(On tonight’s game): “Besides the turnovers, that was probably the worst game we’ve played all season. I thought Chicago was aggressive and physical and I thought the more (shots) they hit, the more we took steps back. We didn’t react to their physical play whatsoever...you cannot let a good team like they are…come in and play harder than you, be more physical, more aggressive and expect to win the game or ever be in the game. They basically took us out of everything.”
(On what he learned tonight): “We have a long way to go. (It’s as) simple as that. (We have) a lot of work to do.”
(On Rose not playing): “You always worry when a great player doesn’t play because the other team is going to have other guys that are going to want to pick up the pace and pick up the pieces. You worry that, when you have a team that’s young like we are, they are going to have a big sigh of relief and think it’s easier, which I always think it’s going to be harder. If that’s the lesson that we took from this game, then hopefully we’ll learn from it and do better next time.”
(On the defensive effort): “I thought for the first time in a while that we allowed the offense, which was going pretty well for the first seven or eight minutes…and then when it started to go bad, we allowed that to start dictate how we were going to play defense. When we started to miss shots, for some reason on the defensive end, we stopped communicating, we stopped rotating…they started to get all of the easy shots that they got; wide open shots, uncontested shots, layups; a little bit of everything.”
(On the teams’ effort tonight): “Things just didn’t go our way tonight and there was definitely a lack of effort on our end. I take responsibility for that. We started off well the first two quarters and going into the half, they had the lead, but in the second half, we felt like we could come out and make a difference. They’re just a hell of a team and we have to give them credit on both ends of the floor.”
(On the teams’ lack of execution tonight): “When you’re playing against a great team such as Chicago, they’ve proven day in and day out how good they are and you have to execute. On some possessions we didn’t and that lead to some of their fast break points and they just got a lot of easy buckets and just executed on the offensive end.”
(On whether or not this was a discouraging game): “It’s not discouraging for any of us. It’s just on to the next game. We have a big game against Atlanta, on a back-to-back. We’re just going to look at film and learn from it. They played a great game tonight and we just failed to do some of the things that Coach Scott wanted us to do from our plan.”
(On the Bulls Defense): “They do all the things that we need to do; have active hands, help each other and they’re tough. It was just an off night for us, offensively and defensively and we need to learn from it.”
(On falling behind early in the game): “I think we were a step late to everything and we just missed shots. I don’t think we’ve shot the ball this bad all year long and it’s something we need to learn from. We need to learn from this type of team and it’s a great lesson for us.”
(On having any doubts about tomorrow night’s game against Atlanta): “No doubts. From knowing what kind of guys we have in the locker room and our coaches, I have no doubt that we’re going to come out tomorrow strong and we’re going to bring energy and good things will happen for us.”
BULLS HEAD COACH TOM THIBODEAU
(On how the Bulls played): “I loved the way we moved the ball to start the game. I thought our offense was terrific. Defensively, I didn’t like our first quarter, but it got better as we went along. (Our) rebounding was great. Our turnovers were careless in the second half, so that’s something we need to clean up, but I thought we had a lot of guys step up and play well.”
(On Carlos Boozer): “I thought Carlos (Boozer) played extremely well. He’s playing at a high level, rebounding the ball well, scoring and making plays. He’s playing a complete game and his defense is very good.”
(On the Cavaliers): “We knew they were good. This is a good team. They missed some shots they normally make. This team was vastly improved. They’re deep. (Kyrie) Irving is terrific, and it’s a lot more than Irving. (Anderson) Varejao is a high level player in this league. They have a lot of weapons...They’re going to be a team to be reckoned with.”
JOAKIM NOAH
(On the game): “We’re playing good basketball without our most valuable player and we have to keep it up…We played with good energy, but we can play better.”
(On them winning without Derrick Rose): “He just needs to come back at 100%. There’s no reason for him to be playing hurt right now because we know that in the long run, we’re going to need him.”
LUOL DENG
(On the Cavaliers): “Cleveland is better than what their record says, and I think they’re going to keep on getting better as the year goes on.”
(On the game): “We were really locked in from the start…We finished the half well and kept that intensity.”
(On the Bulls’ offensive balance): “We’re doing a great job of moving the ball. We’ve been playing well together…We’ve done a good job so far using everyone (on offense).”
(On the team’s injuries): “The main thing is having everyone healthy…but you have to be smart and I never question anyone on this team when they’re hurt.”