Butler, Rose slam Bulls' effort after loss to Timberwolves
It's becoming a recurring theme with the Chicago Bulls, and one that Jimmy Butler, Derrick Rose, and most every other Bull acknowledges.
"It's all about effort," Rose told reporters Saturday, following a 102-93 overtime loss in which the Bulls were shut out in the extra period for the first time in franchise history. "We'll get tired of getting our ass whooped one day."
On the surface, Chicago's 4-3 record this early in the NBA season is nothing to jump off the John Hancock Center about. However, in three of their last five games, the Bulls have been easily bested by teams they should have beat. Sandwiched around Thursday's resilient 104-98 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder are losses to the young Timberwolves and Charlotte Hornets by an average of 17 points.
"We don't play hard sometimes," Butler, Rose's backcourt mate, said Saturday. "Effort. It was another one of them games. Relying (too much) on offense. There's multiple ways to put it. But it is a problem."
Butler lamented the Bulls' lack of defense following the 25-point loss to the Hornets, shutting down any statistical contradiction by saying "other teams have just been missing shots."
The lack of defensive intensity isn't lost on observers who note the shift in culture from former coach Tom Thibodeau to Fred Hoiberg; it's spawned memes like this, after all. Yet the Bulls' usually stout D even showed signs of wearing down late in Thibs' tenure. Either way, Hoiberg conceded Saturday that the problems are rooted in focus.
"To play with as much energy as we did the other night and then play like this, I can't fathom how that can happen," the rookie NBA bench boss said.