Pelicans coach in sync with Bulls' Thibodeau

New Orleans coach Monty Williams is now two years into sharing an assistant-coaching slot on Team USA with Tom Thibodeau.

Last year Williams told an amusing story about Thibodeau wanting to make a late-night trade before the two coached a U.S. Select team scrimmage.

After winning a gold medal this summer at the FIBA World Cup in Spain, Williams had nothing but good things to say about the Bulls' head coach.

"He's just a good friend," Williams said before Saturday's game. "I just know he's a really, really good coach. One of the best I've been around. I learned a ton from him."

Asked for a favorite memory from Spain, Williams settled on the 37-point win over Serbia in the gold-medal game.

"It's one of the few times you win a championship and you can enjoy it for a quarter or two," Williams said. "We never joked. We knew we had it won, but we were still too serious for our own good on the bench, still barking at guys. Guys were kind of on us about, 'Calm down, coach. We've got it.'

"We're like, 'Shut up, man. We've got another quarter to go.' He and I both had the same mindset. That was a pretty cool moment, to finally win it. But we had a number of great moments for the 2½-3 month period."

Davis returns home:

This was the first NBA game at the United Center for Chicago native Anthony Davis. He missed games at the UC the past two years because of a concussion and a broken hand.

He did play here last August, though, in the Team USA exhibition against Brazil, and Pelicans coach Monty Williams remembered the moment well.

"The ovation he got surprised me," Williams said. "I realized he was a big name from Chicago and a great kid, but I didn't realize how much this city adored him until they called his name out."

Bulls center Joakim Noah talked about Davis at the morning shootaround.

"He's a freak," Noah said. "There's not a lot of things he can't do on a basketball court. He affects the games in a lot of ways.

"Even though his stats are crazy, there's a lot of things that he does that you don't even see on a stat sheet that affect the game. He's a heck of a talent."

Walking with Thibs:

Here's more from Monty Williams on his Team USA partnership with Tom Thibodeau.

"We had a lot of long walks and talks together," Williams said. "We were up late at night with Coach K (Duke's Mike Krzyzewski), coach (Jim) Boeheim, sometimes three or four o'clock in the morning watching film.

"He and I were both wide-awake trying to figure out how to help our team win a gold medal. I learned a ton from him. Like I said, he's one of the best I've ever been around."