It’s being talked about daily, preached ad nauseam by coach Billy Donovan and his staff, including during the Monday morning shootaround.
Yet, there the Bulls players were once again, starting a game with little urgency, grabbing the shovels, finding some soft dirt, and digging a huge hole to then try and climb out of.
A blueprint that keeps happening and one that is not sustainable if this team wants to accomplish anything that resembles success. Evident by the 135-126 loss to Utah at the United Center, maybe they don’t.
“I think a lot of times we’ve got to come out and be a lot more aggressive and certainly I think it starts defensively,” Donovan said. “If you’re able to get stops that generally allows you to get out in transition and generate some easy baskets. But I do think that for us we’ve got to come with a better mentality to start games, because I think what’s happening is the game is going on and we’re adjusting to it, instead of us just coming out and trying to be aggressive.”
Down 20 in back-to-back games against Memphis and Orlando last week, falling behind 17 in Brooklyn on Friday, and then the latest blackeye came against the winless Jazz, letting Utah – without former Bull Lauri Markkanen (back spasms) – come out of the gate in the first half and put the Bulls (3-4) in a 15-point deficit.
More concerning was the common component of too many easy baskets in the paint, specifically allowing opposing guards to have a free pass through the lane and to the rim. Blow-by after blow-by.
Utah’s Cody Williams, Collin Sexton, rookie Kyle Filipowski with an easy dunk because of a Sexton drive that allowed an easy dump-off pass. It went on and on through the first half.
The defense was obviously a concern at the start of the season, especially with All-Defensive First-Teamer Alex Caruso now wearing Thunder blue, and while the team’s defensive rating was still top 10 through the first five games, the backcourt breakdowns were troubling.
Even more so because it’s now two different players that have talked about Bulls teammates needing to watch more film on their own.
Last season, Caruso talked about players taking more responsibility to study film in their own time rather than just what the coaches feed them. Josh Giddey, who came over from Oklahoma City in the Caruso deal, was reiterating that.
“You go through a scout or shootaround, watch film, so you spend time on it,” Giddey said. “But it’s the NBA, players are good, they’re going to make plays. It’s our job to do everything we can to understand their tendencies.
“We’ve had games where we’ve made it tough on guys. Some guys have had good nights, scored 30, but I feel like they’ve had to work for it. Still, our defense has to be a collective unit, it’s got to be five guys. We’re going to continue to harp on that.”
The Bulls did get serious in the third quarter, thanks to Coby White doing all he could to take over, scoring 15 points in the stanza and helping the Bulls outscore the visiting team 40-33 in the third. But with Zach LaVine in street clothes (right adductor), there just wasn’t enough scoring in the fourth, and there definitely wasn’t enough defense.
When Utah’s Keyonte George, who finished with a game-high 33, nailed a three with 4:19 left, the Jazz (1-6) lead was back up to 12 and the writing was on the wall.
“The one-on-one situations where a guy is just in space, we have to have more resistance there in terms of being able to at least guard the first dribble or two,” Donovan said. “It’s very difficult when there’s just a straight-line drive.
“There’s not Alex Caruso out there but I do think we collectively can be better.”