving forward.”
Through the first half of the game it felt like it would be the Bulls that would be providing the lessons, as Coby White put up 20 and the Bulls led by as much as nine.
There’s a reason the Pacers are fighting for a first-round home playoff series, however, and that was felt in the second half, specifically the final quarter.
White was handcuffed for just six points over the final two quarters, while the Pacers outscored the Bulls 32-20 in that final stanza.
The difference in how they guarded White? Physicality and Andrew Nembhard.
“Nembhard told me they were matching my minutes,” White said. “He told me, ‘Every time you get up, I get up.’ So they wanted him on me. And then their physicality was high in the pick-and-rolls. It didn’t help in the halfcourt.
“I did have some opportunities. I smoked a couple of (layups). I just wanted to remain aggressive, and up until the final few minutes of the fourth it was a competitive game. They just went on a run.”
They did what a team with playoff experience does.
“These teams that we’ll see, like with Cleveland on Tuesday, and these guys, who made a deep run last year, like the one thing you learn by being in the playoffs is how everybody knows each other, you’re playing in a seven-game series,” coach Billy Donovan said. “Whenever a play is called out both teams know what play it is. It really comes down to what I would call, ‘when the ball is in the air.’ The physical parts. A game like (Sunday) was good for us.”
Because it was another lesson learned. A tough lesson, but one that was learned.
“Going into the Philly game we talked about the standings,” Donovan added. “We’ve talked about where we’re at, certainly, the opportunity to move up. But there’s also a realization that we could move down. I feel like they’ve been really engaged and they’ve competed.”