There’s a fine line between when Billy Donovan wants “Billy Ball” going throttle to the floor, and when he wants his offense pumping the brakes.
Much to the Bulls coach’s dismay, that was blurred into recklessness on Tuesday night.
Enough so that he used preseason sample size No. 1 to get his message across yet again.
“We’re going to have to be able to take care of it,” Donovan said of the 26-turnover night against the Cavaliers. “I think at the half they had (19) points off our turnovers. That’s just not winning basketball for me. That’s the frustrating part because this has been a problem in training camp every single day. Every day it’s been a problem and we show up, we talk about it, but we’ve got to get it cleaned up because to me they’re putting forth a really good effort, but you can’t overcome that.”
They did in Cleveland, eventually holding onto a 118-117 win, but that was courtesy of a 35-27 fourth quarter in which end-of-the-bench players decided it.
Come the regular season against even average NBA rosters? That’s a hard hill to continually climb.
The Bulls averaged 14.7 turnovers per game last season — 10th worst in the Association. The five best teams at ball security? Oklahoma City, Boston, Cleveland, Indiana and New York. That’s the eventual NBA Champions in the Thunder and four other teams that were arguably elite.
So it wasn’t a coincidence that Donovan came into camp harping on limiting turnovers to gain more possessions than the opposition.
The win in Cleveland was fine, but the numbers behind it were off-putting.
“You have a turnover discrepancy like that, even if you’re even on the backboard, and (the free-throw line) … we just can’t beat ourselves like that,” Donovan said. “To me it’s just shooting yourself in the foot.”
That’s why with the Bulls back in the lab again in Wednesday’s practice, it was pretty obvious what was stressed.
“I’d say that was probably the most negative thing we did,” newly-acquired forward Isaac Okoro said. “If we just limit our turnovers, I felt like the score could have been much different than it was.”
Okoro would know. His five turnovers led the team and were very out of character. He averaged just 0.4 turnovers per game last season with the Cavs, and in five NBA seasons never averaged over a one turnover a game since his rookie campaign (1.3).
The new guy trying to figure out Donovan’s high-octane offense or just unfamiliarity with his teammates?
“It’s a mixture of us just getting to know each other more and more, like these preseason games just getting to know where we’re going to be on the court, cutting, and we’re playing fast, so making sure we get our reads right,” Okoro said. “Not jumping in the air and tossing passes, causing turnovers.”
Not everyone with the team was concerned with it, however.
Second-year forward Matas Buzelis finished with 19 points and did cough it over twice. His message was simple: Give it time.
“Once we play a couple of more games in the preseason we’ll get in better shape and make better decisions, but just finding out when we’ve got to slow down,” Buzelis said. “When there’s (opposing defenders) back, just slowing it down a bit, but when there’s any sort of advantage, I’d try and risk whatever pass there is to just get it up there and try and score a basket.
“There’s like a line between when to go and when not to go.”
Donovan’s hope is they start walking on the right side of it, and soon.
