Jim Boylan began his Tuesday by having a standard team discussion with general manager John Paxson, continued it with an impassioned defense of his players’ work ethic and resiliency and ended it with the solace that, somehow, the Bulls remain just two games out of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
The Pacers, in town Wednesday, currently hold that eighth spot, which few figured the Bulls to be chasing. Underpinning the broken record Boylan keeps preaching to players about sustaining effort, the Bulls reach the season’s halfway point with the playoffs still a possibility.
“The expectation was that we were going to be a 50-plus-win team,” Boylan said. “That hasn’t happened. So people are disappointed and frustrated. I don’t blame them. The players feel frustration also. Management feels frustration.
“But all I can say to those people who are feeling this team is underachieving is we have guys who come to work every day and practice hard. We prepare well. It just seems at times we don’t have the sustained effort we need to win.”
The Bulls — and Boylan — have a half-season to solve the problem.
“Whether I get another shot or whether I’m a head coach for 10 more years, it’s always going to be trying to get guys to play consistently,” Boylan said. “The season is long and there are peaks and valleys. You have to find ways to motivate your team.
“You hope that through the construction of your team you have guys with good character who are committed to playing a certain way. I think we have that here. We’ve just had a tough year. It has been difficult right from the beginning. Blame it on whatever you want. But I still believe our guys have within them the ability to put together a streak of games and get us back right again and play with a more consistent effort.”
The Bulls are 7-7 since Boylan took over as interim coach.
“I’m honored to be a head coach in the NBA,” he said. “I love my job. I’m not afraid of the difficulty or controversies that come with it. And any time I don’t enjoy it, I take a deep breath and say this is a dream job for me. I’m just going to have fun with it and work as hard as I can. I’m going to try to do better and get that record up so it’s well above .500.”
Doing so in the short term with the league’s worst three-point defense against a Pacers team that hurt the Bulls from that distance in their last meeting will be a challenge.
Boylan said Tuesday’s practice focused on new defensive wrinkles, par for the course for a team with a long road back.
“We’re going to keep fighting,” Boylan said. “No one is going to stop us from doing that.”
Layups
Luol Deng and Chris Duhon didn’t practice. Deng, who has a sore left Achilles’ tendon, will be a game-time decision Wednesday. Duhon is out seven to 10 days with a bone bruise in his left knee. … The Bulls almost had to stay in Memphis on Monday night after a four-hour delay because of weather and traffic at O’Hare.
