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Looks like it’s time for the Bulls to be sellers?
Ok, Ok, relax; breathe, breathe. I’m repeating, “Don’t overreact, don’t overreact, don’t overreact.”
“I don’t want to overreact; it’s one game,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan seconded soothingly, “but when you go through it and see these guys do what they’ve done for 10 straight games (to start the season), competing at a level that is necessary for our team. And then to come in and play like they did... have to put myself in there and take ownership, too. I’m coaching the team and obviously something messaging wise going in we didn’t respond to. I’m not putting it all on them; I’m a part of it as well.”
What it was isn’t particularly understandable, and hardly acceptable, especially during an opening part of the season that’d been going so well for the Bulls. Even with three consecutive losses coming into Wednesday’s game in Detroit.
But not much anymore with a cold slap of what the Bulls hope isn’t their true reality in a 124-113 loss to the Pistons.
If you turn the telescope around, it doesn’t seem that bad considering Coby White and Josh Giddey were out, though close to a return, especially Giddey perhaps on Sunday in Utah. And that the Pistons were the conference’s hottest team riding seven consecutive wins.
Which actually makes me a lot more disappointed in the Pistons than the Bulls.
During the long regular season you get these sorts of losses in which the Bulls never led, were behind by a dozen after the first quarter, 16 at half and 23 late in the third quarter. And the Bulls despite their seeming disinterest the first three quarters did have a run in them, suddenly within 97-96 with 8:26 left in the game. Ok, we’ve seen this righting of the sinking ship before like against the 76ers.
Though there was that hole-too-deep-to-dig-out-of we always hear about as DePaul’s Paul Reed on the way to 28 points and 13 rebounds—so how was DePaul so bad with this guy?—dove into a three-point play as the Pistons absolutely brutalized the Bulls with Reed rolling for scores. Ayo Dosunmu couldn’t get one of those high arcing floaters to drop. The ball got batted out to Ron Holland, who sprinted the rest of the way for a dunk. Holland’s G-League Ignite teammate Matas Buzelis, who led the Bulls with 21 points and 14 rebounds and exchanged pointed barbs with Holland several times, missed on a runner and Kevin Huerter with 20 points fouled to stop another breakout.
Patrick Williams cut inside and got a quick pass from Nikola Vučević for a slam dunk. And so it still was just Detroit a manageable-for-the-Bulls 102-96 deficit with seven minutes left. But again came Punisher Reed putting back a miss once again coming off soft Bulls pick and roll coverage. Williams then threw away a cross court pass and Buzelis fouled to prevent another break. Then Daniss Jenkins — I know; I’d never heard of him, either — got wide open yet again and made a free throw line jumper for a 106-98 Detroit lead on his way to 18 points and 12 assists, and that was a big part of this game and the story.
The Bulls again nudged within four points with a timeout with about five minutes remaining. But they botched a pair of possessions after that, Reed rolled in for a layup yet again with the Bulls mostly spectating, and then the Bulls left Duncan Robinson pretty much wide open for what was his seventh three pointer, and that was pretty much all that could be said for the Bulls.
Though Donovan did have some interesting things to add.
But first Jenkins, or whoever those guys were as Butch and Sundance were once asking.
What the heck is wrong with the NBA!
Here were the Pistons after that opening night loss in the United Center the best team in the East, riding seven consecutive wins, what three weeks into the season, and they basically decided to rest just about their entire regular rotation?
C’mon, seriously? A young team needs load management less than a month into the season?
At least we know we don’t have to worry about watching a Detroit victory parade. Teams that have that attitude don’t win.
I remember a story Phil Jackson told about the 1991-92 Bulls who, as defending champions, were off on a long winning streak that became 14 straight early that season. Jackson said Managing Partner Jerry Reinsdorf came to him and asked if he was pushing the team too hard for a record. Jackson said quite the contrary, that he wanted to pull back some, but the players were adamant. They wanted to push. “These guys like to win,” Jackson explained.
Which is how you win multiple championships.
Not by resting three weeks into the season. After an off day following a home game? Yes, I know it was an overtime game. But it was the Wizards.
Probably some guys were injured or recovering, most seemingly with sprained ankles, said the report. The Pistons injured players were dressed in some nice leather jackets, though, which was appealing. So Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duran, Ausur Thompson and Tobias Harris, four of the five regular starters, didn’t play. Also sitting out was Isaiah Stewart. So the starters other than regular Robinson were Reed, Holland, Javonte Green and Jenkins. The reserves who did play were a good trivia contest with Chaz Lanier, Tolu Smith, Bobi Klintman and Wendell Moore Jr. Seriously, tell me you’d heard of two of them. The Detroit rotation was five undrafted players and two other second rounders with three from the g-league.
