The spotlight is gone. The large contingent of national media has moved on. And the national television camera crews have left as well, probably reluctant to return after what they broadcast Saturday.
The Bulls were left alone Sunday to fall back into a familiar role, trying to improve on their standing as the worst team in the league.
“You have to be realistic in where we’re at,” coach Bill Cartwright said. “We’re going to take some steps forward and we’re going to take some steps back.”
The Bulls took a large one back in Saturday’s loss to Washington, shooting 24.7 percent and flirting with several NBA records for offensive futility before a late barrage. On several possessions the Bulls forced shots and did so quickly, with forwards Ron Artest and Eddie Robinson the most glaring culprits.
But after a film session and a 2-hour-50-minute practice–about an hour longer than usual–on Sunday, Cartwright suggested that the step backward isn’t as great as it appears.
“I didn’t view [Saturday] as being selfish,” Cartwright said. “Guys wanted to do well. They just tried to do too much. When that happens, it messes up your flow and your spacing.
“That’s what we talked about [Sunday], creating for one another, trusting one another. Hopefully, we can come out [Monday against Indiana] and execute, relax and play.”
Robinson is certain that can happen. He has been on a leash from the training staff as he works to full speed with a fracture in his big left toe. On Saturday, he got 21 minutes and seemingly tried to cram a game’s worth of activity into those minutes.
“I had the mind-set where I’m only playing such-and-such time, so let me get in here and score real quick,” Robinson, in his first season with the Bulls, said Sunday. “We were taking shots just to be taking them. They weren’t all bad shots. But the majority of them were.”
In Atlanta on Thursday, Robinson hoisted 12 shots in 17 minutes, which seemed fine because he made eight of them. On Saturday, Robinson went 3-of-14 in his 21 minutes.
“Eddie’s trying to learn a lot in a short period of time,” Cartwright said. “It’s easy to watch what we do. But it’s tough to execute because there are opportunities to do four different things from the same spot.
“He’s going to need a lot more repetition before it’s really instinctive and he starts to take advantage of it.”
The same could be said for the whole team, which is why Sunday’s practice focused on the triangle offense. Cartwright is striving for the Bulls to pursue all fast-break opportunities aggressively and then seamlessly fall into the offense, which is predicated on player movement and reading what the defense gives a team.
“We don’t want to be the team that calls plays,” Cartwright said. “We want to be able to read each other. It’s going to be a peak-valley thing. Hopefully, the valleys won’t be as often.”
The Bulls hope they won’t be as deep as Saturday’s either. Shooting 22-for-89 is an eyesore.
“You always want to look good on national TV, but it’s just one of those things,” forward Charles Oakley said. “We didn’t make shots. But why should we be embarrassed? There are a lot of bad games.”
