NEW YORK \u2014 The numbers are the numbers.<\/p>\n
That is, until they\u2019re not.<\/p>\n
Bulls coach Billy Donovan and his players know that all too well.<\/p>\n
Even with a shaky showing against the Nets on Friday, the Bulls entered Saturday ninth in the NBA in defensive efficiency \u2014 a ranking that wasn\u2019t necessarily fake news, but it was a bit of a fib.<\/p>\n
Donovan realizes it because he has film and eyes. So while stat nerds might want to tell him one thing, he knows what he has seen: too many defensive breakdowns, too many easy baskets.<\/p>\n
\u201cHalf your defensive rating is what teams shoot against you, and you try to look at where they\u2019re shooting from, what you\u2019re going to live with,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cAs early as it is, I think our guys are working, but the one thing that takes a little longer to come along when you\u2019re a team that is starting to play with each other, finding a chemistry with each other, it always seems that the defense is a little ahead of the offense at this time of year. I try to reserve judgment.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow what we\u2019re doing schematically: Are we executing? We\u2019re looking at that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donovan is looking at a lot of things when it comes to his team\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n
After finishing fifth in defensive efficiency in 2022-23, the Bulls had some serious slippage last season. Even with Andre Drummond and Alex Caruso atop the roster in individual defensive efficiency, the Bulls ranked 21st.<\/p>\n
The expectation was an even bigger drop this season with Drummond and Caruso moving on, but that hasn\u2019t been the case.<\/p>\n
Concerns remain, however.<\/p>\n
\u201cFiguring out our defensive identity and who we are, that doesn\u2019t happen overnight,\u201d guard Josh Giddey said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to take a little bit of time. Stats are what they are. Guys can miss shots and make your defense look really good or hit a bunch of shots, and your defensive rating isn\u2019t so great. It\u2019s a give and take.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think our defense has been solid, but there have been too many times where we break down and allow guys to get confident.\u201d<\/p>\n
That has been the case in the paint especially.<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s a blueprint to give the Bulls problems, it\u2019s to attack them in the paint. The Nets were the latest team to carry that out.<\/p>\n
Donovan\u2019s crew ranks 29th in points allowed in the paint at 56.3 per game. Brooklyn had 66 points in there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we had a hard time guarding [Nets players] off the dribble,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to get better there. We\u2019ve got to help those guys, whether it\u2019s through different schemes or individual pride or shrinking the floor a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPride\u201d was a good place to start. Individual pride motivates a player to get in front of an opponent who has the ball, making sure the blow-bys are limited and the outside shots are contested.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s about having a level of pride,\u201d guard Ayo Dosunmu said. \u201cHaving pride in wanting to guard. You don\u2019t want to just be labeled a team that\u2019s playing fast and giving up 125 points on the other end, so that\u2019s something I take pride in. Being a two-way player, competing on that side of the ball, pushing my teammates to try to get the most out of them because we have a lot of talented players that can play defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about bringing it every night. Ultimately, we can do that. We\u2019ve shown we can be an elite defensive team, but now it\u2019s all about sustaining it. I think defense is a choice. I think everybody is capable of playing defense. It\u2019s all about how you want to be labeled, in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Coach Billy Donovan’s team entered Saturday ninth in the NBA in defensive efficiency. As the loss to the Nets on Friday showed, however, those numbers can be deceiving. Some defensive concerns still need to be addressed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3512,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"\n