Winning is a contradictory thing for the Chicago Bulls.
The Bulls allowed opponents to score at least 120 points in four of their last six games. They also won all four of those games. This dichotomy is powering a four-game winning streak for the Bulls, who at 14-15 after winning five of six — including two straight over the Hawks in Atlanta — have nearly pulled themselves back to .500.
This might seem antithetical, but it has been the reality since the start of the season — when the Bulls are at their best, their defense seems to fall by the wayside.
“Listen, we’re not a great defensive team,” coach Billy Donovan said. “But we can be better and we can improve. We can take a little bit more control over the things that we can.”
The Bulls were never going to be a defensive juggernaut. Donovan entered the season warning about this roster’s defensive deficiencies. Even during the opening 6-1 stretch that fostered so much hope, the Bulls gave up at least 120 points in two of those wins. In fact, they have won only five games in which their opponent scored fewer than 120 points.
This Bulls team was always destined to win in spite of its defense, not because of it. But that’s not an excuse — or a fact that should let the Bulls off the hook.
“We’re going to have to figure it out,” guard Coby White said. “We don’t want to be one of these teams that’s just trying to outscore teams. We know what reality is. We’ve got to do the little things more in terms of taking away a couple baskets here and there.”
The Bulls play fast. As the rest of the league picks up its pace, the Bulls are still the second-fastest team in the NBA. That speed is almost entirely concentrated on the offense. Playing that fast invites the game to open up, which requires both defenses to communicate effectively, switch rapidly and react sharply if they want to keep up.
This is a boon for the Bulls offense, which picks apart opposing defenses in sped-up situations to force points in transition and sling 3-pointers while the defense is still getting set. But it only makes life harder for the defense, which is forced to compete at the pace the Bulls already set — and often falls apart as a result.
It’s easy to blame this on effort. The Bulls often look disjointed and discombobulated on defense, which means they don’t contest consistently enough at the rim (where they allow 21.6 baskets per game) and allow open shots at the perimeter.
In particular, the defense struggles with switches. The Bulls lineup includes several visible weaknesses — notably, both center Nikola Vučević and guard Josh Giddey offer poor options to switch on screens due to their lack of maneuverability from the perimeter to the rim. The Bulls often choose simply to force both players to switch regardless — relying on help defense from the weak side to bolster both players — but poor communication is a primary disruptor in these situations.
When Donovan talks about defense with the Bulls, he still is focusing on fundamentals: boxing out, communicating, staying aware of gaps and lanes.
“I’m not saying we’ve got to be perfect, but the total intention to focus has got to be on those things,” Donovan said.
A simple fact of basketball is that poor defensive teams simply have to work harder on that end of the court. Donovan has been tempted at times to use more gimmicky defensive tactics — like shifting into a matchup-specific zone — to combat his team’s lack of natural defensive discipline. Those fixes can help in the short term, particularly when the Bulls are facing a particular sharpshooter or need to accommodate a lack of length at the rim.
But in the long term, the Bulls are focused on the margins. This team isn’t going to hold opponents under 105 points per game, but it can reduce scoring through improved intention in those same fundamental areas.
“We’re going to have to help a little bit more,” Donovan said. “We’re just going to have to be a team that’s going to have to help each other more. It’s going to be hard to win giving up that many points and expecting to score as many as we did.”