Detroit had very few answers for the Bulls and DeMar DeRozan, as the veteran scored a game-high 39 points in the blowout win.
Paul Sancya/AP
Playtime is over.
Play-in time has officially started.
That was the message from coach Billy Donovan on Thursday now that the Bulls know their fate to reach the postseason.
Thanks to a 127-105 blowout of the Pistons in Detroit, Donovan & Co. locked up the No. 9 seed and will host Atlanta in next week’s No. 9 vs. No. 10 play-in game at the United Center.
“I’m just a big believer that whoever is out there playing (the final two regular-season games) there has to be an attention to detail,” Donovan said of his team. “That’s the one thing we just can’t have lapses in where the competitiveness isn’t at a certain level and then we lose some of the details. The margins in this league are so small and we have to understand that. Some of the fouls, some of the transition, I just don’t think we can go game-to-game and say, ‘Well, we’re in the play-in, whatever happens, happens.’ There are some habits being formed and they are either good or they are bad.”
They were very good against Detroit (13-67), especially considering the Pistons somehow had two wins against the Bulls earlier this season.
Thanks to scoring 36 points off 20 turnovers, as well as outscoring the home team 58-42 in the paint, the Bulls (38-42) put together one of their more dominant performances of the season. Then again, consider the competition with the Pistons sitting eight players and starting the likes of Troy Brown Jr., Chimezie Metu and playing Evan Fournier over 25 minutes off the bench.
Meanwhile, veteran DeMar DeRozan led the Bulls with 39 points, Nikola Vucevic chipped in with 27 and 11 rebounds, while Jevonte Green added 11 points and eight rebounds, doing what he does best since he returned to the team from the G-League last month.
“Just bring the energy,” Green said afterwards. “That’s what I do.”
He’ll need to keep doing it.
The last time the Bulls played the Hawks on April 1, Atlanta came in and handled the home team easily, 113-101.
That’s why Donovan was really stressing that this team now needs to not only focus in on the details, but buy in on the idea that it has to happen every day from here on out if they want to escape the play-in week and reach the postseason.
“My job and responsibility is to keep pushing them to a higher level, higher standard, and that’s what I’ll be trying to get out of this thing,” Donovan said. “Can we get a standard of play?
“It’s going to get to the point where we’re in a one-and-done situation and the old, ‘Eh, we’ve got another one tomorrow, eh, we’ve got another one in two days.’ That’s running out.”
The bigger picture that still needs to be answered is what this next week will mean for the roster moving forward.
Executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas stayed mostly pat last summer and then again at the February trade deadline, praising the “competitiveness” of his roster despite season-ending injuries to Zach LaVine and Lonzo Ball at the time.
The Bulls finished in the No. 10 spot last season, beat Toronto in the first play-in game and then lost a lead to Miami late to be eliminated from reaching the playoffs.
Karnisovas made a big deal out of that finish as far as the decisions that were made to keep the core together. If the Bulls can show some life in the play-in round, would he do that again? It remains to be seen.