I know; everyone in the NBA is an NBA player, and I respect that. They were the best somewhere and once stars. So these things can happen, and we often are told it’s a make-or-miss league, and the Pistons led by Robinson made 13 of 30 threes. Though the Bulls did drop in 12 of 33. And many statistics were comparable, both teams with 44 rebounds and the Bulls with a slight advantage on second chance points. The Bulls had bakery issues with 21 odd looking turnovers, though Detroit served up some of their own pierogis with 19 turnovers. The points off were about even.
But the Pistons more like their 80s ancestors hammered the Bulls inside with 66 points, and at least eye test wide were the harder playing guys.
Which seemed to most worry Donovan, less immediately than existentially.
Frankly Donovan said—though no one called him Frank—the Bulls talent level wasn’t good enough to not be on all the time. Their switch was pointed down on Wednesday, and so no surprise their lights went off even before they could get into the bed.
“That was the biggest surprise to me, that there was absolutely zero desperation, and we need to be desperate,” Donovan explained. “We’re not talented enough not to be desperate, and we’re not gifted enough not to be desperate. We have to be desperate. I feel like up to this point in time this season we’ve played with that kind of mentality. I didn’t think we played with that mentality. And if we don’t play with that mentality, that’s what we look like.
“We just dropped three games in a row (coming into Detroit),” Donovan reminded, the Bulls now 6-5. “It’s not like we’ve run off seven or eight in a row and are full of ourselves. We just dropped three in a row. You should be coming out a lot more desperate than that... you have to have incredible focus, be unbelievably locked into what’s going on, and you have to be really desperate. Sometimes you realize the talent gap (between starters and reserves) is not as great as it may appear. We’re not that much more gifted that we can just show up; we better play desperate. If we don’t play that way (like in competitive losses to Cleveland and Spurs), we are not good enough to stay in games. You don’t come out with a level of desperation, it’s really hard to win.”
This night the Bulls certainly did not with Giddey missing his second straight game with a twisted ankle and White slowly getting closer from his calf injury.
On the positive side, no one is asking me anymore if White coming back will ruin the Bulls chemistry.
These Pistons had plenty to start the game, Robinson with a trio of three pointers less than three minutes into the game. Anyone got that guy? By then with one in their first possession the Bulls had three turnovers, and it was 16-4 Detroit. The last time I remember a start in Detroit like that Scottie Pippen had a migraine. Most Bulls fans did by then on Wednesday.
The Pistons just kept rockin’ and rollin’ to the rim, and not only Martha was dancin’ in the streets. Talk about a ball of confusion.
The Bulls also fouled Pistons players shooting desperation type shots at the close of the first and second quarters, and if the home fans were laughing loud and hearty, deep inside we were blue. The Bulls body language seemed to be profane.
“All of the things that happened in the beginning of the game we talked about,” said Donovan. “They’re an elite offensive rebounding team, and they had five in the first quarter. They’re active with their hands, and we had nine turnovers in the first half. It’s just more like you get what you earn. In the NBA where it’s the most competitive league in the world, you have to earn stuff. These guys (Pistons irregulars) are NBA players over there too. Robinson got going. Jenkins, we were not able to control, got wherever he wanted to go. They were on the glass.”
It continued to get worse for the Bulls, who seemed by then in the third quarter to simply be admiring the Motor City Cruise expats. But then Donovan went small, and the Pistons suddenly didn’t look so big.
Without a center and Williams, Buzelis and Isaac Okoro across the front line, the Bulls began to baffle the Pistons, though more so finally with energy; call it a gulp of red Bull.
Huerter with a fast break, Matas fouled on a three, Huerter putting back his own miss, Tre Jones fouled, Okoro fouled, and what do you know, the Bulls were going to pull out another one like this, a 19-2 run, 27-5 overall since late in the third.
“We ended up going small so that we could just switch everything and maybe prevent the ball from getting downhill,” Donovan explained. “I didn’t think our pick and roll coverage was great. I was just trying to search for something to give us a spark and some momentum. Would have liked to stay small the whole fourth, but fatigue... that group did a pretty good job. When you’re playing three quarters like that and you’re trying to rely on the fourth quarter to give an uphill battle….I give our guys credit. They never gave up. They fought, they battled, they competed, they did everything they could to get themselves back in the game. But when you get that kind of deficit, for us it was just too much to overcome. They were just better all the way around. We made a dash towards the end to try and make a run at it, but you can’t play defense for part of the game and then expect to win. Just doesn’t work like that.”
So we’re not going to overreact, right? Everyone, right?
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