The Bulls have 22 regular-season games left, and while Donovan will take the win over the Hawks on Thursday, he’s asking his players to be better. Then again, it’s hard to ask DeMar DeRozan to do more, as he once again played hero, finishing with 37 points.
Billy Donovan wasn’t going to spend Thursday looking back on the first-half standings and giving his players a pat on the back.
The Bulls coach wasn’t much into discussing what he did over his mini-All-Star break vacation, either.
Instead, it was a no-nonsense challenge laid out by Donovan for the remainder of the season.
“What we’ve done up to this point and time, in my opinion, is just not good enough,’’ Donovan said.
Welcome back, Bulls players.
There was a method to Donovan’s madness, especially with what he witnessed in the 112-108 win over the Hawks, as well as what he sees in front of his team over the final 22 games of the regular season.
The second-hardest schedule in the Eastern Conference, with 17 of those games against teams sitting at least in position for a play-in spot for the postseason.
That meant three more with Milwaukee, two more with Miami and Cleveland, and then still having to play Memphis, Phoenix and Utah.
It would be one thing if the Bulls (39-21) had a solid history with the league’s better teams in the 2021-22 campaign, but even with the win over Atlanta, the home team went to 20-6 against teams below .500 and remained 19-15 against teams over .500. That included a combined 0-6 record against Miami, Milwaukee and Philadelphia.
That’s what Donovan was focused on.
“I think what happens is during the course of a season there are different points and junctures of the schedule that are really challenging, whether it’s playing on the road a lot, whether it’s playing a lot of back-to-backs, playing a lot of games over a short period of time, or what we’re dealing with right now coming up for the remainder of the schedule,’’ Donovan said. “I’m not trying to be negative … We’ve got to get better.’’
It wasn’t a mystery where, either.
Case in point, the Bulls handcuffed Atlanta (28-31) in that opening quarter, allowing just 19 points. But 31 points allowed in the second and then 32 in the third is what had Donovan concerned, as the visiting team turned a comfortable looking 11-point lead into a nail-biter.
“The defensive side has got to be better,’’ Donovan said. “Being relatively small, we’ve done a good job of rebounding, but the three-point line has been a challenge, some of our fouling has been a challenge, our ability to control the ball and contain the ball has been a little bit of a challenge. It all starts for me where we got to get better on the communication side. When you can communicate really well it lessens some of the binds and difficulties you get into. We all have to help each other, coaches included.’’
What Atlanta didn’t have, however, was a DeMar DeRozan.
The veteran delivered again, hitting the go-ahead basket with 15.1 points left and drawing the foul to put the Bulls up 110-108.
It was the eighth-straight game in which DeRozan scored at least 35 points – he finished with 37 – and continued his NBA record-setting mark of shooting over 50% from the field in that span.
“I trust him in those situations,’’ Donovan said of DeRozan’s latest heroics. “He’s spectacular. He’s got just incredible composure and poise.’’
As for the newest Bull, Tristan Thompson made his debut against Atlanta, and impacted the game off the bench with 11 points and six rebounds in just over 13 minutes.
“The energy [Thursday] felt like the playoffs,’’ Thompson said. “Whatever can get our team going to go on that run that’s what I’m about, and I’m all about winning.’’