The questions about how hard Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau rides his starters have been asked countless times, and the answers are always the same: That’s how he chooses to do it, the players can handle it, and the results have been mostly successful. Read more after the jump.
That doesn’t mean that they’re going to stop, especially when the guys normally logging the heaviest of minutes end up doing so even when the game has seemingly already been decided, as was the case in an easy 96-85 win over the Nets on Saturday.
Chicago led by 18 points after three, yet Luol Deng played the entire fourth quarter giving him 44 minutes on the night, and Joakim Noah was subbed back in with just over six and a half minutes to play and the Bulls leading by 20.
It seemed excessive, more so than usual. And Noah had an opinion about it afterward.
From Sam Smith of Bulls.com:
“I saw the way the game was going,” said Thibodeau. “You’re jogging back. They’ve got a lot of three point shooting on the floor. A 10-point lead can dissipate in a minute. You knock down three threes, you get a foul, boom. And then we were in the penalty; we’re recklessly fouling. We’ve got to do better.”
“What do you want me to say? Yeah, I’m tired, pretty tired,” Noah offered with a shrug. “Working on (his plantar fasciitis) every day, massages, lots of treatments, doing everything possible to keep it under control. It’s not really right after the game (you feel tired). It’s the next morning that’s the roughest.
“We’ve got a great coach,” Noah said as he began to smile and let out a laugh and you know one of those subtle, understated zingers was coming. “But he doesn’t understand the whole rest thing yet I don’t think. But it’s all good. We all want to win. It’s good.”
