MIAMI – In a perfect world, Billy Donovan wouldn’t have to be concerned about up to seven of his players facing free agency in July and dwelling on the Feb. 5 trade deadline.
The Bulls coach knows that’s not reality, however.
And while Donovan said he addressed the team yet again on the topic before Sunday’s game with Miami, it didn’t look to stick. As a matter of fact, very little prep seemed to stick in the third game against the Heat in the last four nights and one of the more embarrassing showings of the season in the 134-91 loss.
“I do agree with you, guys have expiring contracts, but let’s just say you got guys on expiring contracts and Feb. 5 comes and goes, now what?” Donovan said of the situation. “You going to sit there and worry about July? The reality is these guys have prepared themselves throughout the summer to play. We’ve also had a lot of guys having the game taken away from them this year with injuries. They got to focus in on doing what they love doing, and as hard as that may be, that’s what we’ve got to do.
“It’s human nature to get distracted by things that you don’t have control over and for me to sit around and wonder what may or may not happen, I get all the situations those guys are in, but the best thing they can do in my opinion is help each other. To think that they’re going to block everything out, I know that’s not real, but we have to work to try and do that.”
It wasn’t done against the Heat, and that was seen right from the tip off for the Bulls (24-26).
Thanks to Andrew Wiggins, Miami was out to an 8-0 lead, and once the defense from the home team picked up in that opening quarter it was 34-13 after one. The Bulls played the Heat even in the second, but once again fell asleep in the third, outrebounded by Miami 18-7 in the stanza, including allowing five offensive rebounds.
“They definitely came into the game really physical,” Bulls center Nikola Vucevic said of the loss. “They took it to us. It didn’t help that we couldn’t make a shot and they got it going. We just couldn’t figure out a way to respond.
“They took us out of a lot of our stuff and obviously as the game went on they were playing really good basketball. Credit to them.”
Coby White led the Bulls with 16 points.
Pro influence
Waiving Jevon Carter to make room for Dario Saric wasn’t easy for anyone associated with the team, especially the younger guys that Carter was a mentor to.
“The way he worked was good for me to see, good for a lot of young guys to see,” forward Patrick Williams said of Carter. “He would always remind us of why we’re here. That’s to play the game that we love. Obviously, there are a lot of ups and downs that come with it, it’s a roller coaster for everybody. It’s always about how you get through it and that didn’t change for him.”
Air Yuki
Not only did Yuki Kawamura get his first real significant playing time in crunch time of an NBA game on Saturday, but won the first jump ball of his career. Not just his NBA career, but ever, according to the 5-foot-7 guard.
“No. Honestly, I won the jump ball and I was so happy,” Kawamura said. “It was the first win of a jump ball since I started basketball, yeah.”