Well, that didn’t work.
The Bulls brought a new coach and some new defensive wrinkles here Wednesday night to challenge the San Antonio Spurs. Unfortunately, there was too much of the old shooting and defeatist attitude, as well as too much of the old Spurs. They ran up a 25-point lead on the way to a relatively easy 94-79 victory.
Been there. Seen that.
“I thought our first unit had some moments that looked good,” said interim coach Pete Myers, who was working in place of the fired Scott Skiles, at least temporarily. “Our bench outside of Chris Duhon didn’t give us that much.
“I’d like to see us playing with some pop. That guy [Francisco] Elson. He had been out injured [the last three games]. When he came in the game, he was in the backcourt pressing, running our guards around. Right now, we’re so dead we’re afraid to give energy. Losing can do that. You close your mind to having fun out there. We’re not having fun out there.”
They weren’t much to look at either as the Spurs built up an 18-point second-quarter lead behind Tony Parker’s 28 points never were challenged seriously thereafter.
Joe Smith led the Bulls with 19 points and 11 rebounds and Ben Gordon had 18 points. Duhon had 13 off the bench while Andres Nocioni shot 1 of 11. Joakim Noah, Tyrus Thomas and Thabo Sefolosha were scoreless in brief appearances.
“We can’t impose our will, at least not this year,” Kirk Hinrich said.
The Bulls made few changes with Myers saying as long as he was in charge (assistant Jim Boylan also is a candidate to become interim coach) the same starters would remain.
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“We have some kids who are going to be pretty good,” Myers said. “But we can’t depend on them to win games for us. Those [regulars] on the floor have to win games. They have to get it together, not the guys here just a year or two years.”
Myers preached to the team about relying more on defense. He said the club has become too concerned with individual offense, suggesting selfish play.
“In the past, we defended first,” said Myers. “I thought this year we came in with the attitude to be better offensively. When you get caught in that web it’s hard to get out of.”
Myers tried a few defensive changes, which did contribute some to holding Tim Duncan to eight points, 11 rebounds and five turnovers, though he also had six assists.
The Bulls usually go over screens to be aggressive on defense. Myers had them go under the screens to try to tempt the Spurs into shooting more jumpers while crowding Duncan. The Bulls don’t double team inside but usually come with the closest player when Duncan tries to dribble. This time, they came off certain players no matter where to lure the Spurs into passing to lesser shooters. But Parker adjusted to the screens and beat the Bulls to the basket.
“It wasn’t as much a set way of doing things [like under Skiles],” Hinrich said. “In timeouts we’d say, ‘Let’s try it like this.'”
They met with scant success.
The Bulls fell to 9-17 with their fourth loss in five games and the defeat marked the fourth time in the last seven they had trailed by at least 20 points. They shot 41 percent to 47.4 for the Spurs, who had 13 more free throws. The Spurs moved to 20-7 despite missing the injured Manu Ginobili.
“It’s hard to change things within a few days,” Myers said. “[General manager John Paxson] basically talked to me about wanting to see those guys enjoying themselves. We have moments when things are not going well for us and we deflate. In the past, when things didn’t go well, we’d tighten the screws. The last month, the effort level was bad for us. They were lively at shootaround [Wednesday]. The last month we’ve been great in shootaround and practice. When the game starts, it looks like we tighten up.”
Layups
Duhon said in informal discussions among players there was this consensus: “If your excuse why you were not playing well was Scott, there are no more excuses. If you want to be the team we expected to be and know we can be, nobody has an excuse. You have to go out and play. Don’t have any more excuses. If you’re supposed to be a $60 million man, go out and prove it.” … Spurs coach Gregg Popovich was among many around the NBA who said he was “shocked” by Skiles’ firing. “He had them playing so well [previously]. I don’t know this year. The basketball gods not making shots, was he too hard on them? He was a demanding, hard-nosed, knowledgeable guy who did a good job, a guy who was creative, dedicated, who worked his butt off.”