Chicago Bull’s head coach Tom Thibodeau should call emergency meetings more often. Pau Gasol wouldn’t be opposed to this. Following a Bulls win against Dallas on Friday night, Gasol credited the meeting with refocusing the Bulls on the ultimate goal of winning a championship.
"“Having meetings when things are not going well, I think it’s positive because you hear everyone out and you understand we’re all in the same boat and we all have to row together to get to port, get to land,”"
After losing six of their previous eight contests, the Chicago Bulls were in complete disarray. Countless questions regarding their effort remained unanswered and rumors citing mutiny by the players against their hard driving head coach ran rampant. This all changed after an emergency meeting commenced on Tuesday. The meeting, initiated by Tom Thibodeau, served the purpose as a heart-to-heart confessional. Players were able to express concerns without having to fear being reprimanded with suicides or other common “basketball punishments”. Following the meeting, the Bulls appeared to be a completely re-invigorated group of individuals. In their last two contests, both of which they emerged victorious, the Bulls drew upon a level of passion and energy that hasn’t been present the entire season to guide them to victory.
Jan 23, 2015; Dallas, TX, USA; Chicago Bulls forward Pau Gasol (16) and forward Taj Gibson (22) and guard Jimmy Butler (21) celebrate the win over the Dallas Mavericks at the American Airlines Center. The Bulls defeated the Mavericks 102-98. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
The Bulls recorded an impressive victory against one of the best teams in the Western Conference with a 102-98 victory against the Dallas Mavericks on Friday night. As follows are the full highlights from the exciting game.
So what changed? How did the Chicago Bulls relearn how to play basketball competently in the span of a couple days? It all comes down to defensive intensity and overall effort because besides that nothing really changed.
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In a previous post I suggested that the Bulls can start playing more consistently if they improve their assists per game averages. Despite my insistence that this would be a major contributing factor to turning things around, assist totals remained lower than the season average suggesting that the Bull’s are still heavily relying on isolation packages to score on offense. The offensive continuity has definitely improved, especially compared to the beginning of the season, but by no means are the Bulls beating teams by systematically breaking down their opponents with passing on the offensive side of the ball.
Jan 23, 2015; Dallas, TX, USA; Chicago Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau gives instructions to Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose (1) and forward Pau Gasol (16) during the second half against the Dallas Mavericks at the American Airlines Center. The Bulls defeated the Mavericks 102-98. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Additionally, the Bulls didn’t beat these powerhouse western conference opponents by shooting them out of the gym. The offense is better this year, and they are capable of beating some teams by setting a scoring pace offensively that the opponent can’t possibly match. However, the eight game stretch in which the Bulls dropped 6 of those games proved that winning games comes down to buckling down defensively when the game is on the line.
In the last two games, the Bulls have matched or barely exceeded their season average in points per game. Herculean efforts on the offensive side of the ball can’t be used to explain the exceptional play that the Bulls have exhibited over the last two contests. The real reason why the Bulls beat the Spurs and Mavericks on consecutive nights is so simple it seems stupid that this solution was figured out only in the past week.
The Bulls re-committed themselves on the defensive side of the ball and that has made a whole world of difference. The Chicago Bulls held the San Antonio Spurs to just 81 points on Thursday night, which is tied for a season low for the defending World Champions. On the following night, the Bulls held the Dallas Mavericks to 98 points which is 9 points fewer than their season average of 107. The focus, determination and intensity on the defensive side of the ball has finally been elevated to pre 2014-2015 levels. This is the major contributing factor when explaining the Bulls success in their last two game.
Jan 23, 2015; Dallas, TX, USA; Chicago Bulls forward Pau Gasol (16) guards Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki (41) during the second half at the American Airlines Center. The Bulls defeated the Mavericks 102-98. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
The renewed focus in dominating defensively was obviously spear-headed by Tom Thibodeau, but without Joakim Noah completely bought into the plan any quantity of motivational speeches and heart-to-heart meetings wouldn’t get this team to play any harder. The Bulls feed off the energy of Joakim Noah, and the spirited center has always set the tone defensively for the entire team. In interviews with reporters following the Bulls win against Dallas on Friday, Noah explained the Bulls collective approach to overcoming the adversity that has been thrown their way over the last couple weeks.
"“I think when you go through adversity like that, you either go two ways. You either come together or you start to point fingers, and that’s not who we are. At the end of the day, I think everybody wants to win here. It was definitely a humbling couple of weeks, but we just got to regroup and we still got work to do. We’re not satisfied. We know we got to get better, and I think we’re all more than capable of doing that.”"
After battling ankle issues and missing the last 4 games because of this ailment, Noah finally returned to action on Friday against the Dallas Mavericks. He recorded 7 points and 6 rebounds in 23 minutes of playing time. Although these statistics aren’t particularly impressive, Noah’s real impact came defensively where he orchestrated one of the Bull’s best defensive efforts of the season. This team will only go as far Joakim Noah’s leadership takes them. If Noah can keep this team motivated and on the right track mentally with their approach going into every contest, the Bull’s will go a long way.
Jan 23, 2015; Dallas, TX, USA; Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah (13) dunks the ball over Dallas Mavericks forward Dwight Powell (8) during the second half at the American Airlines Center. The Bulls defeated the Mavericks 102-98. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
The Chicago Bulls have had success over the last two games by committing themselves to the identity that made the team so successful in the past. The Bulls have excelled during the Thibodeau era by being the grittiest, most tough minded team in the entire NBA. During this stretch, and for many of their losses this season for that matter, the Bulls have diverged away from that identity. Yes, they have a great offense this season and an improved offensive unit was one of the ingredients that the Bulls needed to get to that next level. But all the talent offensively means nothing, if the team diverges away from their identity. They have to play great offense while playing great defense simultaneously. In order to be successful in both facets of the game, the effort has to be there for 48 minutes on every night. The Bulls were missing this last piece. During the meeting on Tuesday, I will bet this issue was addressed. The last two performances indicate that the Bulls collectively as a team have re-adapted the values that made them so successful.