Billy Donovan hopes the Chicago Bulls can keep their emotions in check as tough four-game road trip looms

The Bulls couldn’t keep their emotions under control in their last game.

© David Yeazell-USA TODAY Sports

Things fell apart at the seams for the Chicago Bulls in their last match against the Milwaukee Bucks. Apart from losing 113-97 at home, the Bulls lost their composure several times, with DeMar DeRozan receiving a flagrant four for getting into it with Bucks forward Bobby Portis and Nikola Vucevic getting ejected for a hard foul on Bucks guard AJ Green.

With Chicago embarking on a crucial road trip, Bulls coach Billy Donovan hopes his team can keep their emotions in check and focus on executing the game plan.

Control the emotional level

Although Milwaukee was clearly the better team in their game last Friday, Chicago was within striking distance of the Bucks and was down by only 12, 88-76, when Vucevic—seemingly frustrated with the officiating—took down Green with a shove as the latter was driving to the basket.

After reviewing the play, game officials slapped Vooch with a flagrant foul penalty 2, resulting in his ejection. That incident fired the Bucks up as they uncorked a 13-0 run that all but decided the game’s outcome.

Donovan shared that at this point of the season, when the Bulls’ margin for error is getting slimmer and slimmer, they cannot afford to let their emotions get the better of them. Instead, they need to stay calm and composed in high-pressure situations.

“I do think we have to look at how we can respond in those situations better, how we can control the emotional level better,” Donovan said.

“I think for both teams, in a large respect, not everybody got every call that they wanted. So we’re going to have to be able to overcome that.”

Nikola Vucevic was hit with a flagrant 2 and ejected after this hard foul on AJ Green.

Thoughts? 🤔pic.twitter.com/X0aArtacFP

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) March 2, 2024

Need to do the things that can help win the game

Vucevic’s outburst was one of many for the Bulls. Seemingly peeved by the lack of calls going their way and Milwaukee’s physicality, the team let their frustrations boil over throughout the game. But as Donovan pointed out, this can’t continue if they want to finish the regular season on a high note.

“There’s 48 minutes in a game. You can’t expect to win if you’re not doing the things that we need to, that are necessary to win,” Donovan shared.

Bucks led whole way but felt like this sequence from PatBev completely unraveled the Bulls. DeMar later gets a tech, then Vooch cheapshots AJ after Bobby bodied him up. PatBev going on a scoring run was the perfect exclamation point. pic.twitter.com/NOCr9GiqsB

— Frank Madden (@fmaddenNBA) March 2, 2024

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