Billy Donovan Postgame Interview | Charlotte Hornets vs Chicago Bulls – 1.5.24

Billy Donovan Postgame Interview | Charlotte Hornets vs Chicago Bulls – 1.5.24

Bil it’s only one game against an underman opponent um who us or them what who us or them both teams well play uh but with five players and double figures 29 assists 54% shooting is this at least one snapshot of you guys playing the style of play with Zach and Nicole out

There yeah you know like I said I I I think that um the the film will be good to watch I I felt in the first half and and it really I think speaks to the guys in the locker room you know it’s an selfish group that wants to play for

Each other I thought we got a little bit too you know we was almost like we didn’t want to step on everybody’s everybody’s trying to like pass you know what I mean we weren’t playing aggressive enough I thought we did a little bit better job there in the

Second half we turned it over too much in the first half and they turned us over last time I played against them so they do a good job of that but I thought you know overall once we started playing with really really good Pace it’s a lot

Easier to play that way and I think in that you know first half of times with the turnovers and the stoppage play in the fouls it just we never really got out in transition and I think we were at our best when we were out in transition

Tonight you know but I think the intention of how the guys are trying to play you know is is is something I think you mentioned me about being sustainable I think that we can do that you know I think Zach can play any kind of style of play he’s a great transition player

Obviously he can shoot he’s lead scorer so um you know he’ll have opportunities you know and I I actually thought you know there was some opportunities he could have shot the ball a little bit more tonight you know but you know I think he’s trying to make sure that you

Know that Ball’s moving and he’s making quick decisions and getting offer of it and I think for first came back you know being uh out as long as he he’s been out and having to come off the bench and you know the minutes being a little bit different than what he’s accustomed to

You know he played well and I thought the same thing for Vu you know vu’s stints were a little bit shorter and it’s hard playing like that sometimes especially when you’ve been out and you have him banged against you know NBA players and I thought both guys coming

In you know in terms of how they played with with it being the first game was pretty good what do you think of his win just looking at him what do you think of his Zacks you know I asked him he said he felt pretty good the one thing about

Him I’d say is like just when he’s had you know different things when I’ve seen him out he bounces back really really well in terms of the conditioning it’s it’s pretty impressive and he he works hard you know I don’t think it just comes back very easily I mean he puts

The work in but he gets it back pretty quickly so he said he felt okay you know obviously as the minutes get increased you know the stin will be longer but um I thought he looked fine I think that it’s hard to assimilate for him uh even

As we ramped him up in NBA game you know for any of these guys but you know overall um I think his his win appeared to me to be pretty good you can you can ask him how he actually felt are you are you in a way sort of asking him to do

More with less I mean in terms of making the quick decisions taking the shots when they’re there not holding it things like that I mean if he does those things effectively I mean essentially he’ll be doing more with less well I you know I I think that you know there’s there’s

Always like a a a fine line of of like sometimes really really good offensive players play off the dribble and the dribble ends up sometimes becoming their Rhythm to get into stuff right and but when you look at Zach he can score that way he scores in catch

And shoot he scores in drives he scores finishing at The Rim so he scores on every single level um I think the biggest thing for him is really being aggressive and decisive in terms of what he’s got in front of him because he can score on any different level but also I

Think sometimes is trying to find a rhythm you know that way um being out 17 it can be hard to do that you know I mean I I can’t imagine he had a great Rhythm tonight but I thought he was decisive in terms of everything he did

You know which which was good but yeah I mean I think that’s the whole key I mean we’re doing a really really good job this year of generating and creating closeout situations I think we’re top five in the league which generally means the Bulls being doubl in the low post by

Vjin dear when they go down there and others drives to the basket and helps coming the problem is is we’ve got to get better with our points per direct we’re like 23rd in the league you know on on closeout situations and and if you look at all the elite teams offensively

There are teams that take a ton of Threes there’s teams that don’t take very many threes there’s teams that get to the free throw line there’s teams that don’t get but the one common it is they handle Closeouts really well at a high level and I think Zach is really

Good at that you know and when he’s decisive like that it opens up things for himself and for others because I think there’s more to Zach’s game than just him being this this scorer he can score but he’s he’s unselfish he’ll make the right pass um you know guys are open

He’s going to move it he he’ll do all those things um but when we do it decisively I think it allows to Bow a move and allows us to play faster how bad is Patrick’s ankle injury and just what kind of transpired pregame on the

Feedback you got on um he he he had been dealing with it you know for a few games and I give him credit he he really has tried to fight through it um it was bothering him this morning and he wanted to see how he was warming up

And I just don’t think he felt great um and I think this is part of his maturation process quite honestly because I think that my first year with him or second year when he had his ankle he didn’t say anything you know cuz he just wanted to

Play and he just and inevitably you know it flared up enough that we probably could have got it resolved so I give him credit that he’s going to Medical saying like this is bothering me and then as they tried to work him because he’s did everything he possibly could to try to

Play tonight and he probably played through it in New York and then what was the decision on dalan starting and what do you think of how he played well I think that just you know what I talked about pregame you know Zach and and Vu uh being on a minute restriction and and

Wanting to kind of shorten the game for them so that they would would be available late if we needed them and obviously they did play late tonight um so they were kind of you know I just didn’t want to start either one of those two guys and um you know Bridges is a

Hard matchup I thought dalon could maybe start on him you know he’s got some size and some length um and that was really just the the the reason um you know we talked a little bit about Terry possibly when I found I found out maybe I don’t

Know an hour before the game the AL couldn’t go um but we just thought that day you know has done a good job and we could see what the group did I actually was pretty pleased with the way that that group went out there and and played to start the

Game thanks okay thank you

Zach Lavine gets acclimated well in his first game back, Vuc came along well also. Bulls looked good

#seered #chicagobulls