INDIANAPOLIS — The Bulls have been outrebounded in every game but the opener against the Hornets, a game they lost. They have been outshot in five of seven games and outscored in the paint in four games with two ties.
They’ve taken care of the ball well, forced at least 15 turnovers in all seven games and among the league leaders in deflections, defensively.
After Sunday’s disappointing 108-95 loss to an extremely shorthanded Pacers team, it can be easy to say the Bulls are simply missing shots. But it’s bigger than that. They’re missing opportunities. They’ve failed to close out winnable games at Charlotte and New York and now played a mostly non-competitive game against a Pacers team without Victor Oladipo, Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis.
“It’s very concerning,” Thad Young said. “I think we can be a tough, hard-nosed team. I think we have to show it. We have to come out ready to basically get on some guys’ ass. That’s not what we’re doing. We’re trying to cruise into games. We don’t have that type of leeway to feel games out. We have to start off off the rip and make sure we’re taking care of business.”
Young and coach Jim Boylen both talked about needing to understand that Sunday represented a trap game. Hungry players like T.J. Warren, who scored 26 points, and T.J. Leaf, who finished with 13 points and 15 rebounds, took advantage of increased opportunity.
But wasn’t that supposed to be the Bulls’ calling card in Year 3 of the rebuild?
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“S***, I gotta learn it too,” Zach LaVine said, when asked about understanding the need to play with urgency. “It’s tough. Like I said to you [reporters] before, we’ve gotta win games that we’re supposed to win. They have three of their starters out. They came in and played harder than us and kicked our ass. It’s simple. We’re just not there yet. We have really good spurts and then we get lost, and I don’t know what the hell goes on. We’ve got to clean it up.’’
And now the schedule gets tougher starting with Tuesday’s home game against LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Lakers, which opens a tough back-to-back capped by a flight to Atlanta to face a young, athletic Hawks squad.
Boylen downplayed a question about what the Bulls’ identity is. On the one hand, it’s only seven games, and the Bulls are missing plenty of open shots that, eventually, they may make. On the other hand, the Bulls aren’t to this point displaying one trait on which they can hang their hat.
“I don’t know if I’m going to be that hard on us,” Boylen said, when asked what if the Bulls lack an identity. “At times, our identity has been [what] we want it to be. Our shot distribution has been very good to this point. Our ability to move the ball has been very good. We haven’t made the shots I think we can make. I’m hoping that turns for us.
“I thought we didn’t come with the appropriate edge or fear for a tough group of guys who played hard. And we got stung. Hopefully, it’s another learning moment. We’ve been the team shorthanded that came out and scrapped it and ‘junkyard dogged’ it and beat teams maybe we shouldn’t have beaten. We haven’t been the team that is favored very often. Maybe that’s the lesson we gotta learn, that whether you’re favored or not or they’re hurt or not you gotta bring it.”
Boylen cited the need for offensive grit because he didn’t like how many times players got stripped as they drove. He also cited the need for defensive grit, pointing to another game in which the Bulls got outrebounded.
“Rebounding has some want-to to it,” Boylen said. “You gotta want to be physical. I think we’re a team that has to win the 50-50, tip, scrum rebounds because we’re not getting the clean ones right now.”
LaVine also downplayed a question about the team’s identity.
“It’s a new group. We’ve got a new offense, a new defense, a bunch of new guys,” he said. “After losses like this, obviously some doubt creeps in your head and you’re frustrated. You look at all the negatives. But that’s what happens when you lose because you care. I try and stay positive.”
So did Young, who addressed the team in the postgame locker room.
“We just couldn’t find that juice to get us going,” Young said. “We’ll get a couple stops and then we’ll throw two turnovers in and they’ll get a run going.
“Another thing too, playing one-on-one (defense), we’re letting guys drive. They’re straight-line driving us and there’s no help. The guy on the ball has to do a better job. That’s not saying anybody on the team. That’s myself included. We gotta man up and make sure we take care of business.”
Young said the Bulls need to man up. After the disappointing collapse to the Knicks, Wendell Carter Jr., who was huge against the Pacers with 20 points and 10 rebounds, said the Bulls need to nut up.
This sounds like a team still trying to find itself.
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