NEW ORLEANS – It was Nikola Vucevic’s viral moment.
Not exactly what the Bulls big man had in mind when he first began the post-game interview with CHSN’s Bulls Insider K.C. Johnson on Saturday.
“For three quarters we were very soft, no resistance,” a visibly ticked off Vucevic said after the one-point escape over the one-win Wizards.
Adding to Vucevic’s frustration was teammate Jalen Smith attempting to be funny in the background and crowd Vucevic while he was talking.
“Move, man,” Vucevic insisted to Smith, not in a joking mood at all.
Message sent.
But was the message heard? Obviously not.
Visiting a two-win Pelicans team just two nights later, the Bulls were at it again, playing without urgency, making defense and physicality optional, and as Vucevic put it, playing “soft.” More concerning, this wasn’t a few games run-off, this was now a growing trend.
The Bulls (9-8) almost blew a 21-point lead in Portland, were dog-walked by the Heat, and had to overcome a 16-point deficit to outlast the Wizards, only to now be stained with the latest performance – a 143-130 loss down on the Bayou.
That’s why coach Billy Donovan was standing behind everything Vucevic said, and then some.
“I have a good relationship with Vooch, and Vooch is a really smart player,” Donovan said. “He understands what winning looks like and the things you have to do on a regular basis. Listen, there’s a huge gap. Vooch has three kids, there’s guys on this team that are basically sophomores in college. I like guys that speak the truth and lean into what the truth was. Everything he said there was nothing that he was off base with. I felt that way too.
“You can win games in this league and be going in the wrong direction, and you can lose games and feel really good like, ‘OK, we’re starting to do things the right way, we just didn’t get the result we needed.’ That’s what Vooch’s point was, that that is not sustainable.”
Not one teammate was going to argue that, either.
“He has every right to be upset,” second-year forward Matas Buzelis said of Vucevic, who was sidelined with a sore knee in the latest loss. “We’ve got to be better for sure.”
It would help if that would start from the tip-off as well.
Once again, the Bulls were punched in Round 1 rather than doing the punching, as the Pelicans jumped out to a 37-30 first-quarter lead. No biggie? Not true, considering New Orleans was averaging a league-low 108.6 points per game.
That lead climbed to 22 by the second quarter, as the Pelicans outrebounded the Bulls 29-18 heading into the locker room, including 9-2 on the offensive glass.
Poor play that left the Bulls in an all too familiar position: Clawing and scratching to get out of the hole.
Two Coby White free throws cut it to eight with 1:38 left in the game, but that was as threatening as the Bulls could get, outrebounded 55-33 on the night. Ayo Dosunmu led the Bulls with 28 points.
“Coach is telling us a thousand times to boxout,” Dosunmu said of the latest embarrassment. “On film, we’re going to the glass, not boxing out, just standing around. Coach is telling us to get into the ball, Coach is telling us what we have to do in order to play physical, and we’re doing sometimes in the game, but not doing it the full game. (Donovan is) being completely honest with us. He’s telling us if we don’t do this, we’re going to get these results.
“We keep saying the stove is hot and we keep touching the stove.”