Practice ... Billy Donovan's talking practice ... and Bulls need it

Monday couldn’t come soon enough for Billy Donovan.

That’s when the Bulls coach gets back in the lab, back to the basics that have been sporadic at best for his roster, especially on the defensive end.

Just a whistle, some film work, and a lot of sweat. And the kicker for Donovan? Not a game in sight until Friday. That means four days of “Billy Ball Boot Camp.”

Friday’s 132-123 loss to Indiana was just another reminder of how badly the Bulls need it.

“I don’t want to place it all on practice, but we do need that,” Donovan said after the loss. “The way the schedule has been in November, we do need it. We’ve got to figure out ways, all of us, coaches, players, solve just the quick things that happen in a game that leads to breakdowns.”

Donovan couldn’t be more right, as the lingering issue for the Bulls (10-14) remains the defensive end of the floor, specifically a lack of physicality in the paint, way too many communication breakdowns, and inconsistent close outs because of all the blow-bys that have been allowed.

It’s the blow-bys that continue to irk Donovan the most.

“Middle of the third quarter where (T.J.) McConnell’s got it,” Donovan recalled. “I’m not down on that end so I don’t know what was (communicated) if anything, but he just drives in uncontested. Like that stuff just can’t keep happening.”

But it is.

So while Zach LaVine was putting up 32 points on an efficient 12-of-22 shooting night and the Bulls as a team were hitting 42% of their threes (21-of-50), the defense continued being the anchor that sinks good offensive nights.

“It just comes down to effort, man,” guard Lonzo Ball said. “We’ve just got to be in the right spots at the right time. Guard our yard better obviously. Like I keep harping on, we’ve got a lot of guards so we should be able to keep the guy in front.

“We scored 120-something and we still lost. In my opinion we shouldn’t be doing that. I mean 120 should be enough to win.”

After a dismal second quarter in which the Bulls were outscored 36-19, they did show some fight in the third quarter and had LaVine to thank for that.

Few players on the roster can get on a heater like LaVine does at times, and that was on full display coming out of the halftime locker room, as the two-time All-Star went 6-of-8 from the field, including 2-of-3 from three-point range, to score 16 in just under 10 minutes of work.

But even a LaVine scoring flurry couldn’t run down the Pacers (10-14).

No, that took some well-timed defense from the team’s youngsters.

Second-year wing Julian Phillips started off the fourth with a steal, then Ayo Dosunmu ripped down a rebound and hit Coby White on the break for a pull-up three-pointer, and then it was Dosunmu again, ripping the ball from the Pacers and hitting Phillips on the break for a nasty one-handed slam. Just like that a 10-point deficit was down to just three.

However, that’s also when the Pacers started flexing their offensive firepower from beyond the arc and the Bulls defense again ran and hid.

Tyrese Haliburton answered a LaVine three-pointer with seven minutes left, and then came another Haliburton three less than 30 seconds later. Trading body blows down eight was the last thing the Bulls could do, but that’s exactly what happened as every Bulls basket was met with an answer.

“There’s times where we communicate great, we’re flying around and getting to our spots, and there’s times we don’t do it,” Ball added. “Just being consistent with it and trusting that help is going to be there.”