Bulls finish preseason by pounding Pacers
Last year, Bulls forward James Johnson toted a Dora the Explorer backpack, issued by the team's veterans.
Johnson is not a rookie anymore and he's saving the backpack for any future daughters, yet he walked out of the locker room at the United Center on Friday wearing an Oscar the Grouch knit cap with two long ties hanging below his shoulders.
Johnson and children's programming seem to be a natural fit.
The second-year forward is also doing his best to fit into the lineup. The Bulls wrapped up preseason by thumping Indiana 102-74 and Johnson knocked down 9 straight shots over the final two games.
“I feel like if we need energy off the bench, then I'm going to be the guy who fills that role,” Johnson said. “I just didn't want to have one good game in Toronto (on Wednesday) and take three games off.”
Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau talked before the game about how decisions need to be made about the playing rotation. Johnson helped make things more difficult by scoring 11 points in just over 12 minutes against the Pacers.
“I thought he played very well,” Thibodeau said of Johnson. “I thought a lot of guys played well. The rotation thing, that will be something we'll study some more. We're not quite ready to make a decision on that.”
The starting small forward, Luol Deng, completed an impressive preseason by piling up 29 points and 8 rebounds in 30 minutes. He went 10-for-10 from the foul line while scoring 15 points in the first quarter, then tacked on 14 more in the third. Deng shot 50.6 percent from the field in preseason and knocked down 15 of 29 shots from 3-point range.
“Whenever I'm open, I feel like the ball's coming to me,” Deng said. “I just feel like the way we move the ball right now, it's the best we've done that for a while.”
Derrick Rose added 14 points and 6 assists, while Taj Gibson scored 11 points. The Bulls finished the preseason with a 4-4 record and all the victories were against likely lottery teams (Indiana, Toronto twice, Washington).
They'll open the regular season Wednesday with a much more challenging assignment Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder on the road.
“I can't wait,” Rose said. “We have a good team and this year I told you we're going into every game having a chance to win. It seems like everybody here is dedicating themselves to coming in every day, practicing hard and we're holding everybody accountable.”
Thibodeau has been complaining about the Bulls' failure to contest shots, but they did a nice job Friday with Indiana shooting 35 percent from the field.
Center Omer Asik started for the fourth time in preseason and played well, finishing with 6 points and 10 rebounds. Indiana's Roy Hibbert scored 14 points, but hit just 5 of 16 shots and grabbed 3 boards.
Noah still sick:
Bulls center Joakim Noah missed his second game because of an illness, but did sit on the bench during Friday's victory. Coach Tom Thibodeau said Noah is feeling better and shouldn't miss any practice time leading up to Wednesday's season-opener.
For Indiana, forward Danny Granger (ankle) and point guard T.J. Ford (hamstring) sat out, while forward Mike Dunleavy limped off the court after playing four minutes and didn't return.
Missing the points:
By releasing guards Kyle Weaver and John Lucas III, along with Roger Powell, on Thursday, the Bulls chose not to keep a third point guard on the roster, although its conceivable one of them could be re-signed.
“Right now, what we're doing is we wanted to open up some roster space,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “We're going to continue to a take a look at guys. We feel good about Derrick (Rose) and C.J. (Watson) at the point and we also feel we can put Ronnie (Brewer) there, too.”