Chicago Sports

Zach LaVine wasn’t going to predict how the playoff series with Milwaukee would end, but he knows how it needs to begin.

Throw the first punch, and keep punching.

If not?

“I feel like they’ve been a championship-caliber team for a couple years now,” LaVine said of the Round 1 showdown. “They’re experienced. We have to come in and try and shake it up a little bit. We have to bring the fight to them, because if we’re back on our heels it’s not going to be good.”

Or it will simply be like it has all season long when taking on the defending NBA Champions. Two competitive games in the first two meetings, and then two laughers in which the Bucks looked like the hunter rather than the hunted.

That’s a trend that’s been going on in this series for a few seasons now. Thankfully, the Bulls have a little less than a week to try and change that, with Game 1 scheduled for Sunday in Milwaukee. A week in which LaVine & Co. not only have to figure out how to slow Giannis Antetokounmpo down, but look in the mirror and do a self-examination of why they played so poorly against elite teams this season.

A lot of film watching, a lot of sweat, but also a ton of soul searching.

“We have a lot of guys that this is going to be new to them, including the group as well, so I think it’s a step in our next direction,” LaVine said. “We should be going at it full force and with confidence. Like I said at the end of [the Charlotte loss], we’re a good team. We just have to start playing like it and bring that confidence to it. I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

Easy for LaVine to say early week.

Milwaukee is a bad matchup for most opposing teams on any given night, but even more so against the Bulls.

They have a defensive stopper in Jrue Holiday that can give fits to either LaVine or DeMar DeRozan, and not need help. They have an underrated rim protector in Brook Lopez, who also has the ability to pull the Bulls defense out because of his three-point shooting. Khris Middleton is a clutch shot-maker, and then there’s Antetokounmpo: A two-way elite force that the Bulls haven’t been able to slow down in years.

Every team has flaws, but Milwaukee has very few.

“They’re a very vet-savvy team,” LaVine said. “Obviously, they play with a lot of confidence, physicality. They’ve got Brook at the rim, obviously Giannis coming weak-side and Jrue Holiday as well. They’ve got a really good team, a complete team. I think we do as well. We’ve just got to attack them and figure out ways to beat them.”

A process that will start on Tuesday, with the Bulls getting Monday off to rest up, both mentally and physically. The hope is LaVine (left knee) and Alex Caruso (back) will be full participants in all the practices, but that remained an unknown.

What was known? Milwaukee will not allow the Bulls to have in-game slippage without making them pay. If the underdog doesn’t come in with a punch-first mentality, a sweep is not only a reality, but very likely.

“I think it’s more about us and how we play,” second-year forward Patrick Williams said. “We can’t really worry about them. We have to lock in to our habits. I think it’s more making sure we’re connected offensively and defensively. We’ve shown when we are connected on both ends of the floor and all the guys are connected, we’re pretty good. At that point it just turns into, ‘Let’s play.’ ”

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It doesn’t take a lot of looking to realize the Chicago Blackhawks have a goaltending problem.

After trading Marc-Andre Fleury to the Minnesota Wild at the deadline the situation has only gotten worse, as Kevin Lankinen and Collin Delia have left something to be desired in-between the pipes. The Blackhawks sit in the bottom ten in the NHL in both goals against average and save percentage, numbers which have only gotten worse since the departure of Fleury. With the two current netminders sitting at 26 and 27 years old respectively, it isn’t looking like they are going to be vastly improving anytime soon.

Despite this, the future of Blackhawks goaltending does look pretty bright. That future is Drew Commesso.

Drafted in the Second round of the 2020 draft, Commesso impressed early with his play in the US National Development Program. A few months later Commesso found himself starting as a freshman for Boston University, putting up a .914 save percentage in 11 games his freshman year. He followed that up with a .915 save percentage through 28 games this past season.

Those numbers are very respectable, especially for guy who hasn’t turned twenty yet, but even more impressive are his numbers from the Olympics. In two games played, Commesso registered a 1.00 GAA, .964 save percentage, and 2 wins. Though a small sample size, those are some ridiculous stat-lines on one of the world’s largest sporting-stages.

