For those Bulls who thought 2003 was the tough part–the losing, the general manager and coaching changes, the trades–think again.
Playing their fourth game in five nights and their last of the calendar year, the Bulls dropped to 9-22 Tuesday after a hard-fought 98-93 loss to Minnesota at Target Center.
But all the Bulls need to know about 2004 is that coach Scott Skiles actually checked the league’s collective bargaining agreement to see if he could practice his team on both New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
That he can’t shouldn’t lessen the impact of his message.
“We’re trying to set a standard in what we expect from all of our players, and the standard is going to be raised by me within the next couple of days again,” Skiles said. “I’ve had a month now of evaluation and working with the guys. I think it’s a great group.
“But I don’t think the bar has been raised high enough. And more often than not, people tend to go to wherever the expectations are. What we have to do is put a program in place for everybody that demands a lot. Then guys get better individually.”
Skiles said this process can be accomplished in a non-confrontational way, unlike the demeanor he used to draw a second-quarter technical foul.
That’s when the Bulls rallied from an early 20-point deficit that rekindled memories of a franchise-record, 53-point loss on this court two seasons ago.
Minnesota, led by Kevin Garnett’s 28 points and 15 rebounds, was celebrating the sixth anniversary of its first victory over the Bulls. It hasn’t lost in the series since, a span of 10 games.
Horrific shooting both from the floor and free-throw line–38 and 65 percent, respectively–hurt the Bulls.
Still, they trailed 94-90 with one minute to play when Eddie Robinson didn’t execute a play correctly and forced Kendall Gill to attempt a wild shot.
Sam Cassell, who contributed 21 points and nine assists, then swished a 17-footer at the other end for a six-point lead and a Skiles timeout.
“Down the stretch we settled for jump shots and we came out of timeouts not knowing what was going on, which was unacceptable,” Skiles said.
Robinson, who otherwise played well with 13 points off the bench, agreed.
“I took too long to curl on the play,” Robinson said.
Kirk Hinrich’s 17 points and 10 assists led the Bulls, who also got 16 points from Eddy Curry before he fouled out.
Skiles kept screaming “Drive it!” to Jamal Crawford, who shot 5-for-18.
Perhaps the biggest indignity for the Bulls came with 2:27 remaining when official Scott Foster whistled Latrell Sprewell and Linton Johnson for a double technical foul.
Johnson, who didn’t play all game, had been heckling Sprewell, who kept saying, “Who is he?”
Foster didn’t know either, asking for Johnson’s uniform number to assess the technical.
Sprewell, who had 27 points, smiled about the incident afterward: “I still don’t know who he is.”
