Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Posted: 12:51 p.m.
By Aggrey Sam
CSNChicago.com
1. Coming off the disappointing home loss to Philadelphia, Thibodeau talked about the need for the Bulls to start games with more energy and get back to their usual defensive mentality, something they had gotten away from even in the two wins before the 76ers came to town. Just the readiness to start. We had gone through a long stretch of playing pretty well and then we had the two blowout wins and I think our edge wasnt the same coming out. it starts with our defense. When our defense isnt up to parwe thought were going to come in and were going to outscore peoplethats not good for us, said Thibodeau. We have to tighten things up defensively. When we defend and we rebound, we usually play well. So, that was the biggest concernallowing teams to get going and once they get going, theyre much harder to slow downso weve got to try to make it harder on teams to start the game.
2. Thibodeau didnt take the bait when asked about the Heats shocking loss to the Cavaliersin LeBron James second trip back to ClevelandTuesday night, which helped the Bulls increase their first-place Eastern Conference lead and put Miami a half-game behind Boston. Everybody has their own things that they have to worry about and I think its another example that any team is capable of beating you, and so, for us, our readiness to play is critical and we have to correct it, said Thibodeau. But you see it all the time. You see it in every sport and you have to be ready to play.
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3. Thibodeau also discussed the fantastic season Timberwolves All-Star power forward Kevin Lovethe third-year player is questionable for Wednesdays gameis having, which has already included a 30-point, 30-rebound game and a historic 53-game double-double streak. The year that hes had has been unbelievable. You average 20 points and 15 rebounds in this league, that says a lot. It also says a lot about him, how hes improved from year to year, to where he is now. Hes a guy that plays hard all the time, you can see that he continues to improve as he goes forward, explained Thibodeau. I had an opportunity to watch Love and his own star, Derrick Rose with Team USA and I think those guys benefited a lot from that experience. The way they practiced and the way they performed as a team, I thought, really helped all of those guys. It was an extremely well-coached team, they had great veteran leadership in Billups and I think all those guys benefited from that. And of course, the team success. It gave them a head start on the season. They came into training camp in great shape, great rhythm and it was all good for them.
4. Rose, who was in the same highly-touted high school class as Love, talked about his friendship with the Timberwolves star and his impressions of his development. To play in this league, youve got to have confidence and his confidence is very high right now. Every night, hes doing a great job being consistent, rebounding, shooting the ball better from the three, just being a leader. You can just see when hes on the court, theres a big difference, observed Rose. Rose and Love have been friends ever since high school, I always played against him: AAU, college. Being out in L.A., just always with us working out in Los Angeles with trainer Rob McClanaghan, eating brunch with him, dinner with him, Team USA. Im always around him. Im real good friends with his dad former NBA player Stan Love, too. Continued Rose: The way he works, man. You should see how hard he goes. Like when we work out, we dont do any big-man drills. We do all guard stuff with me and Russ Oklahoma City Thunder All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook, Loves college teammate at UCLA. You probably dont think about that, but its amazing how hard he works.
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Aggrey Sam is CSNChicago.com's Bulls Insider. Follow him @CSNBullsInsider on Twitter for up-to-the-minute Bulls information and his take on the team, the NBA and much more.