Did I mention this guy is only 19? Pretty unreal if you ask me.

Unfortunately, due to the cancellation of the most recent World Juniors, we were robbed of an opportunity to see Commesso perform against the best his age group has to offer, besides the single game he played taking a victory over Slovakia 3-2. Lucky for us, however, we will have another chance to see Commesso compete when the 2022 World Juniors begin again in August.

am very excited to see more of what this kid can bring to your Blackhawks in the hopefully not-so-distant future. You should be too.

Make sure to check out our Blackhawks forum for the latest on the team.

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ORLANDO, Fla. — The Fire entered their game Saturday against Orlando City without four key players, and they played the second half a man down. It all proved to be too much to overcome in a 1-0 loss, their first of the season.

Midfielders Fabian Herbers and Xherdan Shaqiri and defender Miguel Navarro were out with injuries, and captain Rafael Czichos missed his second consecutive game because of health and safety protocols.

Then Homegrown midfielder Brian Gutierrez was shown his second yellow card in the 43rd minute. Ercan Kara scored on a header for his first career MLS goal in the 59th minute. It was the first time the Fire have trailed this season.

“It might have been a difficult call on the second yellow,” Fire coach Ezra Hendrickson said. “But that first yellow is something that he has to learn from, and all the other players have to learn from. That’s a really poor yellow to get, standing in front of the ball, trying to block the free kick like that. That’s inexcusable. So hoping he learns from that because that’s what really did him in.”

Hendrickson liked the effort from the replacements, but he came back to Gutierrez’s ejection.

“I thought they did well,” he said. ”[Jonathan Bornstein], [Jhon] Espinoza, Gutierrez, I thought they all came in and did well. Before that red card, I thought Gutierrez was playing well. I thought he was moving the ball. He’s a young kid. Hopefully, he learns from this. I thought he was having a good game up until then. That really hurt us as a team.”

Orlando (3-2-2, 11 points) outshot the Fire 21-7 and had a 6-2 edge in shots on goal. Gabriel Slonina had five saves for the Fire (2-1-3, nine points). The Fire have allowed only two goals, tied with the Union for the fewest in MLS.

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MINNEAPOLIS — DeMar DeRozan wanted to put some thought into the question.

“Who is the most underrated player?” he said recently. “In today’s game, right? Oh, Jrue Holiday. As good as people think he is, he’s even better.”

And Holiday is arguably the third option on the Bucks, whom the Bulls will face in the first round of the playoffs.

Good luck, Bulls.

With a blowout victory by the Celtics and a loss by the Bucks, who rested most of their important rotation players against the Cavaliers, the defending NBA champions finished as the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference, setting up the showdown with the Bulls.

The Bulls’ 124-120 victory against the Timberwolves had no effect on the seedings in either conference, and both teams played it that way, resting most of their significant players. But it was still nice to see second-year forward Patrick Williams score a career-high 35 points.

“We’re made up of talented players,” Williams said. “Just taking that confidence in yourself into the playoffs and just knowing you can make plays, know what you bring to this team. That is the building block of what we can be in the playoffs.”

The win gave the Bulls a 46-36 final record, which was a huge jump from last season’s 31-41 mark, but that improvement didn’t tell the entire story, specifically how the Bulls fared against the NBA’s elite, including the Bucks.

Not only did the Bulls go 1-14 against the top four teams in the East, but they were swept by Milwaukee in their four meetings, including a 127-106 beatdown last week at the United Center.

The issues against all-world forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, however, go beyond this season. Antetokounmpo has won 13 straight against the Bulls, and Milwaukee has won 16 of its last 17.

The last time the teams met in the playoffs came in 2014-15, which was the last stand for the Tom Thibodeau Bulls, who won the series 4-2, led by Jimmy Butler and Derrick Rose.

Antetokounmpo was just starting to emerge that season and wasn’t a dominant player yet. And while few opposing teams have had an answer for him in recent seasons, the Bulls lack a true matchup to throw his way.

