ATLANTA — It wasn’t that long ago that Bulls guard Coby White was a part of a top-five NBA defense.
Guard Ayo Dosunmu, forward Patrick Williams and center Nikola Vucevic were part of one, as well.
It just feels long ago.
Missed block-outs, a lack of communication on switches and flat-out allowing blow-bys on a nightly basis make it seem as though 2022-23 was a decade ago.
It was that season that head coach Billy Donovan — helped immensely by defensive savant Alex Caruso — guided the Bulls to the fifth-best defense in the NBA in terms of efficiency.
The Bulls woke up Monday ranked 26th in defensive efficiency this season after a game Sunday they won, despite allowing 150 points.
‘‘We’ve got to figure it out,’’ White said. ‘‘We don’t want to be one of these teams that just tries to outscore teams.’’
Not that the Hawks gave them much of a choice in the Bulls’ 152-150 victory. While the 152 points were the second-most the Bulls had scored in regulation in their history (155 against the Suns in 1990), it was also the second game this season in which they allowed 150 points (150 in a double-overtime loss Nov. 16 to the Jazz).
The only teams allowing more points per game than the Bulls’ 123 are the Jazz (126.8) and Wizards (126.1). That’s not good company.
‘‘We’re going to have to be a team that has to help each other more [defensively],’’ Donovan said. ‘‘It’s going to be hard to win giving up that many points and expecting to score as many as we did. There’s a lot of other things throughout the course of the game that we can control and do a better job of. I’m not saying we need to be perfect, but the total attention to focus has got to be on those things.’’
The addition of forward Isaac Okoro during the summer was supposed to help with that focus, as well as with the Bulls’ physicality. Okoro recently missed eight games with a back issue, and it was no coincidence the Bulls went 1-7 in those games. But Okoro played in both games in which the Bulls allowed 150 points this season, so it’s not as though his presence fixes everything.
Okoro needs help on defense and is begging for volunteers. With the pace at which the Bulls play, they need to be healthy and whole. But they also need to get stops.
‘‘We know what reality is, but we’ve got to do the little things more in terms of taking away a couple of baskets here and there,’’ White said. ‘‘It’s hard, but if you want to win, you’ve got to do it. You’ve got to do it on both sides, so we’ve got to figure it out.’’
That’s not the only thing the Bulls need to do. Donovan has been hammering them about the details, especially on defense. During his time with the Bulls, Caruso covered up a lot of mistakes because of how well he prepared and understood those details. But now that he’s with the Thunder, it’s about time the rest of the players catch up.
‘‘We’re not a great defensive team, but we can be better and we can improve and we can take a little more control over things,’’ Donovan said. ‘‘I thought we had some blown coverages [Sunday] because of a lack of communication. [We] need people talking better, things like that.
‘‘Things are happening quickly. I understand actions are happening, sprint-outs. It’s a fast game. That’s the way the NBA is going right now. You need to be able to react and convert from offense to defense [and] defense to offense really quickly.’’