Bulls fall to Raptors in preseason, LaVine scores 25 – NBA.com

We are going to have to come up with a nickname for this intense Bulls defensive unit that gave the Bulls, Zach LaVine’s mastery excluded, the best sequence of Tuesday’s 106-102 preseason loss to the Toronto Raptors.
Even without inspirational leader Alex Caruso briefly sidelined with an ankle tweak, newcomers Torrey Craig and Jevon Carter combined for a pair of third quarter blocks and steals, the highlight Craig’s chasedown get-that-out-of-here of Gary Trent Jr’s breakaway. Their efforts rallied the Bulls from a game-high eight-point deficit to lead 77-76 on Craig’s putback of a DeMar DeRozan miss after three. But the Bulls couldn’t convert last-second chances by Patrick Williams and Ayo Dosunmu for a win or another overtime.
The Bulls preseason record dropped to 1-3 with the final game Thursday in the United Center against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The regular season begins at home for the Bulls Oct. 25 against Oklahoma City.
Steal and blocks, Inc?
Pressure Unlimited?
Disruption Junction?
“I feel like we had good defensive spurts, but we have to be more consistent; we don’t sustain it over the course of the game,” counseled Craig. “That’s who we have to be defensively, one of the teams no one wants to play against, is active, forces a lot turnovers, crowding the paint, blocking shots and making teams turn it over. That’s what we have to be on a nightly basis.”
The Bulls did show flashes of that, and some of the most effortless and proficient scoring we’ve seen from LaVine even through a pair of All-Star appearances and an Olympic gold medal. LaVine led the Bulls with 25 points in 30 minutes and dashed by very good Raptors defenders almost before they could react for easy layups and dunks. Nikola Vučević added 20 points and 10 rebounds and DeRozan had 15 points. 
Another of the Bulls goals for this season has been to play faster, pushing the ball out of the backcourt and getting shots more quickly. It’s fit LaVine’s thoroughbred style with his long, graceful strides and smooth finishes at the basket. DeRozan, as a result because he tends to seek out his shot in more of a half-court setting, has been somewhat less featured than previously.
Another Bulls priority of getting more overall shot attempts than their opponents to reverse a trend from last season did continue successfully. It’s been primarily due to offensive rebounding with Vučević grabbing five and Andre Drummond four among the Bulls’ 14. Both teams finished with 43 rebounds, though the Bulls set defense often was behind as the team sent Toronto to the free throw line for 38 free throws. The Bulls attempted 11.
Meanwhile, LaVine also made three of eight three-pointers in a disappointing shooting game for a Bulls team charged with increasing its long distance shooting volume.
As the preseason has continued, the Bulls have attempted fewer threes per game. As the Bulls extended their starters to the most minutes in this preseason series, Bulls coach Billy Donovan was somewhat disappointed in what he witnessed in addition to the fewer threes.
The Raptors even without both their centers pressured the Bulls, forcing 23 turnovers that meant 32 points. Toronto had 11 steals in potentially exposing a worrisome flaw in the Bulls structure.
Coby White had 11 points with some nifty shotmaking and clearly has the starting point guard position clinched for next week. But none from among he, Dosunmu and Carter, the presumptive candidates for starting point guard, are true facilitators or deft ball handlers. Toronto thus became seemingly the first preseason team with a scouting report, pressuring the Bulls guards into multiple turnovers, five for White who got into a shoving thing with the pesky Dennis Schröder, and four from Dosunmu. Williams also had four turnovers.
“Schröder did a good job of picking our guards up and being disruptive,” noticed Donovan. “For Coby and Ayo, it’s a great opportunity to get us organized and not be rushed and be able to execute. And when we did do that we had some really good possessions. But there were far too many turnovers. We can’t run away from physicality. You’re going to have to lean into it and have to screen and free each other and help each other.
“We got hurried up,” admitted Donovan. “I don’t think we used screens well. The other thing for us was almost running away from it instead of leaning into it. As aggressive as they were we should have been able to use that to get to the free throw line more. Instead of that it led to turnovers and some possessions we did not get into our offense. We’ve got to be better at that. That’s going to be one of our challenges. Someone has to handle the ball against the pressure.”
Donovan had made increasing the number of three-point shot attempts perhaps the biggest priority coming into training camp.
The Bulls were nine of 26 Tuesday on threes. The Bulls attempted 38 threes in the opener against the Bucks. Then 38 again against Denver, but in double overtime after the Bulls attempted 29 in regulation. Then 29 Sunday in Denver.
“We had too many shots we are passing up,” Donovan reiterated in a plea he’s made previously. “Not that we want to take 50 (threes), but we had an opportunity to take maybe another 10. What we are doing is shot faking and trying to pass the ball and not going to the rim. We are driving to the elbow and stopping and trying to pass. And we end up with a more difficult shot than we had prior to that.
“The hardest thing to do (for young players) is to read closeouts and make decisions out of closeouts,” said Donovan. “We sometimes are bailing on plays. There were a couple of times when we had good ball movement and no one shot it and we ended up taking a way more difficult shot than we had earlier in the clock. At times we got rushed with the pressure; at times our guards were not able to get to the screens.”
But as we know, it’s just preseason.
Donovan also said he had an early discussion with Williams when he substituted Williams less than three minutes into the game. Donovan said he wanted to emphasize the importance for Williams to rebound since he’s only averaging 2.5 per game in the preseason. Craig, substituting for Williams, played 27 minutes to 22 for Williams.
“I thought there were a lot of opportunities for him to get to the offensive backboards and rebound,” said Donovan. “We talked about it. I didn’t like the way we kind of came out. Like one possession, he could have laid a good screen and he slipped out of it. Patrick has to go to the backboard for our team; we need him to do that and he can do that.”
Williams remains the nominal starter at power forward, but Donovan has been quick to go to Craig. And also commending Craig for his voice with the team and demanding communication.
“I feel like part of my decision coming to this team was to try to impact the younger players on this team,” said Craig. “I knew they had a talented squad. I’ve played on a lot of teams and this is one of the quietest teams I’ve been on. That’s expected from a young group, so I try to talk as much as I can to relay to the young guys, and that’s when we are at our best. Being on good teams the first thing I learned is communication; it make everything that much easier. The more vocal we get as a team the better we will be.”
Craig gave voice to his play late in the third quarter with that crowd-rousing block on what seemed like a breakaway slam dunk.
“Make a play at the ball; that’s the kind of player I am,” said Craig. “I don’t care who it is. It can be Giannis, LeBron. Somebody’s on the break, I’m going to try to block it. I’m not going to let them lay it up. That’s just the kind of player I am.”
And now with one preseason game left to see what kind of players the Bulls are for this season.
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