There have been moments throughout this preseason and training camp.
Maybe not enough for Bulls coach Billy Donovan, but what his players have on their side is time. There’s time to continue embracing the idea of defensive physicality, there’s time for more focus on rim protection – evident by the nine blocked shots in Tuesday’s loss to Denver.
With just one preseason game left, however, Donovan wants more than moments. He wants consistency on the defensive end of the floor.
And whenever a reminder of why that is so important for this group is asked about, just rewind to the last meaningful game the Bulls played.
“Physicality is a big part of the NBA and we kind of saw that in that play-in game,” guard Josh Giddey pointed out.
Ah yes, the April 16 play-in game against Miami.
A contest that the Bulls strutted into knowing they had swept the Heat in all three regular-season showdowns, only to be systematically dismantled possession by possession from tip off in the only meeting that mattered.
Miami dropped 39 points on the Bulls by the end of the first quarter, following that up with a 32-point second quarter. It didn’t matter that the Bulls’ defense finally showed some pride in the third, handcuffing the visiting team for 17 points in that quarter. The ship had taken on so much water by then, the violinists had already begun playing “Nearer, My God, to Thee.”
“Miami was ready to go,” Giddey said. “They brought it to us. We were on our back foot from the jump. It’s not about hitting blokes. Physicality comes in many different ways. We have to be the team to throw the first punch and get the opposing team on their back foot, so what that looks like every night, it’s going to be different, but physicality is a part of it.”
Even executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas – who is 100% percent responsible for the soft roster – stated the obvious about how the 2024-25 campaign ended.
“We saw what happened in the play-in game and the level of physicality went up, and we couldn’t handle it,” Karnisovas said. “There are very specific things we need to do this year.”
So where are they?
It was easy to give the Game 1 showing in Cleveland a pass, after all it was Game 1. Donovan had to call a timeout after an 18-6 run by the Cavaliers to start the game, and things did get better somewhat on the defensive side, but 37 points allowed in that first stanza didn’t exactly scream improvement.
Sunday against the Bucks, the Bulls allowed 35 first-quarter points, and then in Denver allowed 37 in the opening 12 minutes.
The fact that Matas Buzelis finished the game with five of the nine blocks was impressive, but checking one box while there are so many more unchecked boxes on that side of the ball is starting to get concerning. Same old Bulls.
That’s why there are still some unanswered questions looming over the Thursday finale against Minnesota. Was the addition of Isaac Okoro enough and is this simply a work in progress that will get better?
Reserve guard Ayo Dosunmu had his own theory. In his world, defense is a choice, and this group has to decide to take grip of it.
“This being my fifth year, I think we had pretty good defensive teams at times,” Dosunmu said. “At times we’ve been poor defensively, we weren’t connected, we weren’t physical, but there have been times where we’ve played lock-down defense, been connected, we were rebounding. I think the main thing this team needs to do is do all those things but do them at a consistent level. Not picking and choosing.”