The optics of Bulls-Bucks will be everything for the Bulls front office. A series upset or even a hard-fought Game 7, and there’s reason to run it back with some tweaks. But a laugher? Some hard decisions will have to be made.
It’s been the Zach LaVine mantra for a few weeks now. The Bulls guard sounded like he had come to the end of handing out excuses at some point in March. Or simply had run out of excuses to give. “We’ve done enough talking,’’ LaVine said several times, as his team was preparing for its first playoff appearance since 2017. “It’s time to get it done now. Time to stop talking.’’ Because while LaVine has never played in a postseason series, he’s been around long enough to know that words mean very little in the NBA’s “second season.’’ It’s claw and scratch for four wins, and then move on to the next series. If not? It’s call the travel agent and plan a vacation. There’s no middle ground. Players living on moral victories in April and May are usually doing so on the backend of a banana boat in Turks and Caicos. So while the Bulls players have spent the week saying all the right things about the first round meeting with the defending champions, it’s time for actions, not words.