In the four games against the Bulls, the “Greek Freak” averaged 26.8 points, 10.3 rebounds and 1.5 blocks while shooting 55.7% from the field. That includes last week’s blowout in which Antetokounmpo only played 24 minutes.

“We have to get that mindset and come in with that ‘dawg’ mentality,” Zach LaVine said of the upcoming series. “We’ve got a lot of days to prepare. Obviously, we’re going against the defending champs. I think it’s just a great opportunity.”

Injury concerns

Nikola Vucevic, LaVine and DeRozan sat out Sunday’s season finale mostly for resting purposes. The real concern coach Billy Donovan had was for LaVine (left knee) and Alex Caruso (back).

Neither was in danger of missing the first-round series, but Donovan was more worried about what he can get from them in an important practice week leading up to that series. The medical staff has been mapping out a plan, but it’s still wait-and-see.

“Maybe they’ll have days off or maybe they’ll just do parts of practice, but certainly the health of those guys is the most important thing,” Donovan said.

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What a chaotic Sunday it was across the NBA — and especially in the Eastern Conference.

Eighty-one games in, all 30 teams in action for No. 82 and way too many questions about playoff seeding to keep track of them all — that’s the sort of day it was. A grand total of zero first-round matchups had been set by the end of play Saturday. Can’t it be like this every year?

All these teams alive with all this possibility, yet somehow it seemed as though the Bulls — even though they were waiting to find out which team would be the East’s No. 3 seed and their first-round foe — weren’t even in on the excitement. The Bulls have backed themselves into a No. 6 ditch and lately don’t seem good enough to do anything other than sleepily watch their own wheels spin.

Entering Sunday, however, the Bucks, Celtics and 76ers still were racing one another for position behind the top-seeded Heat (or trying to outfox one another to land a first-round matchup against the Bulls). The Nets, Cavaliers, Hawks and Hornets each had at least three possible landing spots from seeds 7 through 10. In the West, the Warriors, Mavericks, Jazz and Nuggets still were sorting out seeds 3 through 6.

That’s a good day. Again, let’s have more of this chaos next year, but with one caveat: the Bulls having an actual playoff pulse.

And here’s what’s happening:

MON11

WNBA Draft (6 p.m., ESPN)

Whose Atlanta dream comes true at No. 1 overall, slick 6-2 Kentucky guard Rhyne Howard’s or smooth 6-4 Baylor forward NaLyssa Smith’s? And what will the Sky do with … oops, never mind. They don’t have any picks.

TUE12

Mariners at White Sox (3:10 p.m., NBCSCH)

The Sox are 14-6 in their last 20 home openers but only 2-5 in the last seven of those games, all of which has — let’s face it — utterly nothing to do with what happens this time. No extra charge, friends, for the useless information.

NBA play-in: 7s vs. 8s (6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., TNT)

It’s Cavaliers at Nets in the opening game, with the winning team ticketed for Boston in the first round. It’s Clippers at Timberwolves in the second game, with the winning team headed to Memphis. And the losers? They play on with the play-in, each needing a ”W” on Friday to stay alive.

Kings at Blackhawks (7:30 p.m., NBCSCH)

The surprisingly good Kings are in reasonably solid shape playoff-wise, but they don’t have enough wiggle room to be out there messing around. Remember wiggle room, Hawks fans?

WED13

Cubs at Pirates (11:35 a.m., Marquee)

If there’s one thing the rebuilding Cubs can count on, it’s that they’re still better than the Pirates. Wait, they are, aren’t they? Kyle Hendricks takes the bump after a strong effort on Opening Day.

NBA play-in: 9s vs. 10s (6 p.m. and 8:30, ESPN)

Another doubleheader, this one of the win-or-go-home variety. We’ve got Hornets at Hawks in the East, Spurs at Pelicans in the West and — haven’t you figured out how this works yet? — a pair of 7-vs.-8 losers awaiting whoever comes out on top.

