Skiles trying to pinpoint what's wrong with Bulls
With the Bulls off to an 0-4 start, suitable topics for discussion Wednesday would have been the team's anemic shooting percentage (.373), continued poor performances from key players, or an inability to hold Cuttino Mobley to fewer than 33 points.
But the day after a 97-91 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, Bulls coach Scott Skiles felt the most pressing issue was written all over his players' faces.
"We're always into the little details of everything," Skiles said following practice at the Berto Center. "But I'm less focused on that than I am on, 'Why do we all look so funny in the face? Why do we look so strange right now?'
"That's what I'm trying to focus on. We're trying to get to the bottom of 'Why don't we even look like ourselves?' "
Slow starts have been common for the Bulls, but the past two weeks have brought some unusual circumstances. There were unfinished contract extensions for Ben Gordon and Luol Deng, trade rumors involving Kobe Bryant and perhaps an increased burden of higher expectations.
Skiles said recently he's a "no excuses" guy and he doesn't want to accept any of it.
"It's easy to say, 'Well, there some were distractions in training camp,' " Skiles said. "But there are always distractions on every team. If we're going to give in to those kinds of things, then that tells us something. Across the board, we've got to get back to playing the way we know how to play.
"It's just kind of unique things this year, having the two-contract thing coupled with the Kobe rumors and all that. Again, we're simply challenging guys. That's what pro sports is. This is what you chose to do. This is your profession. You've got to get past it."
The Bulls looked better at the start Tuesday but eventually fell behind by 13 points in the second quarter because Mobley was a perfect 10-for-10 from the field in the first half.
In the fourth quarter, the Bulls held the lead for more than nine minutes and were up 89-85 with 4:07 remaining before the Clippers finished on a 12-2 run.
"What I see at times is when teams go on runs, we kind of put our heads down a little bit," forward Joe Smith said. "We need to back each other up and kind of get each other motivated to go on runs of our own."
Even though he's the Bulls' only veteran newcomer, Smith is the one player living up to expectations.
Center Ben Wallace has been slowed by a sprained ankle and is averaging just 4.3 rebounds.
Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich, Andres Nocioni and Chris Duhon all are shooting well below 40 percent, while Thabo Sefolosha (9 points in three games) seems to have lost confidence on offense.
"Normally, when we're not shooting the ball well it's because other things are coming into the group that are causing some sort of mental issues," Skiles said. "We need to get over those."
No one has reason to panic, because slow starts are nothing new. The Bulls were 3-9 last year and finished 49-33. In the 2004-05 season, they went from 0-9 to 47-35. Even Dallas' 67-15 team from last season started the year with 4 straight losses.
There is plenty of time to start shooting straight, but the schedule isn't easy. The Bulls host Detroit tonight and Toronto on Saturday before starting the six-game circus road trip.
"I'm not going to say this is not a familiar situation, because it is," Gordon said. "Every year I've been here we've started slow. It's not good enough. This team has been around long enough. We just have to do whatever we have to get going and get over that hump."