He knew, he knew. Kirk Hinrich knew he wasn’t playing very well. No one had to tell him. Actually, he didn’t want anyone to tell him.
“I don’t want to talk about it with anybody,” Hinrich said about slumping his way through most of December when he averaged 12.4 points and shot 41 percent. “It’s, `Leave me alone.'”
But you don’t get left alone if you’re the point guard, if you’re the captain of a team with serious playoff hopes, if you are coming off playing for USA Basketball’s national team, if you have just signed a $47.5 million contract extension.
Hinrich heard some from his father, Jim, his coach through high school.
“My dad always has been on me throughout my whole life to be aggressive,” Hinrich was saying in the locker room Monday after a near triple-double–23 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in the Bulls’ 99-87 victory over the San Antonio Spurs. “Every talk is to look for my shots, that I’m too good an offensive player to be out there so long and not to score. But he also knows how hard I am on myself and doesn’t want to say anything because he knows that ticks me off more.”
But Hinrich would hear it from coach Scott Skiles, from teammates, fans and media, though Hinrich says he learned to ignore the newspapers, making him another reason for my declining job security.
“I’m playing more loose,” Hinrich said. “I feel like for me to be successful, I have to play with that wild hair, reckless abandon. I have to have that edge out there, but I was going through the motions on offense. I wasn’t coming out looking to do something.”
Hinrich did Monday, and it’s no coincidence that even with Ben Wallace missing his second straight game with back problems, the Bulls are playing some of their best defense this season.
They’ve held the last three opponents to fewer than 90 points.
The Spurs were the sixth team in the last seven games to shoot below 40 percent against the Bulls. San Antonio, the league’s fourth-best shooting team and first in three-pointers, shot 39.5 percent and was 6 of 23 on threes.
It was the active, scrambling defense more familiar to the Bulls the last two seasons. Tyrus Thomas and P.J. Brown fought Tim Duncan inside and the perimeter players collapsed in the lane and still got to the shooters.
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Tony Parker had what he called his worst game of the season against Hinrich, with six points and two assists. He was benched for much of his scoreless second half.
“It would have made more sense if he were hurt,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of Parker.
Actually, it was Hinrich who had seemed hurt this season despite respectable statistics, a career-high shooting percentage (.431) and averages of 14.7 points and 6.1 assists.
Ben Gordon and Luol Deng seemed to be coming on faster, raising questions about Hinrich’s role. Both Wallace and Brown, despite being veterans, are not vocal, and it’s not easy for Hinrich to be vocal either.
“It’s not really my personality,” said Hinrich about being a vocal leader. “In high school, it was easy. I was playing with six of my best friends. I have great relationships with everyone on this team, but I’ve had to work to be more vocal.”
Actually, for this Bulls team that role probably falls most to coach Scott Skiles.
“With all our young players, it’s what’s next,” Skiles acknowledged. “People are happy you are having a good start to your career, they like how you hustle and play. The next step is they want it every night, the consistency. Sometimes it’s not there and people naturally ask why.
“I’m standing here saying we did a great job on [Duncan] and he had 21 [points] and 16 [rebounds]. Great guys do it almost every night. People look at our guys and say those are really good pro players and they wonder are any of them going to be great players. That’s the step. Can you bring it every night?
“Kirk is the guy who has been here the longest, the guy people generally look at as if not the face of the franchise, one of the faces. So when that guy struggled a little while, I’m sure people are asking questions.”
Hinrich has been as well. He had a three-game stretch in mid-December when he averaged 30 minutes and didn’t score in double figures. He also was a combined 3 of 22 last week against the Pistons and Rockets. But with a 33-point breakout against the Wizards last Wednesday, Hinrich is averaging 23.8 points, 8.5 assists, 5.3 rebounds and just 1.2 turnovers in 39.9 minutes per game the last four games.
Perhaps it wasn’t the most motivated and focused Spurs team. They left San Antonio late Sunday afternoon because Duncan, a devoted Bears fan, asked the team to remain on the tarmac until the end of the NFC semifinal as he followed the updates on his computer.
“Growing up in the [Virgin] Islands, we didn’t have a team, so I chose the Bears,” Duncan said. “NFC championship, a chance to go to the Super Bowl. It’s great, a change from the past.”
It is for Hinrich as well, although actually it’s more of a chance to get back to the past.
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