March 07--Coach Fred Hoiberg said the Bulls worked on some offensive sets involving Jimmy Butler as a screener during Sunday's brief practice at the United Center.
He didn't elaborate.
But Butler's return Saturday continued Hoiberg's custom, which began shortly before Butler's month-long absence to injury, of using Butler and Derrick Rose in select screen-and-roll sets together. It's a look that sometimes triggers the Pau Gasol-to-Butler alley-oop play that has clicked so frequently.
It's also a way to get two dynamic players who sometimes can take turns playing leading man more offensive cohesiveness. Rose and Butler played well together for long stretches against the Rockets.
"They were good," Hoiberg said. "Derrick threw ahead a couple times to Jimmy where he attacked at the rim. And Jimmy got into the middle, drew help and kicked it out to Derrick, who hit a couple shots. So I thought Jimmy and Derrick were good together."
Rose, who practiced fully Sunday after bruising his tailbone against the Rockets agreed.
"You have to stick both of us," Rose said. "And we get to catch the ball with a live dribble. That helps us out a lot."
So does having shooters like Mike Dunleavy and Doug McDermott surrounding such screen-and-roll actions. Saturday marked the first time this season that Butler and Dunleavy played together.
"It helps me a lot to have Mike space the floor and with Doug as confident as he is now," Butler said. "It helps everybody. The flow is great. I was in the gym enough when I was out to maintain my game and keep my confidence up. That's most important. My teammates are telling me to keep doing what I've been doing. Even though I've been out, they tell me to keep attacking, keep being aggressive."
The Bulls posted 24 fast-break points against the Rockets. That's only one fewer than they had posted in the previous three games combined.
Hoiberg's ideal offense isn't simply about transition points. It's about making quick decisions in the half-court, about quick reads.
Even with Butler and Rose reunited, work remains. The Bulls are 23-19 in games they've played together.
"We've gotten pretty good getting into our flow offense, and (Saturday) night I felt there was a stretch of time where we didn't do that," Hoiberg said. "We were a little disorganized. In our break we had two wings on the same side of the floor, which triggers an automatic, which we didn't get into really well.
"(The Rockets') pressure obviously bothered us with our turnovers. We went through a couple pressure releases just to make sure we're clear on everything we're trying to do. Then we added a couple new wrinkles and really tried getting some of the things that we were successful with Jimmy at earlier in the year, different isolation-type actions using Jimmy in the ball screen, not only as a handler, but as a screener."
As usual, Rose and Butler remain focal points. The onus is on them to coexist down the stretch and salvage whatever can be salvaged from this season.
Layups: Taj Gibson's sore right hamstring didn't react well to playing close to 38 minutes, forcing him to miss most of practice. He was listed as probable for Monday. ... Cameron Bairstow was listed as doubtful as his sore lower back hasn't improved.
kcjohnson@tribpub.com
