Chicago Bulls talk about poor communication

At the halfway point of the season, the Chicago Bulls are on pace for 48 wins.

That's a respectable but disappointing number. And after Wednesday's beatdown by Golden State, they clearly have more issues to work out.

Inside the locker room, after the 125-94 loss, Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler bemoaned the lack of communication on defense. Such a familiar complaint this season, its hardly worth mentioning.

But it's something coach Fred Hoiberg plans to address - or keep quiet about - as the season continues. Hoiberg was vocal about the communication problems after Thursday's practice.

"It starts with me," Hoiberg said. "There's no doubt about it. I need to do a much better job of when the communication isn't there, holding the guys more accountable."

The Warriors push the tempo as much as any team in the league, and the Bulls struggled to keep up. Most every trip down the floor, they were mismatched defensively, and that's when communication becomes most important.

Hoiberg suggested the coaching staff needs to stay silent during practices, rather than help everyone get in the proper defense. In order to talk in games, the players need to talk in practice.

"Everyone has to be pointing and talking in transition," Hoiberg said. "That has to be the constant. I've done a poor job of bailing them out sometimes by talking too much in practice or having an assistant coach talk too much. We almost have to be silent. And it has to come from the players, because it's pretty glaring when we're not doing it."

The Bulls lead the NBA in defensive field-goal percentage, so their defense has been good for the most part. But they've given up 60 points in the first half too many times.

Poor communication on defense is only one problem facing the Bulls. They've been inconsistent in just about every category there is.

Watching the Bulls get run off the floor by Golden State, it was easy to wonder if this group will ever play at a fast tempo, the way Hoiberg intended when he replaced Tom Thibodeau last summer. Asked about it Thursday, Hoiberg believes the Bulls can pick up the pace.

"Yes, because at times we do it," he said. "We need to do a better job of battling through adversity. … We tend to shut down at times when things aren't going our way out there. It just compounds when you play a team like Golden State.

"They just jump on you. They sense it. There's blood in the water. They go all over you when those things happen. We had too many of those stretches."

The box score told the story of Wednesday's loss. The Warriors shot 52.6 percent from the field with 38 assists. The Bulls shot 37 percent with 14 assists.

Too many Bulls were off-target. Pau Gasol missed all 8 of his attempts and scored 1 point. Tony Snell went 1-for-8, Nikola Mirotic 0-for-5, Doug McDermott 1-for-6 and Aaron Brooks 1-for-4.

The Warriors have one of those once-in-a-decade starting lineups, a perfect mix of luck, quality draft choices and a trade. Even though they play a different style, the 2016 Warriors are remarkably similar to the 1996 Bulls.

Both teams had the best player in the league (Michael Jordan/Steph Curry), a top-notch wingman (Scottie Pippen/Klay Thompson), a blue-collar power forward (Dennis Rodman/Draymond Green), a center who was mostly there for defense (Luc Longley/Andrew Bogut), a young talent who sacrificed his game for the benefit of the team (Toni Kukoc/Harrison Barnes) and an all-star turned role player (Ron Harper/Andre Iguodala).

The similarities end with the seventh man. Steve Kerr and Shaun Livingston have little in common. But with Curry knocking down shots from the midcourt logo, Golden State doesn't need a 3-point specialist off the bench.

The Warriors do have a veteran second unit, headed by Livingston, Iguodala, Leandro Barbosa and Marreese Speights. The Bulls have a solid top three with Gasol, Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler, then a cast of young characters who don't always show up.

Which current Bulls would excel in a fast-paced style?

McDermott looks like he could, but his offense remains up and down. Rookie Bobby Portis runs the floor well and scored 16 points against the Warriors, but he has a small sample size.

Snell has looked great a few times this season but remains a disappointment, while Mirotic is a true enigma. Sometimes Mirotic will play like a star, other times he will do more harm with turnovers and poor shot selection.

The second half of the season will begin with a flurry of road games. The Bulls will hit Boston and Cleveland this weekend, playing nine of their next 10 away from home.

"Last night was probably our most difficult game as far as our guys coming in here and being mentally drained for how that game finished," Hoiberg said. "It's a game you have to put behind you. Learn from it. We watched a lot of film on that this morning and talked a lot about it."