Bulls coach Billy Donovan knows the easy schedule only looks that way on paper, because at the end of the day his team doesn’t do easy.
Nam Y. Huh/AP
It would be nice if Billy Donovan could throttle down, give 34-year-old veteran DeMar DeRozan a few nights of rest, and take advantage of the second-easiest remaining schedule in the NBA.
The problem is the Bulls coach knows exactly what he has: An NBA team that has shown it can run with the big dogs on any given night and also lose to the 12-win Pistons … twice.
Throttle down?
Far from it.
“With our team I just don’t look at it that way because every game is hard for us,” Donovan said on Saturday. “I don’t think any of us, certainly including the players, have made any excuses. I do believe there is enough in the locker room. We have to play well no matter who it is. We went to Miami and won. (This team has) been very competitive. I know the record doesn’t say that. Sometimes the records with some teams can be a little misleading because when you look at a lot of times the net rating, the margin of loss by them, it’s only a possession or two with some of these teams. For us we don’t have a wide margin.”
Not with Patrick Williams and Zach LaVine both sidelined with season-ending foot surgery, Coby White currently nursing an injured right hip, and even an extra rotation body in rookie Julian Phillips currently in a walking boot.
This was a fragile roster fully healthy, so now being short-handed has left Donovan getting creative with his depth and his matchups.
Easy on paper doesn’t translate to reality for the Bulls.
“I’ve talked about this: We have to play well,” Donovan said. “Obviously we’re giving some other guys an opportunity to play that haven’t had that opportunity in the past with what we’ve had to deal with. For us I don’t necessarily look at who we’re playing and what their record is as much as I think we have to look at the fact that we’ve got to play well. That’s going to be the important part for us.”
And while the organization knows that staying in the No. 9 spot in the Eastern Conference is likely their reality, it’s more about playing their best basketball going into the play-in tournament and taking it from there.
If the season were to end today, the Bulls would host an Atlanta team that also can’t find their way from game-to-game, and then face the loser of the No. 7 and No. 8 matchup on the road, which would currently be Miami or Philadelphia.
White out
White missed his second consecutive game with the right hip injury he suffered in the win at Indiana, and while progress has been made, there’s a good chance he could sit out until Thursday’s game in Houston.
“He’s doing pretty well,” Donovan said. “The hope is if he can continue to progress as he has the last couple days, certainly coming out of the weekend, this upcoming week is the hope.”
White was second in minutes played to DeRozan, and in his breakout season, was also averaging 19.5 points, 5.2 assists and 4.7 rebounds per game.
Details on the rook
Donovan did offer up more details on the Phillips injury, at least offering up a timetable for the rookie forward to be evaluated as he deals with a foot injury and life in a walking boot.
“He had been dealing with the foot issue on and off for a little bit of time,” Donovan said. “I think it got to the point where it flared up and was really bothering him. They were hopeful that maybe in a two-week timetable we’ll find out.”