If you think you’re tired of hearing about the NBA’s Last Two Minute Report, talk to Bulls coach Billy Donovan.
“We’ve come up on the short end of the stick on a lot of this,” Donovan said Wednesday before the game against the Nets.
“It goes back to DeMar [DeRozan’s] shot in Washington in the second game of the year in which he got fouled. Then, obviously, the foul [on DeRozan] in the Cleveland game [at the United Center].”
The latest were two calls inside the last 12 seconds of regulation in the overtime loss to the Cavaliers on the road Monday.
There was a missed traveling call on Jarrett Allen, then a lane violation by Donovan Mitchell that led to his game-tying put-back.
The real issue for the Bulls is the game shouldn’t have fallen into the hands of the officials to begin with. Before Mitchell ever had an opportunity to tie the game in the last four seconds, the Bulls gave up 21-point lead, throwing away one of their best first-half performances of the season.
“It happened, but we still had five minutes to play in overtime,” Donovan said. “Sometimes on those calls, you can get locked in on what somebody else didn’t do. We have to look at what we can do.”
Here’s one thing the Bulls can do: rebound better.
Second-chance points
In the last week, the Bulls have allowed a league-worst 20.8 second-chance points, dropping three games in the process.
Of Mitchell’s 71 points Monday, two came off that put-back on his missed free throw. Despite that Last Two Minute Report, Patrick Williams allowed him to get the rebound. The Cavs scored 24 points on 13 second-chance looks in Cleveland.
“Differently?” Williams said when asked about what he could have done on that play. “Get the rebound.”
Donovan acknowledged rebounding as an issue, and Nikola Vucevic addressed it after the shootaround. The Bulls are 24th in the league in rebounding.
Both attributed the rebounding woes, in part, to missed defensive boards on three-pointers.
The remedy is physicality and effort, both of which come down to will more than talent.
“A lot of it is using speed to our advantage and being more physical with their big man when they’re trying to take advantage of our small guys,” Vucevic said. “But we have to get into the right spots and be willing to put in that extra effort.”
What’s up, doc?
After seeing team doctors in Chicago on Tuesday, Javonte Green was put on a treatment plan for the inflammation in his right knee.
He missed his 10th game because of the nagging knee soreness.
Donovan didn’t have a timeline on when he expects Green to be back in the lineup, but he said he will go through treatment the next few days, and the team will reassess from there.
“We would be hopeful that the treatments would go really well, and we could get him back relatively soon,” Donovan said. “But we’ll have to see how that goes.”
Derrick Jones Jr. played against the Nets and had eight points.
He was listed as questionable after a knock to the eye he took during the game Monday.
