(670 The Score) The early returns on the Bulls using a two-big man lineup with Nikola Vucevic and Tristan Thompson together have been poor, but coach Billy Donovan hasn’t shelved the experiment yet. He sounds like he wants to see it more.
For the first time since the Bulls signed Thompson at the All-Star break in February, they gave him a starting nod Friday in an eventual 118-112 loss to the Bucks at the United Center. Bulls coach Billy Donovan did so because he wanted more physicality and a bigger defender in Thompson against Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, though it didn’t have much effect as he still went for 34 points on 12-of-22 shooting and 16 rebounds.
The Bulls were a -10 in the 12:13 that Vucevic and Thompson shared on the floor Friday, which included time together after Thompson checked back in with 3:55 left and Chicago trailing 106-103. The Bulls were outplayed down the stretch by the Bucks, just as they were late in a loss to the Hawks on Thursday – though that had a lot to do with Atlanta star Trae Young hitting a series of ridiculous shots.
What was perhaps most frustrating was that the Bulls allowed three offensive rebounds to the Bucks late despite going with more size, making Chicago’s sacrifice of having less shooting on the offensive end hurt even more.
“I thought there were a lot of opportunities where they were putting Giannis in pick-and-roll and as aggressive and as hard as Javonte (Green) plays, throwing the ball up over the top of him, he didn’t really make a difference,” Donovan said of adding Thompson to his closing lineup. “He couldn’t get to it. I thought around the basket, it was really, really hard with the lack of size. I thought just trying to put a bigger body on him, and I thought second shots were going to be important. We gave (them) up, even when Tristan was out there. Some of the second shots were some rebounds where their guards really came in and hurt us on some second chances.
“Those are areas we’ve got to be better at.”
Thompson was a -25 in 20 minutes of action Friday, recording four points and three rebounds. Even though the pairing hasn’t worked early on, Donovan indicated he wants to see more of it.
“I like it,” Donovan said of the two-big lineup. “It’s not fair to those guys in my opinion, just because they haven’t really been able to be together a lot on the floor working on it. I’m kind of going on the fly a little bit here with them. We ended up starting Tyler Cook last game (against Milwaukee) we played them. You just have to have a bigger body on (Antetokounmpo). I liked the idea of having Tristan start the game. He’s obviously played against Giannis quite a bit and just have a presence there.
“Overall, I think it could be something we’re going to have to build out. Because I do think some of our spacing challenges offensively have needed to be better. And that’s not on those guys at all. I think it’s just the lack of time that we’ve had together to work on some of those things.”
Cody Westerlund is a sports editor for 670TheScore.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.