The Bulls‘ Wednesday loss to the shorthanded Hawks culminated in a team meeting, Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic writes. Their loss to Atlanta encapsulated everything that’s gone wrong this season, including turnovers, poor shooting and being out-rebounded.
“We focus on the wrong things,” center Nikola Vučević said. “We have to understand that it’s the details that make the difference at this level.”
This all culminates with the Bulls being in a familiar place as they have been the past few seasons. At 18-23, they just missed out on having the same record at this point in the season for the fourth time in five seasons. Chicago was 19-22 in three of the past four years.
According to Mayberry, questions are swirling about the team’s February plans, as they haven’t made a deadline deal in each of the last three years.
We have more from the Central Division:
- Cavaliers center Evan Mobley is enjoying a career year, which has included extending his range and efficiency beyond the arc, Joe Vardon of The Athletic writes. He’s shooting a career-high 42.1% from three on more than double the amount of attempts per game in his previous best year from distance. “I don’t know what his work routine looked like (last season), I have no idea,” coach Kenny Atkinson said. “But what I see right now is that a big part of his player-development plan and on-court work is dedicated to the 3-point shot. And then with that three-point shooting comes close-out offense … [defenses] start to close out [on Mobley].“
- After missing 14 games due to an injury, Pacers wing Ben Sheppard is back in Rick Carlisle‘s rotation for the Pacers. “Once he’s been back healthy, the thing that we love about him is he plays the same way,” Carlisle said in a feature about Sheppard by RG’s Spencer Davies. “He plays fast, he goes hard, he’s very conscientious defensively. Offensively, he runs, moves the ball and plays to his strengths. So he’s a guy that’s important to us.”
- Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith missed 35 games this year with an ankle injury, but he picked up right where he left off in a double-digit win over the Pistons, Dustin Dopirak of IndyStar writes. “He’s going to go out there and try to rebound everything and be a menace out there,” teammate Myles Turner said. In his return game, Nesmith scored nine points in as many minutes as a starter.