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The NBA season is on its second night of the season, and the Chicago Bulls are already in shambles.
On Wednesday night, the Bulls got blown out by the OKC Thunder in their opening game of the season.
After the game, Bulls head coach Billy Donovan said his players were in a heated conversation in the locker room after the loss.
Via Chicago Tribune’s Julia Poe
Billy Donovan says when he walked into the Bulls locker room tonight, players were already in heated conversations.
He asked if they wanted him to leave to handle conflict. Players said yes, so he did.
Donovan emphasized that embracing conflict is key for this year’s roster.
During the game, Bulls star Nikola Vucevic got heated with Donovan in the third quarter after not getting ball for a long stretch of the game.
Vucevic is hot. He and Billy Donovan just exchanged some strong words on the bench. Will ask about it postgame but has to be tied to Vooch not seeing the ball for long stretch there.
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) October 26, 2023
A visibly upset Vucevic addressed what happened with Donovan after the game.
“I was just unhappy with certain stuff we were doing, I expressed it a little bit more aggressive than I should have at the moment of the game, it was heat of the moment, you’re trying to win, do what you can to help the team win and I didn’t like what was going on and tried to talk it out.”
Nikola Vučević did not think the Bulls played well at either end tonight.
Also addresses his animated third-quarter exchange with Billy Donovan. pic.twitter.com/UoUe5Sdh1v
— Darnell Mayberry (@DarnellMayberry) October 26, 2023
Update: Zach LaVine ripped into the team for not playing with enough heart.
Via K.C. Johnson/X
“I don’t feel like we played with enough heart. And that’s on us. It’s unacceptable. I don’t think it’s a thing people do on purpose either. But we gotta come together during those (opponent) runs.”