It was a game that had loss written all over it back in November.
The second night of a back-to-back, and shots not falling early on? That Bulls roster would have had the tent packed away and the car running by halftime.
That Bulls roster, however, is no longer this Bulls roster.
To win an emotional game over LeBron James and the Lakers on Wednesday, and then overcome a sleepy offensive showing through the first two quarters a night later to beat the Spurs was significant growth in the eyes of Billy Donovan.
And to do it in a grinding, grimy fashion was even more satisfying for the coach.
The kind of performance Donovan has been all but begging from this group to show him even going back to last season.
“I felt like we clearly did not have the same pop to start the game that we did (against the Lakers), and that’s going to happen on a back-to-back,” Donovan said. “I give our guys credit that they kind of had the mentality of we’re going to have to grind this game out. It’s easy to get frustrated when you’re not getting shots, and getting good shots, and you’re going to have to do something defensively. I thought we defended very well. Activity-wise on the defensive end we really helped each other.”
They’ve been helping each other.
For 11 games to be exact, and it just so happened to be the 11 games since Zach LaVine was sidelined with right foot inflammation.
The eye test has shown it and so have the numbers.
In the first 19 games of the regular season, the Bulls ranked 22nd in defensive rating (116), and that included sitting 29th in defensive rebounding with 30 per game. In the 11 games without LaVine, the defensive rating was 112.9 (6th in the league), and the defensive rebounding was up to 33.1 per game (11th).
The Bulls finally look like a high-effort team on the defensive end for the first time in the 2023-24 campaign.
“We’re definitely trying to grow it,” guard Coby White said of the defensive improvement. “I feel like we started the year well, and then it was going downhill for a while there. We just ultimately want to get back to where we were last year, how we were playing on that end of the floor, having each other’s backs, scrambling, covering for each other.
“Coming off a back-to-back, we knew we were going to have to have each other’s back just because we wouldn’t have the legs we had (against the Lakers).”
A real test passed.
But not the test yet to come.
There’s a good chance that LaVine will be back in a few weeks. Yes, the Bulls front office will continue doing everything they can to trade him before the Feb. 8 trade deadline, but the best thing LaVine can do at this point to improve his value is to come back and get in line with the style of play on both ends of the floor.
An engaged LaVine on the defensive end as well as how easily he can score the basketball? That’s much easier to move on the market than a LaVine who is focused on bad-shot selection and considers defense an afterthought.
If the two-time All-Star does buy in, combined with the current mentality being shown, that’s how a season goes from nightmare to promising. That’s how this roster starts believing that they can beat anyone and do it in multiple ways.
“Like AC (Alex Caruso) was saying all night, ‘You’re not going to shoot 50% from the three-point line every night. You’ve got to embrace the challenge, embrace what’s going on.’ AC kept telling us that, telling us that, because you’ve got to find different ways to win,” White added. “You want that stuff you can always hang your hat on to help us get wins.”