THU14

Mariners at White Sox (1:10 p.m., NBCSCH)

It was supposed to be Lucas Giolito’s second start, a reminder of how up against it the Sox’ pitching staff might be in the early going. On the other hand, this would be a great day for four or five guys to combine on a no-hitter.

Cubs at Rockies (7:40 p.m., Marquee)

We didn’t have time to get used to Kris Bryant in a Giants uniform, but this Rockies thing is going to last. Too soon to ask whose cap he’ll choose for his Hall of Fame plaque?

FRI15

NBA play-in finales (times TBD, ESPN, TNT)

Time to make it official: Which poor suckers are getting served up to the top-seeded Heat and Suns in Round 1?

SAT16

NBA playoffs begin

Play-in, shmay-in — the real thing is finally here. There are four Game 1s today (check your local listings) and four more Sunday. The best part of all? No more than one of those eight contests will involve the Bulls losing.

Blackhawks at Predators (11:30 a.m., NBCSCH)

The bad news is the Hawks are just playing out the string. The good news is they’ll be getting their rockabilly on by midafternoon on Lower Broadway.

Georgia spring game (noon, ESPN2)

Just in case you forgot what football looks like, might as well take a sneak peak at the defending national champs. Spoiler alert: The Dawgs are still pretty good.

Galaxy at Fire (7 p.m., Ch. 9)

The Fire have given up a league-low two goals in six games. That’s even stingier than your Cousin Earl, who’s been splicing cable off neighboring RVs since before these players could walk.

SUN17

Rays at White Sox (1:10 p.m., NBCSCH)

Same old, same old: Nobody is picking the Rays in the American League East this season. It gets kind of ridiculous after a while, doesn’t it?

Cubs at Rockies (2:10 p.m., Marquee)

A four-game series concludes, after which it’s back to Wrigley Field to face — hey, would you look at that? — the Rays. What a coincidence that they just happened to be in town already.

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The Chicago White Sox opening weekend against the Detroit Tigers was a mixed bag with a loss on Opening Day, blowing a 3-1 lead through seven innings and losing 5-4. However, in the next two games the White Sox bounced back with two decisive victories and a strong reminder of why they are the team to beat in the AL Central.

The White Sox didn’t provide many surprises, but a few players stood out and what we saw has to be noted as the season starts to develop. Here’s a look at some of the main takeaways from the opening series.

Hendriks’ Bad Pitch

Liam Hendriks looked poised to earn his first save of the season on Opening Day with the White Sox leading 4-3 over the Tigers and one out in the ninth inning with their star closer on the mound. With a full count, it ultimately came down to one bad pitch, which oddly enough hit its desired location. Hendriks wanted the inside fastball and hit his spot, but Tigers catcher Erik Haase was sitting on the fastball and crushed it to left field to tie the game.

In the 9th, 24 of the 33 pitches Hendriks threw were fastballs, making the pitch to Haase rather predictable. Moreover, Hendriks still had a chance to force the game to extra innings but allowed two hits with two outs to cost the White Sox. It’s easy to pin the loss on the veteran closer but the outing itself is not a predicament for the closer.

Hendriks is going to be a pivotal part of the White Sox bullpen this season and will most certainly rebound from his first outing. Even he knows how frustrating the loss was considering it only came down to a poorly timed fastball. Relievers, especially closers are often defined by their innings but oftentimes it’s the one pitch that can define their games, especially in tight games.

Cease’s Strong Start

Dylan Cease picked up where he left off last season in his first start of 2022. Cease pitched five innings and allowed only one run while striking out eight Tigers in the 5-2 win on Saturday.

What stood out wasn’t that Cease had a great start, but rather how he dominated on the mound. Like many starters in the modern game, Cease relies on a fastball-slider combination to get him through games. With both pitches working in his first start, the Tigers’ batters were under his control. Cease focused on two pitches as 70 of the 79 pitches thrown by the 26-year-old right-hander were either a fastball or slider. The unpredictability with those two pitches fueled the eight strikeouts and the first win of the season.

