Bulls - 129, Wizards - 98
Q. Everyone that came off the bench for you guys today had at least five 3-pointers attempted in this game. Is that something you guys have put an emphasis on here late this season as you get a higher volume of 3-point attempts?
BRIAN KEEFE: Sometimes it's the teams you're playing, the coverages you're seeing. We had obviously a turnover issue tonight, but once we were a little bit better than that in the second half, they're putting two on the ball, we kicked it off for our shooters. That's why we made a little bit of momentum there in the fourth quarter, in the late third. But we got caught playing in the crowds too much, and that led to easy transition baskets for them.
Q. They seemed to deploy a pretty effective defense on the way that Will has been playing successfully as of late. What did you see from him in the second half as he tried to adjust to that?
BRIAN KEEFE: They were, like I said, putting two on the ball with all of our ball handlers. And there was an extra, so you could tell there's a little extra special attention for him, as they should; he's been playing really well.
I thought he had some good shots that he's been making. Some of those just didn't go in. I liked some of his passing. He made a good adjustment (indiscernible) three there.
So these are good things for him to go on. You're going to see different coverages and different schemes as you come through this league. So these are all growing moments and I know he'll take that information and move forward with it.
Q. Did it feel for you guys on the bench that they came out with a more aggressive, kind of that dictator-type mentality versus the way that you guys came out with it?
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, you gotta give them some credit. They came out with some juice on the defensive end and then they were beating us in transition. We just didn't have our normal pop tonight, which we've been pretty much having for a while.
But the transition and the turnovers were the two areas that really hurt us. And then couple that without making shots, which we've been shooting the ball pretty well lately and scoring the ball. Those things compounded.
Q. What was it like as you guys tried to get past those turnovers initially and establish an offensive rhythm?
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, we never really got it going. That's that was the biggest thing. I think I'm beating a dead horse here with the turnovers, but they were in the paint and we were trying to break through the crowd instead of just making the simple play. I thought we did a little better in the second half, but too little too late.
Q. One guy who did have a (indiscernible) in was Bilal. What did you like about the way he played?
BRIAN KEEFE: Bilal's been playing great. Great rhythm. I thought he had some good defensive plays too, protecting our rim. Obviously his scoring helped us a little bit early. But I like the rhythm that he's been playing with.
Q. Kind of a big picture question. What do you think the team has accomplished this year, in terms of overall goals?
BRIAN KEEFE: Probably something that I can more reflect on as we get closer to the end. I'm obviously just thinking about today's game and then moving forward to that, and we've still got more games to go.
But we're establishing habits and trying to get better. That's nothing that hasn't changed. You guys have heard me say that before. We've obviously had a lot of growth from our lot of our younger players in our rotation.
But we're establishing how we're going to play, the habits we want to build and how we work every day. I think we've been doing a really good job of that.
But I'll have some more thoughtful answers to that as we get near the end of the season.
Q. You, of course, mentioned turnovers. And I would ask, what do you think can be done in order -- with regards to practice and addressing team dynamics, what do you think can be done to address that issue, because it's been a theme in certain games, on offense where there are things are going right and that turns the tide, the proverbial tide in the wrong direction?
BRIAN KEEFE: It's really just the last two games. The four previous games going into this, I think we averaged 10 turnovers, which I believe would probably lead the league. And we've been playing some pretty good offense the last two games.
Gotta give credit to aggressive defensive teams, but lessons to be learned from that. We get to play these guys again. How do you beat these type of defenses when they're packing the paint?
So we always show film, teach, coach, all the things that we do all the time. But, yeah, turnovers is tough to overcome.
Q. Another big rebound game for JuJu tonight. What do you say about his rebounding tonight as far as Chicago not really having a lot of size and JuJu utilizing his size?
BRIAN KEEFE: That's just what he does. I know you guys bring up these historical numbers every time you talk about him, but I think it's just a natural skill set he has. He pursues everything. That's a credit to him.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports