Chicago Bulls star guard Jimmy Butler has been recently looked at as the voice of the Bulls recently. The guard re-signed with the Bulls in the offseason and he has been the target of some ridicule ever since. Butler has stepped up off the court for Chicago and now he’s been viewed as the man in Chicago, primarily due to Derrick Rose’s decline.
Butler and the Bulls took on the Charlotte Hornets last night in a game that was supposed to be a contest won by Chicago. Instead it was the Hornets that came out on top, looking great on all levels as the Bulls were blown out by the Hornets, 130-105. Butler wasn’t too pleased with the performance of the Bulls defense in particular.
Following from ESPN’s Nick Friedell.
“We ain’t been playing no defense,” a frustrated Butler said after the game. “Other teams have just been missing shots to tell you the truth, to be honest. [Shoot] we score enough points, that’s not the problem. But when you don’t stop nobody, they put up 130 or whatever they did, we got to nip that in the bud now because that’s not winning basketball. It will never be winning basketball here and it never has been winning basketball here. We’ve always prided ourself on playing hard and not being pretty. Tonight, we were pretty, we were soft. Got our asses whipped.”
“Effort,” Butler said. “Effort will fix all of that on the defensive end. It’s all if you want to do it or not, to tell you the truth. I think we got guys capable of it. I think we focus too much on offense a lot of the time. Not most of the time, a lot of the time. And we forget about what you got to do on the other end of the floor. Speaking for myself, speaking for a lot of guys on this team, we got to guard. That’s where it’s got to start for us. We got to be the dogs that everybody in Chicago knows we are, we’ve always been. Just some hard-playing guys that play harder than everybody.”
As Friedell also points out, Butler’s comments didn’t back up that notion heading into the night. The Bulls actually came into the game giving up just 91 points per 100 possessions, good for fourth in the NBA, according to ESPN Stats and Information research. The Bulls are seventh in points allowed per game at 95.0, sixth in opponents’ field goal percentage at 39.6 and first in opponents’ 3-point field goal percentage at 24.7 percent.
The score just looked bad, the Bulls aren’t that bad. Sure, they were out-rebounded 52-33 and the Hornets beat them up and down the floor all night but it’s just a bad night. Nothing to be concerned about longterm.
Chicago is one of the favorites to come out of the Eastern Conference and for obvious reason. They have the talented roster and a new coach who has their offense rolling on all cylinders. Chicago will end up being fine so Jimmy has nothing to worry about.
