PHILADELPHIA — Bulls coach Billy Donovan gets it. He said so five times in a three-minute answer Monday.
He understands why Bulls fans might have wanted the team to lose to the 76ers at Wells Fargo Center — to sink in the standings and improve their chances of landing Duke phenom Cooper Flagg, the presumptive No. 1 overall draft pick in June.
But it’s not in Donovan’s DNA to tank, and he said none of his bosses has instructed him to coach that way, either. So while he’ll protect his players — as the Bulls did Monday when they sat starting center Nikola Vucevic with a tight calf — he won’t hide them.
“I worry a little bit about what kind of message you are sending your locker room,” Donovan said. “And I get what the fans are saying with looking at the percentages and, ‘Who cares [about winning].’ I get that. [But] I don’t think you ever want to give anybody any impression of, ‘Hey, these guys are all healthy, but we’re just resting them.’ I really respect that there’s a responsibility that we have organizationally to go out there and compete and do our best.”
The 76ers (20-37) didn’t seem to have that same responsibility. The Bulls dismantled them 142-110, at one point leading by 50 points, to drop them to 2½ games behind the 10th-place Bulls (23-35) in the Eastern Conference standings. Meanwhile, the Nets lost to the lowly Wizards, dropping to 1½ games below the Bulls in the No. 11 spot.
“I don’t know all the percentages or the odds, all those things,” Donovan admitted.
Well, here they are. The Bulls currently sit eighth from the bottom in the NBA by record, giving them a 6% chance to get the No. 1 pick in the draft lottery and a 26.3% chance to land in the top four. The Nets are seventh from the bottom with a 7.5% chance to land the first pick and a 32% chance for the top four. The 76ers, sixth from the bottom, have a 9% chance at No. 1 and a 37.2% chance at top four.
The Bulls weren’t playing for their lottery chances last season, and they aren’t now.
“When we’ve spoken, whether it’s been with front office or ownership, when we’ve all collaborated together, there’s been a consensus that there is an integrity to go out there with,” Donovan said.
Wiping out the 76ers looked easy, even from the opening tip. The Bulls put up 39 points in the first quarter and led by 17 at the half. Guard Josh Giddey was responsible for 17 of the Bulls’ 75 points in the first half, while newly acquired shooter Kevin Huerter had his best game so far as a Bull, scoring 14 in the first half and finishing with 23.
“Just settling down a little bit,” Huerter said of his turnaround from his first few games. “I felt like we just got easy look after easy look the entire game.”
By the third quarter, it looked and felt like the 76ers were done. The Bulls outscored them 40-18 in the quarter.
Did Huerter sense their broken spirit?
“You can feel it,” he said with a smile. “I won’t say when we felt it, but it was something we talked about for sure. At that point, you have to step on the other team’s neck.”