POSTGAME LOCKER ROOM: Bulls EPIC Comeback Falls Short

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Yeah, I mean, the biggest thing was, you know,

going into the game, thinking of matchups for Harden

and Donovan Mitchell.

So, you know, when we came in, I think Donovan got downgraded,

maybe to questionable.

So, but we kind of at least approached it like we were going to,

like he was going to play.

So, we wanted to go a little bit smaller to put tray

and colon on both of those cards from a matchup standpoint.

And, you know, with Jared Allen being out,

they've moved mobility to the center spot.

They were just playing a little bit smaller with weight at the forward.

I was thinking, switch back and forth from the perimeter.

So, we just went a little bit smaller.

I thought our big unit with Nick and Yonville was good.

You know, in the second half, I'm kind of played with that

for as long as we could.

But that was really the main reason.

And then, you know, I think the way the game was going in the first half,

I was just trying to find some combinations of guys, you know,

as much as I could.

You know, even to start the third quarter, I played like,

I think it was Nick like two minutes and I played, you know,

Yabo like three minutes.

And I subbed those two guys.

I was just trying to find, you know, just a combination.

And I thought that group of Yabo and Nick and Leonard

and the groups of Josh was out there.

You know, they gave us really good minutes.

What do you take away from, you know, seven quarters of three

four basketball against good opponents?

And then a quarter like you had in the quarter,

do you think anything away from Leonard?

Yeah, I think the biggest thing is these guys,

I've been great to work with.

Not going to rehash, you know, since the trade deadline,

trying to get a real speed and all that stuff.

But they've maintained a very, very professional attitude.

My, my issue has been with them for tonight example.

They really care.

They really want to do well both individually and collectively.

But we get down too much and we've got to become a lot tougher mentally

when things are not going our way.

And I thought the biggest difference from whether the middle

of the third to the end of the game in the first half was,

I thought when things weren't going well,

we hung our head too much, you know, and it was more,

I think self-directed when guys made a mistake.

It turned it over.

It missed a shot.

It missed a defense assignment.

And I thought it just drained us.

And we've got to be able to keep pulling together.

So I thought the talk on the bench by trade, by Yabo,

even Colin, those guys were trying to encourage each other

to keep staying with it.

You know, and we're going to have to be able to do that

because there's just some things, you know,

we're going to have to fight it towards a team

with this group coming together like it has.

And if we don't do that, it becomes really tough.

So I thought the biggest difference was just the way we competed

and how hard we fought when things maybe, you know,

we're not going great.

We kind of switched that switch there a little bit.

And it kind of, I thought it got us back into the game.

I thought that, actually what I thought,

not that you cared.

Sure I do.

But the degree of difficulty in shots, you know,

they're rolling down the lane, dunking the ball time after time.

And you guys are taking tough shots.

Amazing.

You know, it seems like you have to do so much more, you know,

it seems like, you know, you know,

you know, more believe what they're getting into.

Yes.

So it sort of offset that.

And it seemed like what you flipped it was

when the trade made those steals at the end of the third quarter

at the moment, it seemed to take the win down to that.

But you see, I think that's exactly right.

I think that, you know, one of our challenges,

and I do think it leads into some of what I was saying earlier,

we were getting tough shots.

And it was hard to generate really good shots.

And, you know, I think for us,

we've got to do it through ball movement and player movement,

you know, and a lot of times with the group coming together

when we did and not a lot of practice time,

a lot of that off ball movement.

It takes a lot of practice, a lot of work, guys working together.

And, you know, we just haven't had that.

And I agree with you.

I think the trades steal there to have,

getting the steal to the foul.

It was a technical foul.

You better free throw.

You know, we got some stops.

We got out in transition.

Yago made a big three.

Some guys made some big plays.

Leonard get out in transition.

That really helped.

And I thought we did a better job of generating it to your point

or better shots.

But for us, if we can't get the ball down hill towards the rim

to at least get two on the ball,

like the whole game is played right now with two on the ball.

The teams that can get two on the ball

are generally going to, you know, create really good looks.