Cease will be heavily relied upon this season in the White Sox rotation, especially with the injuries to Lance Lynn and Lucas Giolito. Cease already commanding both pitches early on in the season hints at a season where the young pitcher emerges as one of the best in the game.

White Sox Bullpen

It’s easy to look at the bullpen from the weekend as a disappointment, especially after the first game. The White Sox had a 3-0 lead through four innings but allowed two runs in both the eighth and ninth innings with Aaron Bummer and Hendriks on the mound as they lost 5-4.

It’s worth noting that this bullpen is still in a transition phase following the trade of reliever Craig Kimbrel only days before the season started. More importantly, the bullpen bounced back and was otherwise strong in the weekend series.

The bullpen pitched nine innings in the final two games of the series and allowed only one run. Notably, Kendall Graveman pitched a scoreless inning while Bummer closed out the 5-2 victory on Saturday. The White Sox bullpen remains a strength of the team and considering the short starts from both Cease and Michael Kopech, it needed to be to close out this series. With the early injuries, the White Sox don’t have a starting pitcher that can go six or seven innings consistently. As a result, the pressure will be on the relievers early on in the season.

White Sox Bats Close Out Series

The White Sox scored 4.91 runs per game last season with one of the best lineups in the game. Along with the Atlanta Braves, the batting order scored the seventh most runs in the MLB.

The lineup remained steady in the first two games, scoring nine runs combined before cruising to a 10-1 victory in the Sunday win, reminding everyone why it carried the team to a 93-win season last year.

Tim Anderson returned to the lineup after serving his two-game suspension and the leadoff hitter provided three hits with five total bases. In the back half of the lineup, Andrew Vaughn provided stability with a three-run home run to put the game out of reach. Vaughn was filling in for AJ Pollock and not only added power, but made his case to stay in the everyday lineup as a versatile player.

The White Sox proved over the weekend that they have a powerful lineup, but also that they have a deep batting order as well. It will fuel the team in the brutal months of April and May that are ahead of them.

Other White Sox Notes from the Series

Despite being only the first series in a long 162-game season, there was more than enough action that took place in Detroit over the weekend:

AJ Pollock had four hits in seven plate appearances before leaving Saturday’s game with a hamstring injury and then being placed on paternity leave. Quite the weekend for Pollock indeed.
Lucas Giolito pitched four scoreless innings in the opener with six strikeouts. Unfortunately, Giolito will miss at least the next two starts with an abdominal strain.
Michael Kopech pitched four innings in the series finale, allowing only one run with three strikeouts. Every Kopech start is watched with bated breath by the team and fans alike.

The White Sox will play their home opener on Tuesday against the Seattle Mariners, who wrap up a 4-game series with Minnesota on Monday. The series will only continue to test the roster powering through the opening week of the season as the White Sox hope to continue to use the month to solve the unanswered questions for the roster.

Make sure to check out our WHITE SOX forum for the latest on the team.

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If you’ve been watching the Chicago White Sox this weekend against the Detroit Tigers, one consistent trend we probably enjoyed was the White Sox being able to score runs in the first inning of the first three games of the season. It is likely one of the positive signs to come in what is supposed to be a promising season with legitimate chances of seeing a championship. The White Sox have started the ’22-23 season with a record of 2-1, with one of the losses coming from an odd walk-off single from Javier Baez. 

THIS WEEK: SEATTLE MARINERS (2-1)   

Following the series with the Tigers, the White Sox will head home and await the Seattle Mariners. Seattle is currently battling through a 4-game series against the Minnesota Twins. The Mariners have shown some grit to outlast the Twins in the first two close games. However, they were smacked around on Sunday, losing 10-4 with their pitchers giving up a total of six homers and 10 hits in the beatdown.

There are two pitchers the White Sox will likely face off against in the coming series against Seattle:

Robbie Ray (First game stats against MIN: 7 IP, 1 ER, 3 HITS, 5 Ks, 1.29 ERA) — The 30-year-old veteran pitcher is entering his 10th season in the league after signing a 5-year-deal with Seattle this offseason. He has only played the White Sox twice in his career, with lifetime stats of 13.1 IP, 1 HR, 2 ER and 27 total strikeouts against the White Sox.

