Playtime is over. Play-in time has started.
That was the message Thursday from coach Billy Donovan now that the Bulls know their path for reaching the postseason.
With a 127-105 blowout of the Pistons in Detroit, the Bulls locked up the No. 9 seed in the Eastern Conference and will host the Hawks in next week’s 9 vs. 10 Play-In Tournament game at the United Center.
“I’m just a big believer that whoever is out there playing [the final two regular-season games], there has to be an attention to detail,” Donovan said. “That’s the one thing we just can’t have lapses in, where the competitiveness isn’t at a certain level and then we lose some of the details. The margins in this league are so small, and we have to understand that. Some of the fouls, some of the transition, I just don’t think we can go game-to-game and say, ‘Well, we’re in the play-in — whatever happens, happens.’ There are some habits being formed, and they are either good or they are bad.”
Against the Pistons (13-67), who somehow defeated the Bulls twice earlier this season, the Bulls (38-42) were strikingly good, scoring 36 points off 20 turnovers and outscoring them 58-42 in the paint. However, the Pistons did sit eight players, starting Troy Brown Jr. and Chimezie Metu in the forward spots and giving guard Evan Fournier more than 25 minutes off the bench.
Forward DeMar DeRozan led the Bulls with 39 points, center Nikola Vucevic chipped in with 27 points and 11 rebounds, and forward Jevonte Green added 11 points and eight rebounds, doing what he does best since returning from the G-League last month.
“Just bring the energy,” Green said afterward. “That’s what I do.”
He’ll need to keep doing it. The last time the Bulls played the Hawks on April 1 at the United Center, the Hawks handled them easily, winning 113-101. That hasn’t been forgotten as Donovan stresses a commitment to details and relentless play from here on out.
“My job and responsibility is to keep pushing them to a higher level, higher standard, and that’s what I’ll be trying to get out of this thing,” Donovan said. “Can we get a standard of play? It’s going to get to the point where we’re in a one-and-done situation and the old, ‘Eh, we’ve got another one tomorrow, eh, we’ve got another one in two days,’ that’s running out.”
It’s unclear what the coming week could mean for the Bulls’ big picture moving forward. The front office mostly stood pat last summer and at the trade deadline in February, with Arturus Karnisovas, executive vice president of basketball operations, praising the team’s “competitiveness” despite season-ending injuries to guards Zach LaVine and then forward Patrick Williams.
The Bulls finished 10th in the East last season, beat the Raptors in the first play-in game, then blew a lead against the Heat, resulting in their elimination from postseason contention. Karnisovas made a big deal out of that finish as justification for keeping the core together. If the Bulls can show life again in the Play-In Tournament, would he do that again? It remains to be seen.
