The game that was supposed to mark Jabari Parker's triumphant return against his former team, turned into quite the embarrassing preseason defeat against the Milwaukee Bucks. Chicago Bulls head coach Fred Hoiberg showed deep concern for his team's porous defense and lack of concentration, calling three time-outs during a three-and-a-half-minute span that was full of poor effort and rookie-ish transition mistakes, ones that ultimately led to a 116-82 loss.
“I was upset with everything,” Fred Hoiberg said, according to Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic. “We weren’t getting back. We let our lack of shot-making affect our overall game as far as edge and effort. Our transition defense was not good, and we weren’t getting matched up coming back.”
In this sequence, the Bulls' defense starts perfectly aligned, but quickly comes apart after the first pick-and-roll action, allowing a wide-open corner three, giving Giannis Antetokounmpo not one, but three potential 3-point shooters to target as he drives through the heart of the paint. The Bucks wing 3-point shooter goes after the offensive rebound and allows his team to control it, only to allow for an Eric Bledsoe wide-open look from the opposite corner, another miss, and two consequent offensive rebounds leading to a score.
The Bulls' defensive issues are very real. Bucks got two wide open corner 3's from each corner and a tip-in layup on this possession. I'm no lip-reader, but Hoiberg's reaction at the end of this play says it all. pic.twitter.com/TDJQjnFSWE
— Steph Noh (@StephNoh) October 4, 2018
“Luckily, it’s just preseason. It doesn’t count on our record,” said Bobby Portis, who scored a team-high 17 points. “But I think that moving forward we can use this as a lesson learned for the regular season and not have nights like this anymore.”
The Bulls won't have too many more preseason games, as only three remain before the losses start counting — and mistakes like this costing jobs and minutes until Hoiberg can get them up to par.
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