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Billy Donovan says the offense has got to flow better: "We've got to be able to play in a way where it flows"
The Chicago Bulls got a remarkable 51 points from All-Star guard Zach LaVine but it hardly mattered as the team suffered its second loss of the season, falling to the Detroit Pistons 118-102. Afterward, Bulls coach Billy Donovan implored his team to keep the offense flowing, rather than stand around and watch one player do all the work.
Incredible outing
LaVine’s 51-point explosion set a new career-high for the former slam dunk champion. He went 19-of-33 from the field, 6-of-8 from the charity stripe, and made seven trifectas. As impressive an outing it was from the 6-foot-6 guard, Donovan still wanted more out of the offense as a whole.
“For him to do what he did scoring-wise is incredibly remarkable. He is such a pronounced scorer and teams are putting him on the top of every scouting report. But we still lost by double digits,” Donovan said.
“We’ve got to be able to play in a way where it flows. Zach got it going early and it kept us hanging around, but we’ve got to have it sustained where guys keep trusting the pass, trusting each other, trusting the ball movement and trusting guys when they are open.”
Focus on establishing consistency in their style of play
The Bulls’ play so far this season has been a disjointed mess. They followed their blowout loss to Oklahoma City with a thrilling overtime win over Toronto only to drop a game to a Pistons squad that was playing the second night of a back-to-back. Donovan remarked that the Bulls must recognize by now which things work well for them and which don’t.
“We should know what’s not going to work, (which is) holding the basketball, not moving the basketball, not playing downhill, not getting to the free throw line, not getting to offensive rebounds,” lectured Donovan.
Overall, the Bulls lost the rebounding battle, 53-32, including the offensive glass, 15-12. They also failed to move the ball around, losing the assist column, 29-16.
“We have to be able to if we want to be the team we are trying to become. There needs to be a unified vision of how you play, there has to be a unified style that for our group gives us the best chance to be successful, and that’s where our focus has to be,” Donovan added.
