For Bulls, it’s all work, work, work before play

On Monday and Tuesday, Tom Thibodeau said the following, sometimes without prompting:

* “Are we putting the work in that’s necessary to compete well? That’s what the good teams do. I’ve been around a long time. I know what should go into a season.”

* “You have to prepare for the grind of an NBA season. There’s no getting around that. You have to put the work in every day.”

* “Nothing great was ever achieved without effort. I know that.”

* “You can’t lose sight of how important conditioning is.”

Translated, nobody should be surprised the Bulls practiced Wednesday, originally scheduled to be a day off. Players said it consisted mainly of film review, on-court walk-throughs, stretching and shooting.

Have the Bulls lacked focus and work ethic thus far?

“It has to be better,” Thibodeau said.

Last week, Thibodeau scrapped a Friday double practice session for an unscheduled day off. But with Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah playing limited minutes and the Bulls, like most teams, showing several areas in need of improvement through an 0-2 start in exhibitions, the Advocate Center hummed on Wednesday.

“When you skip steps in this league, it’s not going to be good,” Thibodeau said.

Opening an exhibition schedule with back-to-back games is rare. So is practicing the day afterward. But the players, none of whom have logged big minutes, appeared to take it in stride.

“It doesn’t change with him,” Mike Dunleavy said of Thibodeau. “It’s always about putting the work in. We have guys who are pretty good about that. Nobody played huge minutes. Getting some work in (Wednesday), I think it’s pretty good.”

Added Nikola Mirotic: “Every practice for us is good. We have a lot to do to improve. We are really hungry. We want to be the best team.”

Thibodeau called establishing the right habits and chemistry with some players logging limited minutes “a great challenge and also a great opportunity.” He also said he planned to practice each day leading up to Saturday’s exhibition in Milwaukee.

“Who plays, we’re doing that on performance,” Thibodeau said. “So you have to get your house in order. The notion that it’s preseason and we’ll get it, we’ll get it, we’ll get it. That’s not how you win in this league. The regular season will be here before you know it.”

Reckoning: Monday night, the principals tried to downplay the odd sight of an altercation three minutes into the Bulls-Wizards exhibition opener.

Wednesday, the NBA offered its reaction, fining Joakim Noah and Paul Pierce $15,000 apiece and suspending four Wizards for the regular-season opener — Nene, DeJuan Blair, Daniel Orton and Xavier Henry — for leaving the bench area.

The altercation came when Noah shoved Pierce in the chest and Pierce poked Noah in the forehead.

kcjohnson@tribune.com

Twitter @kcjhoop