The defense rests for the Bulls, and on some nights it flat-out sleeps
ATLANTA – It wasn’t that long ago that Coby White was a part of a top five NBA defense.
Ayo Dosunmu, Patrick Williams and Nikola Vucevic as well.
It just feels long ago lately.
Missed blockouts, lack of communication on switches, just flat-out letting blow-bys occur on a nightly basis … Yes, 2022-23 might as well have been a decade ago.
It was that season in which Bulls coach Billy Donovan – helped immensely by defensive savant Alex Caruso – had the fifth best defense in terms of efficiency.
The Bulls woke up Monday in Atlanta 26th in defensive efficiency this season, fresh off a Sunday game in which they won, but allowed 150 points in a regulation game.
“No, we got to figure it out,” White said of his team’s defense or lack thereof. “We don’t want to be one of these teams that just try to outscore teams.”
Not that the Hawks gave them much of a choice in the 152-150 Bulls win. While the 152 points was the second-most the Bulls have ever scored in a regulation game (155 points against Phoenix in 1990), it was also the second game this season in which they allowed 150 points (double overtime loss in Utah).
The only two teams that allow more points per game these days are Utah (126.8 per game) and Washington (126.1). The Bulls are at 123 per game. Not good company to keep.
“We’re going to have to be a team that has to help each other more,” Donovan said of the defensive woes. “It’s going to be hard to win giving up that many points and expecting to score as many as we did. There’s a lot of other things throughout the course of the game that we can control and do a better job of. I’m not saying we need to be perfect but the total attention to focus has got to be on those things.”
The addition of Isaac Okoro in the summer was supposed to help with that focus, as well as the physicality. The forward missed eight games with a back issue, and it was no coincidence that the team went 1-7 in those games. But Okoro was also alive and well for the loss in Utah and Sunday’s game in Atlanta, so it’s not like his presence fixes everything on the defensive side of the ball.
Okoro needs help in that department and is begging for volunteers. With the pace the Bulls play, yes, they need to be healthy and whole, but they also need to get stops.
“We know what reality is, but we’ve got to do the little things more in terms of taking away a couple baskets here and there,” White said. “It’s hard but if you want to win you’ve got to do it. You’ve got to do it on both sides, so we’ve got to figure it out.”
Not the only thing they need to do. Donovan has been hammering them about the details, especially on the defensive end. Caruso covered up a lot of mistakes because of how well he prepared and understood those details.
With Caruso now holding up championship trophies in Oklahoma City it’s about time the remaining Bulls roster plays catch-up.
“Listen, we’re not a great defensive team but we can be better and we can improve and we can take a little more control over the things … I thought we had some blown coverages (Sunday) because of a lack of communication,” Donovan said. “Need people talking better, things like that. Things are happening quickly. I understand actions are happening, sprint outs, it’s a fast game. That’s the way the NBA is going right now. You need to be able to react and convert from offense to defense, defense to offense really quickly.”