PHILADELPHIA — Doc Rivers knows Chicago basketball all-too well.
The 76ers coach starred at Proviso East, and coming out of Marquette in 1983, thought the Bulls were going to draft their hometown kid.
It didn’t happen, and Rivers still talks about it with a hint of missed opportunity in his voice.
So he knows exactly what Patrick Beverley has meant to this current Bulls team, and what playing for the Bulls has meant to Beverley.
“It’s where you grow up,’’ Rivers said. “Chicago is a unique style of basketball. Patrick Beverley shows that every time he walks out on the floor. He went to Marshall … too bad for him he didn’t go to Proviso, but I think he averaged 40 in high school? Our guys were actually talking about that a couple days [ago]. That’s pretty amazing.’’
As is the sudden turnaround for a roster that was far too lethargic and soft on many nights this season.
Is the hard-nosed Beverley the lone reason the Bulls have gone 8-4 since his arrival, and are playing their best basketball of the season? He’s definitely a piece of that.
But as Bulls coach Billy Donovan pointed out in the wake of Monday’s key double-overtime win over a 48-23 Philadelphia team, it feels like his players are finally starting to understand how to dig their feet in the mud in those tough moments of a game, take the punch, and then punch back.
“I don’t want to say we’ve figured anything out because anytime you say you figured something out, you lose an opportunity to grow, but the one thing we have done as of late, which is the one thing we’ve struggled with – whatever word you want to use, let go of the rope, frustration, disappointment – we’ve kept grinding and playing [lately],’’ Donovan said. “I like our huddles a lot more in terms of communication. There were times in the past where we would get a little bit quiet. I think guys were trying to internalize what they’ve got to do, but we got to get to a place where we’ve got to do it together. I’m hopeful that’s helped us grow, just to have that kind of mentality to fight and compete.’’
What took so long?
That’s a question players can only answer individually.
Veteran DeMar DeRozan has been all but begging this group to find that consistent urgency for weeks, and maybe it’s finally sunk in. If the Beverley addition was the reason why, so be it.
“We’ve got to be desperate,’’ DeRozan said. “We’re fighting for our life every single game, and we don’t want to put our faith in nobody else’s hands, hoping someone loses, and playing that whole game. All we can do is control what we can control.’’
And they seem to be controlling it.
While the other Eastern Conference play-in teams are sputtering all over the place the last few weeks, the Bulls are putting a small surge together.
As of Tuesday, they had a buffer between themselves and the teams on the outside looking in, but they’ve also now gotten within reach of moving up from that 10th and final spot, only a half game behind the Raptors with 11 games to play.
Donovan’s hope is that it will be 11 games in which the new-found grind-it-out mentality was there to stay.
“If you get into a situation where your confidence rides on the external result of winning or losing, you don’t have a lot of confidence,’’ Donovan said. “It’s the NBA. It’s about trying to play to a standard you want to play to as a team against everybody, not just Philly.’’
Adding a Chicago kid to the mix doesn’t hurt.