And sometimes we have a hard time doing that

or getting past the first line of defense.

And we've got to do it by helping each other.

And I do think at times we get up against it quite

honestly, offensively, you know,

where possessions can become labored and hard.

And, you know, we don't necessarily always have like a breakdown

guide.

It's going to generate something downhill.

I also, you know, part of that is I thought Rob did do some of that for us

where he was able to create and manufacture some offense for us.

And that kind of, I don't know, it was 24 or 25.

But he got in there.

I thought he did a good job because he kind of helped

close that third quarter out.

He made a couple shots and he scored a little bit.

And a lot of it was on his own and off the dribble.

And I think that helped us a little bit offensively.

I mean, basically everything you want to do is based on penetration.

You've got to get in the lane to do what you guys want to do.

That's right.

That's right.

And when we can't break the defense down,

we're seeing a lot of switching or people bodies in front of us.

And, you know, certainly a team like Toronto that's got a lot of sides

across really the two guard spot all the way down to the center spot.

You're having to work really, really hard to kind of get the ball moving.

Now, that's also led to sometimes playing in traffic,

the turnovers, which were hiding in the first time.

I think they were both.

So, you know, it's, it's, you know, we get in there sometimes.

And sometimes we have a hard time finishing with the size and length of a mobility.

Or some of the guys that are in there, you know, bar and portal.

And then, so other times, you know, we've decision-wise,

we've got to kind of make that decision to spray a little bit more to the line.

You know, we haven't been great at finishing at the rim really

since the all-star break.

But that's some games we've been good, but overall, like even today,

I think we didn't finish great, especially in the first half.

I don't know what the numbers will read out.

That's what I felt like on the bench.

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Thanks, guys.

Thank you for coming on against most of the game.

It seemed like the economy turned a little momentum at the end of the third quarter

with us.

Actually, I think you get two steals in the five seconds and pick the wet of one on.

Could you explain that play?

We made the steal way up.

You got hit.

A whole sequence.

Yeah, I think the end of the quarter is as big.

Just for momentum.

Still a couple of possessions.

Those things add up.

Obviously, we're in a big deficit.

So I was just trying to continue the fight.

Continue to just try to do everything we could as a team.

Just try to get some momentum on our side.

We had a foul to give.

So if we were just playing aggressively on defense

and got a steal there.

But yeah, we're in a big deficit there.

So just trying to do anything we could to try to just get some momentum.

Is that the mindset?

You lose by 30.

You come in again right again.

And then you're down three again basically.

How do you keep, you know, sustained at that point?

Right.

I mean, just trying to stay together as a group.

Obviously, you know, none of us want to be in that position on it all.

But we found ourselves in that position again.

And I was trying to continue to stay together as tough as it could be.

It could be at times.

It's easy.

It can be to go our separate ways and just try to put your head down to yourself.

It's easier to do it as a group.

And we thought that on the second half.

So I think there's just the competitiveness.

We took it to a whole nother level in that second half.

And we talked about it after the game.

That's just the standard that we need to have as a team going into games.

But what did you see particularly in that fourth quarter?

What was the difference from the first three quarters and obviously some previous games?

Yeah, I think it was just a competition level.

You know, we've been a lot more physical.

It was a lot more urgency.

We're flying around on defensive end making plays.

Not when the guys come to us on defense.

We're hitting guys.

You know, just trying to make plays out there.

We were air airing on side of aggression.

And I think that that's always a positive.

What's your impression of letting them know that this has come over?

They've been really good for us.

Plays with energy.

He does a lot of little things.

You know, guys don't want to do and that don't show up on the stash sheet necessarily.

You know, those things definitely matter and go into winning.

What about his ability on the floor?

That's what you know.

You have to share.

He gets down the floor quick and he puts a lot of pressure on the room.

That's something I definitely noticed.

Those guards definitely noticed him.

His ability to get downhill, especially the air and transition.

It definitely is a huge start and a transition.

It's right.

How do you approach the remainder of the season?

