Wednesday's win was a defensive clinic, but can Bulls make it stick?
Javonte Green was a high-energy defender for the Bulls until his knee betrayed him last season. With the team now looking for defensive consistency can Green return to a very familiar role?
Charles Rex Arbogast/AP
The defensive effort shown on Wednesday can’t be accidental.
It can’t be a one-off that shows up against a familiar offense like Indiana’s, yet takes a month off, including in losses to lowly franchises like Detroit and Washington.
The Bulls don’t have that luxury.
If this group doesn’t play to a standard on a nightly basis, forget reaching the postseason. They won’t even make it out of the play-in games.
The best — and sometimes it feels like the only — defender on the roster knows this way too well.
Alex Caruso learned that in his championship run with LeBron James and the Lakers, and he’s seen what it looks like with the Bulls when they are all on that same page.
“Being consistent with our effort and discipline, knowing the assignments, keeping guys off the free-throw line,” Caruso said when asked how the defense can get back to being a top five like it was last season. “If we can do that consistently we are a good defensive team. We’ve had some slippage in that area, but we know we can do it right.”
So do the Pacers.
Indiana came into Wednesday’s showdown at the United Center wrapping up a five-game road trip that started in Detroit and took them to the West Coast for three games but were still the highest-scoring team in the Association.
Tired legs, a rough night at the office for the visiting team? Maybe, but the NBA is a big boy league where everyone gets hit with schedule uppercuts at some point in the season.
The fact that the Bulls held them to under 100 points for the first time this year shouldn’t go undervalued, no matter what the circumstances were.
Now, can Caruso & Co. keep that going over the final nine games? Not only does Caruso hope so but knows they need to.
This was basically the same core that finished with the fifth-best defensive efficiency last season and were a top 10 defense for the entire month of December.
Injuries played a part in the slippage this season, but so did a lack of effort and communication. Enter Javonte Green.
Yes, it was a great story when Green was introduced off the bench and made his first appearance with his old team since they re-signed him to a 10-day contract.
“I had butterflies,” Green said of that moment. “Then I knew I had to go in there and do what they came to see. It means a lot. This city gave me an opportunity. I know the type of city Chicago is and the type of players that they like. The love they showed was a great feeling.”
And Green responded appropriately.
In his 19 minutes of work, Green scored five points, grabbed four rebounds, had a block, but was an impressive plus-26 in the plus/minus category.
Not bad for a guy that was hampered with knee surgery last year and couldn’t find a job in the wake of it.
“I’m happy for him because to go through what he went through with the knee injury and having to go to the G League, that was probably pretty humbling, especially for his time here (when) he performed so well,” coach Billy Donovan said of Green. “He moved into the starting lineup, he was a guy who really complemented the starters. And then for him to go down like he did and almost start over again, for me personally with the journey he has had to go through I’m really happy for him.”
Could Green be a running mate with Caruso to fix the defense? It’s still too early to tell. But the Bulls need something to help them stay at this level.
If the defense falls so will this team.