Bulls' defense gets a do-over in rematch with Rockets on Sunday
There were no reports Saturday of the Houston Rockets petitioning the league office to play some tougher competition in preseason.
So the Bulls will get to do it again Sunday at the United Center. After picking over the video and making some adjustments, they'll try to produce a less-feeble effort in the Rockets rematch.
"I think certainly the way we played yesterday was not how we've worked in training camp at all," Bulls coach Billy Donovan said after Saturday's practice. "The competitive spirit as a group needed to be better in terms of stopping runs, in terms of finding ways to generate good shots or get stops or a rebound."
The Bulls fell behind 14-2 at the start of Friday's preseason opener and were never competitive. They trailed by 32 points midway through the fourth quarter before losing 125-104.
At the same time, the Bulls have a new coach and only a week of practice. Thanks to the shortened preseason schedule, they'll get to try again against the same opponent.
"I think it's a good challenge, playing against the same team and kind of see how we can respond," Tomas Satoransky said. "I think the most important thing is just to do a better job of basically competing and putting a little more pressure on them, on the ball. Make them feel us from the beginning."
The only real take-away from Friday's debacle was the Bulls playing terrible defense. Even without James Harden, the Rockets had 102 points by the end of the third quarter and knocked down 24 of 52 shots from 3-point range.
Defense is bound to be a challenge for the Bulls this season and it starts on the ball. Coby White moved into the starting point guard role and couldn't do much to slow down Houston newcomer John Wall.
If there was one Bulls player that stood out Friday, it was probably Satoransky, who produced 11 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists. When he was the starter last season, the Bulls had the same issue. At 6-7, Satoransky is just not equipped to defend NBA point guards.
The Bulls really settled down on defense last year when defensive specialist Kris Dunn joined the starting lineup, but he's moved to Atlanta, so it's up to White to figure things out.
Friday's game reinforces the idea Satoransky may be better suited for a backup role.
"Just got to play harder," White said. "(Wall) is a tough match obviously, he's an all-star point guard, a superstar point guard. He's been out two years so I wasn't expecting nothing less from him. I've got to take on the challenge. I think the second half, I took on the challenge. I took it more to heart because the first half he got the best of me.
"I know I'll be guarding a lot of the top point guards in the league every night. When I look at myself, I look at myself as trying to get to be a top point guard, so I can't ask for nothing more. I'm going to continue to get better from it."
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