At the start of the season, coach Jim Boylen set clear expectations on how he wants his team to play.
He wanted his team to play tough, fast and find ways to close out games. In order to do that, Boylen incorporated an up-tempo offense and put an emphasis on shooting from the three-point line this season.
It hasn’t worked as well as he might’ve hoped. But 30 games in, Boylen believes the Bulls (11-19) are finally starting to establish their identity.
“We have played some good basketball but we weren’t consistent enough,” Boylen said Friday in a phone interview with the Sun-Times. “I still think we have to grow in the consistency part but our habits are better, our defensive has improved, we’ve had higher assist games in the last month, when the balls popping. I think our feel for each other has improved, Kris Dunn in the starting lineup has been a huge addition for us.
“Sometimes when you don’t win, your improvement can be lost. ... I think we’re improving. We still have things we have to do better but I do think this team is growing.”
Consistency has been a glaring problem for the Bulls — just look at their last three games.
Last Saturday, the Bulls overcame a 15-point deficit to upset an undermanned Clippers team. They followed that performance by coughing up a 26-point, second-half lead in a loss to the Thunder. Then, the Bulls found a way to dig themselves out of an 18-point hole in the fourth quarter to pull off an unlikely overtime victory against the Wizards.
The unpredictability of which Bulls team is going to show up on any given night can be frustrated. But despite the inconsistencies, Boylen believes the Bulls are showing signs of improvement.
“[In] two of the last three games we’ve been down in the last five minutes and we’ve been able to figure out how to get the score tied and how to win the game so that’s growth for us,” he said. “That says to me that we’re starting to understand late-game situations and execution.”
A lot of the Bulls’ success falls on the shoulders of forward Lauri Markkanen and guard Zach LaVine. Those two are the piers on which this rebuild is constructed. And if they can’t find a way to feed off one another, this rebuild will have been a waste of time.
LaVine, who is averaging 23.2 points this season, has had many high scoring nights. Meanwhile, Markkanen has not.
After starting this season in a slump, he’s been playing better as of late.
Markkanen scored 20 or more points just twice in his first 20 games this season. But in December, he’s reached the 20-point mark in five of the last 10 games and is averaging 17.9 points.
“He’s been more aggressive,” Boylen said. “He’s finding out where his shots are coming from, I think maybe he’s getting more of his open looks which always helps.”
Is now the time that Markkanen and LaVine finally start playing well together on a regular basis?
Boylen believes so.
“They’re starting to have that chemistry and that feel that we’ve envisioned,” Boylen said. “I’m glad that they’re both focusing on improving at the defensive end so they can help win there. And at the offensive end, they seem to be understanding how to play with each other better and just in general play better.”
