Boylan blames himself for loss
Jim Boylan may be an interim coach thrown into a difficult situation, but give him credit for stepping up in his postgame news conferences.
A few weeks ago, Boylan basically apologized to the city of Chicago after a nasty home loss to Washington.
Thursday night at the United Center, the Bulls declined to fight for that obtainable eighth playoff spot in the East, opting instead to clock out early in the second quarter on the way to a meek 102-80 loss to San Antonio.
"Tonight we just didn't have our enthusiasm the way we needed it to be to compete against a team like San Antonio," Boylan said after taking an abnormally long time to emerge from the locker room following the game.
"You try to prepare for the games and, as a coach, you look at yourself and you say, 'Did I get my team ready to play tonight?' I'd have to be honest and say I didn't have us ready to play. I'll shoulder that responsibility. Just as the players need to be accountable, so does everybody on our staff."
The aging Spurs (45-23) appeared to be vulnerable when this game began. They had lost four in a row, six of their last seven and fell behind the Bulls 12-4.
The right amount of energy figured to put the Bulls in good position. Of the 12 players in uniform for San Antonio, 10 were older than Larry Hughes, the Bulls' elder statesman at 29.
But the Spurs caught up quickly, then buried the Bulls in the second quarter. The visitors went on a 22-4 run to stretch a 2-point lead to 53-33 with a minute left in the first half. The Bulls (27-41) never came close to getting back into the contest.
The Bulls are 6-9 since making the Feb. 21 trade with Cleveland and Seattle but had been competitive in most every game other than a 23-point loss at Boston on March 7.
"They have a complete package of players, and tonight when you're playing against a team like that, you better bring it," Boylan said. "We didn't bring everything we needed to bring."
Guard Ben Gordon, who started in place of the injured Kirk Hinrich (right ankle sprain), refused to blame the Bulls' indifferent performance on poor preparation by the coaching staff.
"We've been inconsistent all year," Gordon said. "I can't really say I'm surprised by the effort tonight. We haven't put good consecutive efforts together all year. You can blame it on whatever it is, but when we're out there on the floor, we've got to come out ready to play."
The Bulls have had trouble staying in front of Spurs point guard Tony Parker with their best backcourt defenders, Hinrich and Chris Duhon, on the floor. With both sidelined, Parker ran wild for 23 points and 6 assists in 30 minutes.
"There are no excuses," Hughes said. "We just didn't get it done. They were basically able to impose their will on us as the game went on."
Luol Deng led the Bulls with 18 points, though he scored just 4 in the first half when the game got out of hand. Tim Duncan added 22 for San Antonio.
"It's great to get off the schneid," Duncan said. "This was a step in the right direction."