A regular sight following any Bulls practice is seeing John Salmons leaving the court last, hundreds of extra jumpers in his wake.
“That wasn’t working,” Salmons said with a chuckle after Friday’s practice at USC.
What Salmons has been doing — and what has paid dividends thus far on this six-game trip — is getting extra shots in before practice as well.
“I was just trying to get a rhythm back,” he said.
Salmons scored 23 points against the Kings and 18 points against the Lakers thus far on the trip, making 51.6 percent of his shots. That’s far above the 31.7 percent he carried West.
Perhaps it’s no coincidence Salmons no longer is settling for mostly jumpers and, particularly against the Lakers, attacked the rim early.
“Shooting 3s is never my first option,” Salmons said. “I always try to get to the basket first. If I’m open, I’m definitely going to take the 3. But you can get caught up in shooting 3s. Once they start going in, you can lose yourself a bit. And you always want to stay true to yourself.”
Mellowing ‘Melo: The Bulls collectively and Luol Deng in particular did a solid job guarding Carmelo Anthony in their first meeting Nov. 10 with the Nuggets. Coach Vinny Del Negro knows holding the league’s second-leading scorer to 8-for-22 shooting again will be tough.
“They drop him in the post, they isolate him, he has quick spin moves, you have to find him in transition,” Del Negro said. “I thought Luol did a nice job on him and our rotations were good.”
Deng said he worries less about how many points scorers like Anthony and LeBron James score and more about their shooting percentage.
Crossing paths: The Bulls flew to Denver after Friday’s practice in Los Angeles, mere hours before the Nuggets played the Clippers at Staples Center. That means the Nuggets will be playing catch-up to the Bulls, who hope to take advantage by winning Saturday at the Pepsi Center, one of the tougher road venues in the league because of altitude.
“We need to get out in the open court,” Del Negro said.
Only 11 days have passed since the Nuggets beat the Bulls when officials overturned Brad Miller’s apparent buzzer-beating game-winner on an awkward-looking flipped jumper. Told he should, just for kicks, try another shot like that, Miller grinned.
“However I shoot it, it’s going to count this time,” Miller said.
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kcjohnson@tribune.com
