Low-effort moments are seemingly increasing for the slumping Bulls

Bulls coach Billy Donovan does not like to threaten his players for low-effort moments, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been consequences. Is that enough for this suddenly slumping defense?

Charles Krupa/AP

BOSTON – Forty-six threes allowed in just the last two games was a bad look for the Bulls.

The lack of effort made on some of the closeouts to minimize all those long-range daggers, however? A flat-out embarrassment.

Case in point was Exhibit A in the Tuesday night loss to the Celtics, when a light screen was thrown in the direction of both Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic, with neither player putting up much fight to get through it or bother attempting to close out Al Horford’s three-pointer.

Coach Billy Donovan called a timeout with 3:45 left in that second quarter, addressed it in the huddle, sat down Vucevic for what he said was going with a smaller lineup, and planned to hit on it again in the next film session.

Enough of a punishment? Was it the right player that was pulled? Does it seem to even matter much at this point?

For Donovan, yes. The team might be looking very broken, and it’s no coincidence that the product continued spiraling since LaVine made it very clear that he was not against being traded elsewhere, but coaches still have to coach.

“When you start talking about effort, as a professional player there should be effort out there and we’ll deal with those clips,’’ Donovan said.

Asked why not use playing time or a straight-up benching as more of a punishment for lackluster effort, he replied, “I’m not a big threatening guy. I generally don’t do that. I try and confront whatever it is there, and if there’s an issue you try and address it.

“If we’ve got to make changes in the game whether it’s the rotations or whatever, I try and do that as well. But for me to go in there and start threatening, ‘If you don’t do this, this … ‘ I’d rather give guys and look at the guys that are going to give me the best they’ve got, and if it’s not then we have to make changes or adjustments to try and do that.’’

Sooner than later.

As inconsistent as the season was last year for the Bulls, they could at least hang their hat on ending the year as a top five defense with a 112.2 rating. As of Wednesday, they had slipped to 22^nd (116.9).

The rest of the league knows the problems the Bulls have been having with defending the three-pointer – whether it’s effort or miscommunication – evident by the 39 attempted threes (3^rd most in the league) allowed each game on average, and the 14.7 makes (2^nd most).

Some pride would be nice, especially when there’s a high-effort player like an Alex Caruso on the roster, who throws his body around with little regard for the collateral damage suffered.

“Yeah, that’s frustrating,’’ Caruso said, acknowledging that lack of effort has played a part in some of the defensive lapses. “As a team, there’s two things that are mandatory in the NBA if you want to win games: Effort and execution. If you miss half of that you’re probably behind the 8-ball and you’re probably not going to put yourself in a good chance to win. It’s something that’s frustrating and something we can only wash it, get back, and go with the next one, try and continue to lead by example and lead vocally, pull guys along with me.’’

But for how long? At some point, Donovan can only sub guys out so many times, and Caruso can only pull so hard.

“It’s our job,’’ Caruso said when asked about trying to keep this all together. “Night in and night out that’s your responsibility, whether you wear Bulls, Celtics, whatever it is across your chest. There’s a pride that comes with playing in the NBA that you’ve got to show up and do your job every night.’’

 

NOTE: The non-qualifying games for the In-Season Tournament were released on Wednesday, and the Bulls will host Charlotte on Dec. 6, taking on the Spurs in San Antonio on Dec. 8.

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