And obviously you've been around long enough the outside world.

Like see you guys lose games to keep improving your draft lottery status.

You're signing an extension here.

So you do have some staying power here.

You guys can't add more talent that's beneficial.

But at the same time, you're fighting to win games because that's the competitiveness.

How do you juggle all of that and kind of want that fine line?

Yeah.

I mean, there's not really anything to juggle for me.

I approach every game the same and that's to win the game.

I don't really listen out outside noise and draft lottery, all that type of stuff.

And the worst team is on, you can get the best pick every year.

Last year I think Alex got the best pick there.

10th worst team in the league.

So I approach every game the same as the rest of my team do.

The coaches do as well.

They continue to help us prepare for every single game the exact same way.

Right?

If it's game one or game 78 or whatever.

We always approach to win the game.

And that's what it is.

We're not worried about any of the outside noise.

You know, we show up to do our job every single night.

When you see, again, obviously pointed out, I don't think the worst team since they stay in this lottery is ever won the first pick.

Right?

But team like Detroit that have kind of laid in the weeds and tank and see where they are now.

San Antonio could, you know, get at least a soft tank.

Do you say, okay, well, that might be something to that or as players, you guys just earn wire like that.

I play as a, I'm personally not wired like that at all.

I hate losing more than anything in my wife and can vouch for me on that one.

I'm not happy when I go home after these games, but I think I believe in basketball guys rewarding certain things.

And I think if we continue to show up and just do our job.

Put our best foot forward every day will be rewarded in the right way.

So I don't listen to the outside noise, but it's that kind of frustrating at all knowing that there is kind of like at least a certain type of hand that has maybe that bend of rooting for something outside and just like straight up and down the lens.

No, not at all.

As a fan, obviously they want, you know, the best player and the upcoming draft and that to happen, they want us to lose.

So, you know, that's their perspective on things and you know, it is what it is.

But I mean, when they show up to work, I'm sure they're not trying to lose whatever day they're going into it well.

And so I think if they're in our shoes, they want, they won't show up here and be trying to lose as well.

So, somewhat weird.

How wearing is it?

Yeah, you know, to go through this, you had 11 straight and you had a couple of good wins on the West.

And then you know, you get down and big holes again.

How wearing is that, you know, go through this kind of situation?

You know, I think, you know, it builds character for sure on this adversity that we're going through.

We just got to continue to stay together as a group.

Continue to try to figure it out together and try to build some momentum here out of the shop this year.

Thank you.

This is a long time ago.

Again, they had a game.

I can't remember.

I think I came out and made a couple of three.

How are you approaching those games?

You're trying to do more, you know, as a result.

This, you know, scoring has been a bit difficult for this team.

I remember whatever the game is offering.

That's all I'm trying to do.

Whatever the team needs for us to try to win.

So nice to be more scoring.

So nice is finding guys more.

I'm just reading whatever the game gives.

Did you feel the momentum change?

You have to be able to, you know, the skills you made, throw to those plays.

And then, you know, you guys kind of got back in a couple of minutes into the fourth.

Did you sense the momentum change, you know, with the calves?

We definitely felt the momentum started to shift our way.

There's a third quarter across the end of the third quarter ahead in the fourth.

We felt the energy.

We felt the crowd getting behind us again.

And that's always a good feeling.

We continue to rally as we group together.

And then we just ended up coming up short there.

So we definitely felt the momentum shift.

So it just a matter of time.

Just staying out from the game.

Yeah, for sure.

And just coming out with that energy to start off with,

rather than trying to find the late when we dug ourselves out.

Thank you.

Few things are as uplifting as the greatest moments in sports.

And nothing brings us together quite like Team USA

at the Olympic Winter Games.

From NBC Universal's iconic storytelling

to the innovative technology across Xfinity and Peacock,

Comcast brings the Olympic Games home to America,

sharing every moment with millions.

When Team USA steps onto the world stage,

we're not just watching.

We're cheering together.

This winter, we're all on the same team.

Comcast, proud partner of Team USA.

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