One gear: Thibodeau, Bulls continue to grind forward
CHICAGO - If the Chicago Bulls didn't exist, NBA commissioner Adam Silver would have to invent them.
As this team rests its star players for a fresh start in the NBA postseason, as that team eyeballs the standings to scale its efforts on a given night to playoff positioning or lottery chances, the Chicago Bulls trudge forward, always forward.
Sometimes they march. Sometimes they plod. Every once in a while, the game flows more freely and you'd swear you saw swooshes on their work boots. But this is a one-direction, one-speed, one-gear team - forward, forever in overdrive - that doesn't apologize when critics seize on that as a problem at this time of year: The Bulls play so hard all the time, so there's no 'next level' to which they can take their game in the playoffs.
Like that's a bad thing.
So what if Chicago doesn't click-clack through the shift gate like some exotic sports coupe flitting about the Riviera? Armored tanks, steamrollers and threshers seem to do fine without dual-clutch 7-speed gearboxes. So do Terminators, a.k.a., Tom Thibodeau.
'We're not changing,' Thibodeau said after the 108-95 victory over Orlando in the Bulls' home finale. 'We're trying to win games. ... We're not changing our approach: Every game, analyze what we're doing well, what we're doing not as well as we would like, make our corrections, move on to the next one, know the opponent well, keep moving forward. That's all we can do.'
You could stump a few Chicagoans by asking to identify the source of the following quote: 'It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.' Who said that: Michael Biehn 's character in the original 'Terminator?' Or a Bulls player, requesting anonymity, in describing Thibs?
Forward Taj Gibson didn't take the unnamed route when he went there Monday.
'You guys have been around for a minute now,' Gibson, a top Sixth Man candidate, told reporters. 'You guys should know that guy in the other room over there, he's not going to tell anybody to take any rest. He's old school. He doesn't believe in that. He just believes in pushing forward.
VIDEO: The passion of Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau
'Like he said, 'The finish line is ahead. You've got to just run through it. You can't slow up, you can't try to trot through. You've got to run full speed ahead through it and whatever happens, happens.' He told us, 'We want to walk through the fire together as a team, as a unit. Nobody's going to take that from you. You've just got to keep walking through it. Don't stop for anything.' '
OK, so there's no ring collection in the Chicago locker room. Backup center Nazr Mohammed is the only player to have reached The Finals, never mind win the title, and the Bulls' collection of Larry O'Brien trophies has fit on the same shelf for 16 years now.
But then, Thibodeau and his crew aren't preachy about their relentless ways - heck, it might scare off some free agents the way tales of Pat Riley 's taped, full-contact, two-hour 'shootarounds' used to. Grinding steadily forward simply is what has worked for Chicago.
There really wasn't much choice, after the long-anticipated return of MVP candidate Derrick Rose ended just 10 games in. Rose's second season-ending knee injury and the subsequent trade of All-Star Luol Deng threatened to do more than just slam shut this Bulls edition's championship window. It had some fans luridly licking their chops over lottery slots. They, of course, were the ones who know nothing about Thibodeau.
The Bulls are 21-8 since the All-Star break and 34-17 since trading Deng in early January. Their defense is a constant, the relentless embodiment of their head coach. And though Chicago ranks ranks 28th in offensive rating (102.7), the Bulls lately have been almost breezy, scoring 100 points or more in five of their past seven.
With Gibson and Joakim Noah developing as scoring options, with shooter Mike Dunleavy moving into a starting spot up front and with D.J. Augustin dusting off his career as Thibodeau's latest point-guard reclamation project, the offense has hit triple digits 14 times in its 29 post-break games vs. 11 times in the 52 before it.
Their 100-89 loss Sunday in New York snapped a seven-game winning streak, but at least it wasn't the result of guessing at the Indiana-Miami flip-flopping atop the conference and trying to game the playoff seedings. If anything the Bulls Game 7 everything.
'It's made us who we are,' guard Kirk Hinrich said after the Magic victory. 'That's just kind of the makeup of this group and the beliefs that [Thibodeau] goes by. Us as players, there's something to be said about just coming in, preparing. You feel prepared, you're confident, and that goes a long way.'
Dunleavy occasionally has rolled his eyes at the work-load demands he has faced under Thibodeau. Then again, the 6-foot-9 forward didn't play on a .500 team in his first 11 NBA seasons, so he's not complaining.
'Playing with high intensity like we do all year helps,' he said. 'I certainly am going to keep the same approach in the playoffs. It's just another game because I think we prepare for every regular-season game like it's a playoff game. That's the way we've been doing it, and hopefully we roll right through in terms of smoothness and transition into the postseason.'
Roll? Typically by this time each spring, the Bulls are limping and bleeding. Once the smoke and smell of sulfur from Rose's latest demise cleared, though, the rest of the roster got and largely has remained healthy. As hard as Thibodeau pushes, they have become true believers in the ol' 'Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger' ethos.
'We believe in ourselves, we believe in our abilities,' Noah said. 'We think we're going to be a tough out. We're going to go out there and give them hell.'
Forty-eight minutes of it, sometimes served up that way per man (see Jimmy Butler, 2013 postseason). All in one gear, at one speed.
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