Jabari Parker takes first step toward turning around ugly start: ‘Just trying to get better'

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The undermmaned Bulls were grateful to have a day off Sunday before getting two consecutive practice days for the first time in a while. Along with allowing the Bulls to rest their legs, Fred Hoiberg’s group was able to implement a bit of strategy leading into their Wednesday tilt against the young Phoenix Suns: Push the pace, get the ball up the floor and find easy baskets.

The strategy wasn’t built for an individual, but for at least one night it unlocked Jabari Parker and allowed the Chicago native the freedom to be at his best, and he answered with his best night in a Bulls uniform. Parker finished the 124-116 win with 20 points, a career-best 13 rebounds and eight assists. He also finished with two steals and got to the free throw line a game-high 10 times, and looked much more like the player the Bulls handed $20 million to four months ago.

Granted, one solid night against a Suns defense ranked 27th in efficiency isn’t going to call off the critics. But perhaps the all-around performance – it was the first 20-10-5 game of his career – all coming in a victory will light a spark underneath the 23-year-old.

“Winning always solves everything. I just want to do what I can to win and hopefully that kind of snowballs,” he said. “But if I score two points I’m just as happy.

“I give credit to the practices we had. Coach really trying to help me and staying patient with me.”

Parker’s athleticism has never come into question, nor has his ability to fill it up on any given night. But decision making and a lack of effort had been his shortcomings more often than not. And while one games doesn’t make all those issues go away, Parker couldn’t have looked better in either facet.

He rarely settled for jump shots that have gotten both him and the Bulls offense into trouble lately; just two of his 10 field goal attempts came outside the paint, and his 10 free throw attempts were his most since December 2016. He was lethal inside against a porous Suns defense, making 6 of 8 attempts at the rim. But instead of settling for those jumpers he found open cutters; his eight assists were a season-high and just one off his career-high and his 10 shot attempts were his fewest in 10 November games.

“He sees the floor really well. I said that in preseason,” said Zach LaVine, who added 29 points of his own. “He sees the floor really well and he’s really unselfish. He could have shot a couple more times. He played an all-around game today.”

Parker was a positive in the +/- category for the first time since Nov. 5, and it broke him out of a mini five-game shooting slump in which he was hitting just 41 percent on 15 attempts per game. His one 3-point attempt, a miss, also tied a season low, and it came on a night when the shots were coming early and often and it would have been easy to fall pretty to an uptempo game against a bad defense.

Instead, Parker showed poise, played within the game plan Hoiberg had deployed in practice the previous days, and came away with his best performance in a Bulls uniform. He was engaged defensively, picking up a critical steal in the final minutes of what was a seven-point game,

“Just trying to get better,” Parker said of his performance. “I’m far away form where I want to be and still a long way…just trying to get better each and every day.”

The key for Parker now will be to continue this style. He’s capable of doing it, and it helps when LaVine puts together a 10-for-20 performance he doesn’t feel the need to take on a bigger scoring load. But for at least a night all was well in the wild story that has become Parker’s first season with the Bulls. He’ll get an encore on Friday in Miami. But Parker knows the season is young and there’s still time to improve on both the bad and the good.

“It’s still early. The way we’re going it can get better,” he said. “That’s what I’m looking forward to.”

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