Bulls coach Billy Donovan back to the lab in finding evolving lineups
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – A Bulls black pullover was his lab coat and a dry board with magnets his microscope.There was Billy Donovan on Monday night, in his lab that was the FedEx Forum, still mixing lineups and looking for the right chemistry.A mad scientist? After all, it was the first time this season that Donovan used point guards Josh Giddey and Lonzo Ball at the same time. Nah, just Donovan adding more layers to “Billy Ball.”“I play with anybody, but Josh is definitely a different type of player,” Ball said of the fourth-quarter team-up with Giddey. “I’m not used to having somebody out there that’s a point guard that can rebound as well, so him being 6-8 and playing against a four, if he gets the rebound you have to get out a lot faster, so I enjoyed it.”So did everyone else.Giddey entered the game in the fourth with the Bulls trailing the Grizzlies by 11. Ball entered about two minutes later with the deficit cut to seven.First came a beautiful Giddey pass to a cutting Zach LaVine for the dunk, and then a minute later a Ball assist on a LaVine three-pointer. The Bulls grabbed the lead on another Ball to LaVine three, and the lead became five when Giddey grabbed an offensive rebound, the ball found its way back to Ball, and he hit Coby White for a three-pointer.By the time Ball had gone slightly over his minutes restriction of 16, Donovan had to pull the plug on the experiment and get him out, but the lead was five for the Bulls and there was just 3:43 left on the clock.When the smoke cleared on the 126-123 win, Ball finished with six points, six assists and a team-best plus-16 in plus/minus, while Giddey had eight assists and was a plus-11.“I thought they were both good,” Donovan said of the duo. “Those two guys can make the game easier. I think Lonzo’s talk in the game was really good. Just giving guys confidence and belief.”Besides improving to 2-2 with the win over the Grizzlies, the Ball story might be the best thing the franchise has going right now.After three left knee surgeries, which included basically an entire replacement with the last one, Ball has returned from having two-and-a-half seasons off to not only be productive off the bench, but the perfect addition to Donovan’s up-tempo, let-the-threes-fly offense.While the organization is still holding its breath that Ball has no setbacks, so far so good.Since returning to full-contact practices late in fall camp, there has been some general soreness with the knee, but Ball has had no setbacks. He still will sit out one of the games of the back-to-backs and remain on the minutes restriction, but the fact that he already went from the baseline 16 (four, four-minute stints) up to 18 against Memphis was positive.“The rotation is a hard rotation because you got to play four minutes, but I also think he's going to have to consistently show that he is going to be available for his career and also for us,” Donovan said of Ball. “There could be a point in time where if there’s enough of a body of work where you can sit there and say, ‘OK, we can take him from here, and now we can take him up a little bit higher.’ He’s responded well.”Teamed with Giddey for that fourth-quarter stint, the offense also responded well, as the Bulls have now put up over 50-plus three-point attempts in two of their first four games.“I told you, we’re going to shoot ‘em,” Ball said of all the threes. “It’s a new brand of basketball for us in a way.”And the line up experiments are just getting started for the mad scientist.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – A Bulls black pullover was his lab coat and a dry board with magnets his microscope.
There was Billy Donovan on Monday night, in his lab that was the FedEx Forum, still mixing lineups and looking for the right chemistry.
A mad scientist? After all, it was the first time this season that Donovan used point guards Josh Giddey and Lonzo Ball at the same time. Nah, just Donovan adding more layers to “Billy Ball.”
“I play with anybody, but Josh is definitely a different type of player,” Ball said of the fourth-quarter team-up with Giddey. “I’m not used to having somebody out there that’s a point guard that can rebound as well, so him being 6-8 and playing against a four, if he gets the rebound you have to get out a lot faster, so I enjoyed it.”
So did everyone else.
Giddey entered the game in the fourth with the Bulls trailing the Grizzlies by 11. Ball entered about two minutes later with the deficit cut to seven.
First came a beautiful Giddey pass to a cutting Zach LaVine for the dunk, and then a minute later a Ball assist on a LaVine three-pointer. The Bulls grabbed the lead on another Ball to LaVine three, and the lead became five when Giddey grabbed an offensive rebound, the ball found its way back to Ball, and he hit Coby White for a three-pointer.
By the time Ball had gone slightly over his minutes restriction of 16, Donovan had to pull the plug on the experiment and get him out, but the lead was five for the Bulls and there was just 3:43 left on the clock.
When the smoke cleared on the 126-123 win, Ball finished with six points, six assists and a team-best plus-16 in plus/minus, while Giddey had eight assists and was a plus-11.
“I thought they were both good,” Donovan said of the duo. “Those two guys can make the game easier. I think Lonzo’s talk in the game was really good. Just giving guys confidence and belief.”
Besides improving to 2-2 with the win over the Grizzlies, the Ball story might be the best thing the franchise has going right now.
After three left knee surgeries, which included basically an entire replacement with the last one, Ball has returned from having two-and-a-half seasons off to not only be productive off the bench, but the perfect addition to Donovan’s up-tempo, let-the-threes-fly offense.
While the organization is still holding its breath that Ball has no setbacks, so far so good.
Since returning to full-contact practices late in fall camp, there has been some general soreness with the knee, but Ball has had no setbacks. He still will sit out one of the games of the back-to-backs and remain on the minutes restriction, but the fact that he already went from the baseline 16 (four, four-minute stints) up to 18 against Memphis was positive.
“The rotation is a hard rotation because you got to play four minutes, but I also think he's going to have to consistently show that he is going to be available for his career and also for us,” Donovan said of Ball. “There could be a point in time where if there’s enough of a body of work where you can sit there and say, ‘OK, we can take him from here, and now we can take him up a little bit higher.’ He’s responded well.”
Teamed with Giddey for that fourth-quarter stint, the offense also responded well, as the Bulls have now put up over 50-plus three-point attempts in two of their first four games.
“I told you, we’re going to shoot ‘em,” Ball said of all the threes. “It’s a new brand of basketball for us in a way.”
And the line up experiments are just getting started for the mad scientist.
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