McGraw: Practice makes perfect for Bulls

After losing exhibition games to Washington and Detroit, the Bulls had a day off scheduled, but coach Tom Thibodeau decided to fill it with practice after all. So the team held a film session and light workout at the Advocate Center on Wednesday.

"You're building," Thibodeau said. "There's a lot of stuff you have to add and clean up and improve upon. You look at training camp as the whole month. A day like today, particularly the guys who haven't played a lot, it's important they get the right amount of work."

The Bulls opened preseason with games on consecutive days, which is unusual in itself. Both games were close, but the Bulls lost to the Wizards by 4 points, then dropped an overtime decision against the Pistons.

Many players had a light workload, but not all. The minutes leader was rookie Doug McDermott, who averaged 30 minutes in the two games. Taj Gibson played 31 minutes on Tuesday. Derrick Rose played the first half only in both games, while Joakim Noah sat out against the Pistons as a precaution. Noah had his left knee scoped in the summer.

"You can't overlook the work part and conditioning part of it," Thibodeau said. "That's how you build the toughness that's necessary to win. The work has to be done."

Mike Dunleavy was asked if Thibodeau has been pushing that message more than usual this year.

"Man, it's the same. It's the same," Dunleavy said. "He's pretty consistent in that regard, at least since I've been here. It's always about putting the work in. We have guys who are pretty good about that."

Noah gets fined:

Punishments were announced for Monday's Bulls-Wizards altercation. Joakim Noah and Washington's Paul Pierce were fined $15,000 each, while four Wizards were suspended one game for leaving the bench area.

The four Wizards - Nene, DeJuan Blair, Daniel Orton and Xavier Silas - will have to sit out the first regular-season game they are active and healthy. Washington's opener is at Miami.

The trouble started just three minutes into Monday's game. Pierce, upset about the lack of a foul call against him, fouled Jimmy Butler intentionally near midcourt. Butler took exception, Noah stepped in and gave Pierce a light push toward the visitors' bench and Pierce responded by putting his fingers near Noah's eye. After the game, Noah said Pierce did not make contact with the finger jab.

Sense of pre-urgency:

The Bulls had won 12 straight preseason games over the previous two years, but now they've opened this preseason with 2 losses. It's never good to lose, but these games don't really matter, right?

"You have to get your house in order," coach Tom Thibodeau said. "The notion that it's preseason and we'll get it, we'll get it, we'll get it - that's not how you win in this league. The regular season will be here before you know it."