Donovan challenges Bulls to sustain physicality vs. Bucks originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Billy Donovan isn’t easily satisfied, in victory or defeat.
So it should surprise no one that after his team held the Bucks to 93 points in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series — 22.5 points below Milwaukee’s third-ranked regular-season average of 115.5 — the Chicago Bulls coach exited Monday practice uninterested in moral victories.
“What we did yesterday physically is just the price of admission. You don't do that, you have no chance,” Donovan said. “We've gotta build off of that, but we've also gotta clean up the mistakes that we made.”
Even paying the “price of admission” is a step up from the Bulls’ defensive performance down the stretch of the regular season. Their post-Christmas defensive rating of 116.3 ranked 27th in the NBA, a dynamic catalyzed by injuries to Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso, but prolonged by dissipated attention to detail and a brutal post-All-Star break schedule.
That’s what made Sunday’s performance stand out. Playing the reigning champions on the road in a game with postseason stakes, the Bulls amassed their best defensive outing in months, using a nose-to-the-grindstone mentality to nearly spark a 16-point comeback.
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Their 10 steals and 21 forced turnovers was reminiscent of the havoc-wreaking style that defined the team’s early-season success. Goading Giannis Antetokounmpo into foul trouble by drawing two charges, and playing the Bucks level on the boards in the second half, spoke to a willingness to throw bodies into plays that wasn’t present as the Bulls limped to a 7-15 finish.
The Bucks uncharacteristically airmailing some long-range looks en route to a 26-percent 3-point shooting night helped. But even if that statistic isn’t replicated, the Bulls' effort can be.
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“Our physicality was really good,” Caruso said after Monday’s practice. “Our willingness to compete on every possession, to have a next-play mentality, to not worry about makes and misses. Being impartial to the noise and just do your job. I think we did a good job of that.”
Added Donovan after the game: “The thing that I enjoyed tonight about our team was I thought we put our body and our noses and our faces in plays.”
That’s something Donovan challenged this group to do multiple times during the regular-season stretch run. But it never landed on a consistent basis.
Caruso’s answer to what makes this time different was simple.
“It's the playoffs,” he said. “You lose, you go home. If you can't get up for that then you shouldn't play basketball.”
Donovan believes it’s all a part of the team’s learning curve.
“I thought it was really good that our schedule was as hard as it was (after the All-Star break), because it forces you to look at reality in the mirror,” Donovan said. “In some way, I think some of the schedule and the disappointment and the difficulty of losing, I'm hoping has helped us grow and get better from it.”
It’s not that the Bulls were complacent when during the team’s early-season run, Donovan stressed. But through adversity, he wants his group to build continuity akin to some of the league’s contenders. “The Miamis and the Bostons and the Milwaukees,” as he put it.
“When it comes to winning, there's a lot of suffering prior to it. But if you utilize that suffering and pain to really get better from it and really learn from it and understanding what the adversity is teaching you, you can really improve,” Donovan said. “I've never noticed a team or individual ever get any better through everything being easy. It's the discomfort of being pressed and challenged and struggling to fight through those things. That's how you have to get better. Those are the experiences.
“There's no smooth sailing in this. All these (playoff) teams are great. I mean we're playing against a team that has had a multitude of deep playoff runs and won a world championship and has got a two-time MVP (Antetokounmpo). You have to accept hard. You have to accept the inconvenience and the difficulty and you better be comfortable being uncomfortable. That's really what it comes down to.”
The Bulls did in Game 1. But it resulted in a stinging loss, and the contests keep coming.
“The way we played the game last night, it was good to see,” Donovan said. “But the reality, in my opinion, is it's still not good enough.”
Until the mountain is climbed, it never will be.
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