Westerlund: Bulls Are Talking But Not Producing Lately
By Cody Westerlund-
CHICAGO (CBS) – What Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau all but said after his team's 107-99 loss to the Hawks on Saturday night, wing Jimmy Butler actually did verbalize.
"The way that they play, that's the way we should be playing," Butler said after Chicago fell to 12-10 at home and Atlanta won its 12th straight to improve to an East-leading 33-8.
For 48 minutes, the Hawks displayed the needed focus, discipline and intensity to grab a tough road win. It reminded of how the Bulls (27-15) were playing a short time ago, when they ripped off a 13-2 stretch through December and early January.
Those Bulls haven't been seen since. Surely, the absences of big man Joakim Noah and wing Mike Dunleavy have had an effect, but Chicago still hasn't played with prolonged intensity that's needed to overcome adversity.
Coupled with what Thibodeau called a "small margin for error" because of the injuries, it has led to five losses in the past seven games.
"Thibs can say whatever he wants to say," point guard Derrick Rose said. "It's going to have to be done by us, as a group."
As enjoyable as it was to watch Rose (23 points, 10 assists, eight rebounds) will Chicago back into the game with a 15-point third quarter and a pair of acrobatic fourth-quarter layups that got the crowd to its feet, it was equally as jarring to see the hopelessness of the Bulls in trying to get a stop in crunch time.
For every Chicago charge – within five points twice and then to within six points five more times – Atlanta had an answer.
The Bulls didn't have any for their recent play. Asked generally and specifically about Chicago's problems, Thibodeau said nothing of consequence.
"We got to figure it out," Thibodeau said about the recent slow starts. "We got to do better."
Does the motivation need to come internally from the players?
"The answer's in the work," Thibodeau replied, falling back on a favorite line.
Notably, the Bulls were again out of sorts on defense Saturday, as the Hawks shot 47.6 percent, the fourth straight opponent to reach that threshold.
Gasol's theory on the defensive struggles after the loss was one that Thibodeau has touched on before – the lack of multiple efforts on a possession. The patience to work for a quality shot after an initial action is halted is often an important trait in separating good offensive teams from the bad.
Likewise, a team's discipline and resilience to stop the secondary action often separates a quality defense from a poor one.
Gasol didn't believe the Bulls played defense with such totality Saturday. Time and again, the result was an open mid-range jumper for Al Horford, who had 22 points on 11-of-14 shooting and hit eight mid-range shots.
Hawks point guard Jeff Teague was just 5-of-16 for the field with 17 points, but he added 11 assists and consistently found his way into the paint.
In truth, Gasol and Rose shared in the blame of not slowing Atlanta's pick-and-roll game.
"Teague was getting into the lane," Gasol said. "We talked prior to the game that the guards should peel back to the popper, the guy that pops, to bother that shot. We didn't quite do that, so Horford got a lot of good looks. But it's tough. Teague puts a lot of pressure on your defense as well, and then you have all the shooters who spread the floor.
"You're going to give up something. At the end of the day, you want to give up tough, contested shots. Today, I think they got too many open shots."
Solid play on one end but not the other, for two or three quarters but not four? It's all been a trend lately for Chicago, which has done a lot of wistful thinking and explaining but failed to execute the plan.
Gasol called the struggles "concerning," and with games against the Cavaliers, Spurs and Mavericks looming, the Bulls will continue to be under the microscope.
"It's correctable," Butler said. "Everyone's saying we know what we have to do, but we can't keep talking about it."
Cody Westerlund is a sports editor for CBSChicago.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.