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With their 128-117 loss to the New York Knicks, the Chicago Bulls fall to 37-42 on the season, marking a failed attempt at reaching the vaunted .500 marker for the second consecutive season.
Jalen Brunson led the way for New York, scoring 45 points. He was surgical in dismembering the Bulls defense. Pulling up for threes with Alex Caruso in his eye. Turning the corner on Nikola Vucevic trying to contain pick-and-rolls. Whipping out all the DeMar DeRozan foul drawing tricks on his way to a 12-of-12 night from the free throw line.
“Brunson’s a motherfucker,” Coby White said following the game.
Brunson would have been the star of the show, if not for the Shaqtin-a-Fool moment of the century. After a steal on the opening play of the second quarter, Torrey Craig tried to throw a lob to himself off the backboard. Little did he know, Andre Drummond thought the lob was for him, he got the steal after all. The two tried to throw it down at the same time, and it did not end well.
“I called timeout,” Billy Donovan said.”We addressed it on the bench. To me, it was just really disappointing. I’m not going to get into what I said, but you’re down by ten. There was a lot of self-induced things I thought we contributed to. Not only that play, but other plays, that were maybe not as loud as that. But that play was disappointing to me.”
“It’s not what I’m about or what our team should be about,” Donovan said.
White echoed the sentiment.
“We did some really dumb stuff tonight,” White said. “Everybody. Not just T-Craig. We’re not going to sit here and single him out. We’re a team. It was all self-induced.”
Craig said he was just trying to generate some excitement and give his team an edge. Down nine at the time, the Bulls had an opportunity to ignite a run and he wanted to be the spark.
“I got a fast break, wanted to create some excitement,” Craig said. “Tried to give us an edge, tired create some excitement for us. Obviously, didn’t know Drum was going to jump after it with me. It was a miscommunication, or misinterpretation. But end of the day, I just gotta dunk the ball, lay it up. I take the blame on that.”
Adding injury to insult, Drummond was injured on the ensuing play. He rolled his ankle stepping on Isaiah Hartenstein’s foot and was wheeled off the court. Another injury to a regular contributor is not what the Bulls need ahead of their Play-In push.
As the Bulls pull into their final three games of the regular season, they have fallen to 37-42, five games under .500 for the first time since January 5th. They’ve guaranteed themselves a sub-.500 record for the second time in as many seasons, and continue to leave the door open for the Atlanta Hawks, currently a game behind, a chance to jump ahead and into ninth place.
“It’s too late in the season for us to be having those types of lapses,” White said. “We’ve got to get our shit together.”
Before the game, Donovan addressed the rumors about the recently vacated University of Kentucky head coaching job.
“I have not been contacted by anybody. I haven’t spoken to anybody,” Donovan said in regards to his, or his representation’s, communication with the University of Kentucky. “My total commitment and focus is here to this team and to this group.”
Not a no, but Donovan did make it clear he is focused on the here and now.
“I think with what we’ve been through this year and the way we started (5-14), we’ve talked about it, I give our guys a lot of credit for hanging in there and battling through some of the things we had to battle through, and I’m with them on that. I’m committed to them with that. Again, a lot of this stuff, I think, sometimes turns out to be speculation, but I have not had any contact with anybody, and my commitment is here.”
What will he say if and when they do come calling?
“I would still say the same thing,” Donovan replied.
“I’m committed to being here with this group and trying to help these guys as best we can to close out this year and try get a home court in the play-in and then try to advance,” Donovan said.
Donovan went on to explain the differences in the between the current college game and the one he was a part of until the year 2015 when he left for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Between the recruiting process and the transfer portal, there are plenty of reasons not to go back to the college level.
“I’m happy here at this level and stuff like that,” Donovan said. “But I also understand too that like in this profession, sometimes things don’t work out at a particular place or things change. And I know I enjoy coaching, and I know I enjoy coaching in the NBA.”
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