Bulls Hold Players-Only Meeting Following Blowout Loss 2023.

The Chicago Bulls players were in the middle of a conversation when coach Billy Donovan entered the locker room after his team’s 124-104 season-opening loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. They asked if they could have a private room to chat among themselves.

Bulls guard Zach LaVine remarked, “Guys want to win,” following the game on Wednesday. “In game 1, you’re going to have some conversations when you set up a game like this. Guys are impatient, and you ought to be too. Though it’s a positive thing, it’s unfortunate that it occurred in game 1. After it occurred, we had to decide what to do next.

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Chicago did not envision their season beginning with a players-only meeting following the opening game, following the return of the bulk of their roster. The Bulls doubled down on roster consistency, bringing back their top seven players by minutes played from the previous campaign while also adding two reserves in Torrey Craig and Jevon Carter.

But on Wednesday night, the Thunder outmatched the Bulls. After the first quarter, Chicago had a 35-33 lead but managed just 69 points in the next three minutes. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ended with 31 points, 10 assists, and five rebounds, and the Bulls had no answer for him. With 20 points, DeMar DeRozan led the Bulls.

After they made their run in the second half, LaVine, who finished with 16 points on 4-of-16 shooting, said, “We just didn’t respond.” Not a very good performance from us. did not have a good ball launch. We didn’t seem to have given our game enough passion. That’s our fault, too. It’s a terrible way to begin the season, but it offers us a chance to improve the following game.”

On Wednesday night, Bulls players vented their emotions outside of the locker room.

Donovan got into a heated argument with center Nikola Vucevic on the team bench during the third quarter. In the aftermath, Vucevic admitted to have voiced his emotions “maybe a little more aggressively than I should have.”

“Those occur when things are tense,” Vucevic remarked. “You’re trying to help your team win, and you’re trying to win yourself. I objected to what was happening.

“I got all the respect in the world for Vooch,” Donovan continued. I expressed my feelings to him and he responded in kind. He was undoubtedly justified in feeling the way he did, but how can you use that emotion to inspire and uplift the group? Perhaps I could have handled it better with him at that moment, and perhaps he could have handled it better with me. Nothing impolite or else inappropriate happened. I didn’t blame him; I believe he was simply getting a little impatient with the way we were playing.”

In spite of the two exchanges, Donovan expressed satisfaction with the manner the Bulls were talking about their problems on Wednesday night, particularly in contrast to the team he described as being silent the previous season. The Bulls, who lost in the play-in tournament and missed the playoffs the previous season, are attempting to improve their performance with a nearly identical squad.

Although Donovan refrained from referring to the locker-room meeting after the game as a team meeting, he expressed his satisfaction that the Bulls were having tough talks at the beginning of the season.

“I’m not going to sit there and say that it was bad, like people were tearing up the locker room,” Donovan stated. That was not at all what it was. They were conversing inside. ‘Hey, Coach, can we talk?’ they exclaimed as soon as I walked in. I agreed and walked out.

Not a single thing about this is personal. These guys genuinely care about improving themselves, yet they are aware that they need to break certain bad behaviors. And they’re discussing attempting to accomplish that as a collective.”