DENVER – Nuggets coach Michael Malone didn’t need to see the latest hardware headed for the Coby White trophy case to know how good the Bulls guard has been playing.
“(Coach) Billy (Donovan) has given him the green light to attack, to shoot the three,” Malone said on Monday, when White’s name was brought up. “The last couple of years Chicago has always been a team that didn’t shoot a lot of threes, and I think (this year) they’ve shot a lot more and I think Coby is a big part of that. In the open court he has become almost unguardable with a relentless attack mindset.
“You back off him he’s going to shoot it and you press up on him he has the handle, size and physicality to break you down, to get to the rim and to finish.”
High accolades from a championship coach, and the NBA shared that mentality, announcing earlier in the day that White had earned Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the second consecutive time. The last Bulls player to win back-to-back Player of the Week honors was Michael Jordan.
“He’s been great, and the big thing I’ve seen growth in is I think he’s pushed himself to be really consistent,” Donovan said of White. “That’s the thing that was encouraging to me, to be honored last week for the award and then to come back and be honored again.”
And do so in impressive fashion.
Not only did White lead the Bulls to a 3-1 record last week, but ranked fourth in the NBA in scoring (30.3 points per game) over that time. He also extended his career-long 20-point scoring streak to 12 straight games, becoming one of nine Bulls players to ever do that.
That’s the consistent piece that Donovan had been harping on White for years. Message heard and then some.
“I feel like he’s holding himself to a level of being able to take a good game – and not to say that he would dwell on it or live in it – but I think the hardest thing in the NBA with 82 games is can you move to the next thing, move to the next thing? Because they keep coming,” Donovan continued. “You’ve got to be able to handle success and you’ve got to be able to handle failure, and I think he’s really worked hard on figuring out ways how can he stay present in the moment, ‘What’s in front of me now?’ ”
Getting closer
Donovan got a good report from back in Chicago in the afternoon, after Lonzo Ball (right wrist) took big strides in getting closer to a return.
“(Monday) was really the first day where there was a pretty significant workout, and when I say workout, he’s been doing the running. I’m talking about ball-handling, shooting, that kind of stuff,” Donovan said of Ball. “I wouldn’t say he’s totally pain-free but he’s in a much better place than he was a few days ago.”
Ball missed his 12th consecutive game with the wrist injury. It was the same injury that cost him 15 games earlier in the year.
“This was really the first time where he was really shooting the basketball, dribbling the basketball, and we’ll see how he responds,” Donovan said. “The medical guys that were with him back in Chicago felt like it was a really good day for him. So there’s some optimism when we get home.”
A look back
The season-high 146 points scored in Saturday’s win against the Lakers was the sixth-highest scoring total in regulation for the franchise, and the most points scored in regulation since they dropped 151 points at Milwaukee in 2008.