NIKOLA VUCEVIĆ calls the Bulls “fools”

The Chicago Bulls have now lost three straight after falling at home on Wednesday against the Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks went from strength to strength in the second quarter of this one and never looked back, cruising to a 110-94 victory. Chicago is starting to fall apart little since the losing streak is officially underway, and Nikola Vucevic he was not happy after the game.

Nikola Vucevic was the voice of the locker room Wednesday night in Chicago. The Bulls aren’t expected to win a championship or anything like that this year, but the team definitely feels like they’re leaving a lot of meat on their bones. Vucevic he wants to see things cleaned up.

“It’s here to define the season,” Coby White he said, according to an article from NBA.com. “That will define the true character of this (locker room). Are we going to let the spiral taper off and keep going downhill? Or take a stand and the next game comes out ready to compete? Vooch said it all after the game. (He said) stop doing the stupid things we used to do. Stop fighting, don’t bounce, stop confusing, stop going back. Vooch is 100% accurate. He spoke, and dug into us. The coach didn’t have to say much; Vooch hit it all. We have to stay together as a team. That was one of the messages after Vooch spoke.

There’s no doubt about it, the Bulls are facing adversity right now. It is up to them to return to the right path, and that is what Nikola Vucevic preached.

“With things not going your way, going through adversity … the games are just going to keep coming,” White continued. “We are the only ones who can dig ourselves out of this hole.” It’s not the coaches, it’s the fans. It’s up to us. As Vooch said, being in the right place, boxing out, communicating in defence; those are things you can control and we didn’t do that. We have to figure it out as a team. You will have ups and downs during the season; you have to stay the course. We’re going through a storm right now. So we have to figure out how to overcome it and what’s stopping us from being great. We needed him to speak, we needed him to guide us. It was good for us, good for the team, good for Vooch to get it off his chest and hold everyone accountable. And he put himself out there, holding himself accountable.”

Vucevic determined a lot of problems himself, and Kobe White added some things. He believes that the big problem lately has been the pace at which the Bulls play.

“Not playing on our identity,” White said. “There is a lot of tempo. We’re not playing with the same push, the same pace that created a lot of downhill offense, open threes, getting out in transition.

With the loss, the Bulls are now 18-23 on the year, but remain in 10th place in the Eastern Conference which would put them in the playoffs.

Nikola Vucevic and the Bulls will try to get back on track on Friday when they host the Charlotte Hornets, a team with just nine wins. It has to be a Chicago win.