WHITE’S ALL RIGHT — FOR ONE HALF
Rookie’s shooting becomes an issue after intermission as Bulls lose steam overall
MILWAUKEE — Bulls coach Jim Boylen takes pride in the relationships he builds with each member of his roster. So rookie Coby White can expect a talk with him soon.
Maybe the chat will be about White’s defense. Heck, maybe it’ll only be about the weather.
But White’s shot selection and shot quantity — or those of any Bulls player — are off-limit topics.
“I think, first of all, I don’t talk a whole bunch about it,’’ Boylen said. “[White’s] a competitive person who works. He [practices shooting] all the time. He’s a confident kid — still a young, developing player . . . . I don’t go after these guys when they don’t shoot well, and I don’t go up to them when they do shoot well.
“Just continue to work and learn, that’s all. Continue to work and learn . . . . He’s a 19-year-old player, playing in the NBA, and he’s doing his best to help us win.”
That appeared to be the case in the first half Thursday as White — coming off a fourth quarter against the Knicks on Tuesday night in which he nailed a franchise-record seven three-pointers — was at it again against the Bucks.
White carried the Bulls to a 66-65 halftime lead, scoring 19 points off the bench on 7-for-11 shooting, including a ridiculous 5-for-8 from three-point range.
But there’s always a certain reality to being a rookie, and it smacked White in the face in the second half as the Bucks (8-3) pulled away to win 124-115.
As solid as White was in the first half, he was as shaky in the third quarter, going 0-for-5 with two turnovers.
The No. 7 overall pick of this year’s draft finished 9-for-23 from the field with a team-high 26 points.
Asked afterward about Boylen allowing him the green light to keep shooting, White responded: “Yeah, for sure. He believes in me.”
Meanwhile, this latest loss marked another disappointment for the Bulls, who are 4-8 overall and 0-5 against teams above the .500 mark this season.
“We fought back,” White said. “We went through a little drought [in the third quarter], but we fought back. It came down to a couple little plays where we didn’t get the rebound, but it’s a learning process, and we took a step in the right
direction this game.”
Maybe, but there was also plenty of blame to go around, especially in that third quarter, when the offense got cold and the Bulls’ defense seemed to become optional. The Bucks outscored the Bulls 32-20 in that quarter, as point guard Eric Bledsoe went off for 12 points.
Not that the Bulls didn’t have chances in the fourth quarter.
The Bucks were stumbling to the finish line, having committed 22 turnovers and shooting just 18.2 percent from three-point range, but the Bulls still had no answer for last season’s league MVP, forward Giannis Antetokounmpo. Specifically, they couldn’t keep Antetokounmpo off the free-throw line.
He finished with 38 points, which included 11 made free throws out of 20 attempts.
With the Bulls down seven points with 1:15 left, Tomas Satoransky had a wideopen three-point attempt to cut it to four, but it clanked off the rim and into the hands of the Bucks. That was all the Bulls seemingly had in the tank.
“We’re getting closer,” White said. “We really are.”