Logan Gilbert (First game stats against MIN: 5 IP, 1 ER, 3 HITS, 7 Ks, 1.80 ER) — Logan Gilbert is a 6’6” right-handed pitcher going into his second year in the league. He finished his rookie year with the Mariners with a 4.68 ERA. He’s only played against the White Sox for two innings, where he struck out three and gave up hit.

When it comes to Seattle’s group of hitters, the White Sox will need to keep an eye out for Mitch Haniger, who’s coming off a strong start with 3 hits, 2 home runs, and 5 RBIs throughout his first three games. Seattle’s first-baseman, Ty France, and shortstop, J.P. Crawford have contributed to their offense with seven combined hits between each other. Crawford is coming off a career-high 37 doubles last season. While France had a timely hit in the ninth inning for the Mariners to help secure their second win of the season on Saturday.

The White Sox last played the Mariners back on June 27th, 2021, when they won 7-5. They are 5-5 in their last 10 games against Seattle. The three-game series against the Mariners begins on Tuesday, and while it is not official, it appears it will be the eight-year righty, Vince Velasquez on the mound for the home White Sox opener. Seattle still has another game on Monday night, while the White Sox have a short trip back to Chicago from Detroit.

This early in the season, it’s hard not to be optimistic about Andrew Vaughn’s excellent hitting through the first three games (6 RBI, 4 H, 2 HR). The offensive firepower remains more explosive than ever with Luis Robert already leading the club with 5 total hits and Jose Abreu right behind him with four total hits and two doubles to start the season. Dylan Cease was on fire Saturday, racking up eight strikeouts and giving up only two hits through five innings.

It remains a disappointment the White Sox will lose AJ Pollock and Lucas Giolito for some time, but neither case appears to be serious enough to sideline them for weeks. The White Sox will then host the Tampa Bay Rays for three games in their home field, before traveling to Cleveland for a long 4-game series against the Guardians.

Make sure to check out our WHITE SOX forum for the latest on the team.

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There’s an unwritten but steadfastly followed rule for NHL coaches, young and old, to never criticize — and certainly to never blame a loss on –their goaltender.

Derek King did his best to follow that rule Sunday after the Blackhawks’ 6-4 loss to the Stars — their seventh consecutive defeat –but he couldn’t completely skirt around the struggles of starter Kevin Lankinen.

“We could’ve used a couple stops here and there — and I’m sure the goalies feel the same way — but I’ll never throw goalies [under the bus] or anything,” King said. “We need to be better in front of them, I guess.”

“He was just off, that’s all,” he added later. “He was having an off night, just like some of our players have had off nights. It’s just magnified with the goalie, because he’s the last resource defending.”

Lankinen, to his credit, has avoided completely cratering at any point this season. Every awful stretch has been countered by a respectable stretch. Since his embarrassing third-period meltdown March 28 against the Sabres, for example, he’d gone three consecutive games with a save percentage of .905 or better, including some overtime heroics against the Coyotes and a stellar 60-minute effort against the Kraken.

But if alternating awful and respectable stretches doesn’t sound like an effective formula for season-long success, that’s because it isn’t. Lankinen has won just four of 22 starts, with no thanks to the team in front of him, and now sports an .886 save percentage (after entering the day at .890).

He exited Sunday –replaced by Collin Delia at the second intermission — having allowed five goals on 20 shots, and four of them were probably stoppable. Jamie Benn scored off a juicy rebound in front, Roope Hintz slid a relatively slow shot past Lankinen along the ice and Jason Robertson took advantage of him twice, first when Lankinen lost track of his net and the puck and later when Lankinen was simply beaten by a clean shot.

“He’s played well,” King said. “He has kept us in games and not [been] rewarded. And tonight, it just wasn’t his night.”

Hungry Katchouk

Boris Katchouk’s first takeaway about Chicago, his new home, is the food selection.

