After all the drama surrounding the Bulls last week, they hoped to leave their troubles behind upon embarking on a six-game, 12-day trip.
The turmoil surrounding the team after Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade publicly criticized the work ethic of some younger teammates and Rajon Rondo jumping into the fray resulting in fines for the veterans left coach Fred Hoiberg — who described it as a "tough week" — trying to ignore the backlash.
"You can’t pay attention to it if you want to survive in this league as a player, as a coach, whatever role you may be in," Hoiberg said before the Bulls faced the Thunder on Wednesday night at Chesapeake Energy Arena. "You have to do the best you can of not letting it rule your life. Go out and do the job."
Hoiberg said reeling off a few victories — like Sunday’s 121-108 triumph over the 76ers — is the answer for what ails the Bulls.
"Winning does cure all, there’s no doubt about that," Hoiberg said. "You’re only as good or bad as your last game and I felt like we played the right way (Sunday). We have to continue on that trend if we want to compete past April."
Moving on: Wade knows a little something about pairing with another star player to lead a team, having played alongside LeBron James with the Heat before they went their separate ways. The Thunder had a similar situation with Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant before the latter bolted for the Warriors this season. That has left Westbrook to try to lead the Thunder as a solo act.
"They’re just in different places," Wade said of Westbrook and Durant. "It takes away nothing from what they did together. Everyone doesn’t play together their whole careers. Michael (Jordan) and Scottie (Pippen) didn’t play together their whole careers (and) Shaq (O’Neal) and Kobe (Bryant) didn’t play together their whole careers. It doesn’t happen that way that often. And those guys had an unbelievable run together. Their lives and their careers grew in two different ways; what they wanted was different and that’s OK."
Valentine’s day: Hoiberg said he tried to watch rookie Denzel Valentine play for the Windy City Bulls of the Development League on Wednesday but couldn’t get the link to the streaming video to work. He missed Valentine drop 27 points — including five 3-pointers in the fourth quarter — during a 117-109 loss the Long Island Nets in New York.
"It sounds like he played really well down the stretch and brought the team all the way back from a big deficit to give it a chance to win," Hoiberg said. "The big thing for Denzel with the D-League situation is to get conditioning, get timing, and he’ll join us hopefully at some point on this trip.”
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