Defense hasn't been the Chicago Bulls' undoing this season. Even without the injured Lonzo Ball since 2022-23 tipped off, Billy Donovan's team boasts a 111.3 defensive rating entering Friday's action, the fifth-best in basketball, per NBA.com/stats.
You wouldn't have known it watching Patrick Beverley and Nikola Vucevic on a now-viral busted coverage from Chicago's win over the Detroit Pistons earlier this week, though.
Addressing his on-court spat with Beverley that arose from Jaden Ivey beating the veteran guard off the bounce and finishing at the rim encumbered, Vucevic downplayed the argument, insisting it was just “part of the game.”
“It was just arguing in the moment,” Vucevic said, per K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago. “It wasn’t that big a deal. We talked about it. It happens every game. People always make a big deal out of when players argue on the court. That’s part of the game. We’re competitors. We’re trying to make the right play. Sometimes you don’t agree on the same thing in the moment. Talk it out and it’s over with. We never talked about it after.”
Ainda bem que o clima no Chicago Bulls tá bem gostoso 🥰 pic.twitter.com/Tdta94lp2Y
— NBA da bad (@NBAdabad) March 2, 2023
Vucevic went on to explain that the breakdown occurred because he was most concerned with Detroit sharpshooter Bojan Bogdanovic coming off a pair of screens as Ivey turned the corner on Beverley.
“What that means is we’re not allowing him to come off, at that point, it was a stagger-away two screens set for him,” Vucevic said. “He had hit two or three 3s out of that action, so we talked about we were going to top block. So I had to drop down really deep.
“In the moment, I got caught up looking at Bogdanović to help [Alex Caruso]. Pat Bev got driven by Ivey. I didn’t see.”
Good on Vucevic for keeping it real about the particulars of his discussion with Beverley.
Not every argument on the playing field in pro sports is a symptom of something bigger. Beverley got beaten badly at the point of attack, and Vucevic failed to keep his eye on both the ball and off-ball action elsewhere. Both veterans made mistakes, ones that are easy to diagnose on film.
Simple as that.
“It’s the NBA. It happens almost every game. There are going to be disagreements,” Vucevic said. “In the moment, I thought I was right. He thought I was right. You look at the tape. I’m wrong. He’s wrong. We’re both wrong. I get caught up looking away in the moment. He gets beat. It happens.”
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