“I could go to a new restaurant every day of the season,” he joked Sunday pregame. “It’s a cool city, for sure.”

Katchouk arrived with little in the way of expectations. He has adjusted perhaps slower than former Lightning teammate Taylor Raddysh has, but on Sunday he finally earned his first goal — and first point –with the Hawks, blasting a one-timer past Stars goalie Jake Oettinger.

“It has been up and down,” he said. “There’s some good games but there’s also some bad games, but I expected that. I’m just coming into each and every game and trying to put my best foot forward. I’m not here to score a ton of goals or anything like that. I’m here to play a 200-foot game.”

The new-look fourth line of Katchouk with Reese Johnson and MacKenzie Entwistle was surprisingly yet clearly the Hawks’ best line Sunday.

King, who’d previously urged Katchouk to focus on playing a “north-south game” with a strong emphasis on forechecking, showered them with praise.

“They were outstanding,” he said. “That’s good for them. They had a job; we talked to them about how they had to play; [and] they played it to a ‘T.'”

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MINNEAPOLIS – Take the emotions out of it.

Take the record against elite teams, the quality of play since the All-Star Break, all the outside noise of what this Bulls team can’t do, and “flush that sh–down the toilet.”

That was the message from veteran Tristan Thompson with the regular season now in the rear view mirror.

“You have to,” Thompson said on Sunday. “You don’t flush all that sh–down the toilet now … next week is the final exam. Nothing else that’s happened to this point matters. If you let it, you’re in trouble.”

Besides being suddenly well-versed in plumbing issues, Thompson also has an NBA championship ring on the resume. He’s not alone, either. Alex Caruso collected a ring with the Lakers, and coach Billy Donovan has heard “One Shining Moment” a few times when he was coaching at the University of Florida.

There’s title pedigree in the Bulls locker room.

But there’s also reality.

As much as the veterans with playoff experience have been trying to will this group out of the rut they endured the last few months, words and stories about what happened in 2016 only carry so much weight.

The reality?

That carries scars.

The one that stands out the most, directly on the forehead of this team is the 1-20 record this season against real NBA contenders in Milwaukee, Miami, Philadelphia, Boston, Memphis, Phoenix and Golden State.

The only win over that group came against the Celtics, but that was way back on Nov. 1. As a matter of fact, the last time the Bulls beat a team that was currently sitting with a .600 winning percentage or better came on Nov.10, when they beat Dallas.

Against the top four teams from both conferences the Bulls were an embarrassing 2-21 combined.

The other reason there’s so much doom and gloom hovering over them is not only have elite teams beaten the Bulls, but in most cases, especially the last month, they’ve taken them out to the woodshed.

A team’s best basketball is supposed to be played in April, leading into the playoffs. The Bulls have worked backwards, seemingly playing their best basketball around the holidays and then falling straight on their faces.

So how does Thompson expect this group to be able to block out all the negative noise from the outside, forget the 23 games against the Association’s elite, and become a threat in the postseason?

It’s in the details.

“The preparation for the playoffs is more detail-oriented than anything else,” Thompson said. “It’s not so much physical. Just pay attention to the details. The details is what’s going to be the difference between allowing a team to go on an 8-0 run against us or they score two baskets and you get a big stop. That kind of stuff comes down to the details of knowing the guys you are guarding, the plays you’re running, and how can you blow all that up and make it tough for them.”

A message that coach Billy Donovan has been preaching for weeks, now hoping that it sinks in at some point over the next five days.

“One of the things I’ve been talking about since really coming out of the All-Star Break is the details of the concentration and the focus,” Donovan said. “Whether that’s not giving up second-chance opportunities, whether it’s having an understanding that the other team is in the bonus and not giving silly fouls to get them to the free throw line, not communicating in transition … sometimes in the regular season you can get by with that, but when you’re playing the level of teams you’re playing [in the postseason], there’s no slippage there. That’s the thing I’ve been trying to hammer home with them.”

Time to find out if it resonates. Final exam week is here.

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