Bulls and wizards both make progress, but for very different reasons

WASHINGTON – It wasn’t the kind of shot Wizards rookie Carlton Carrington had been practicing.

At least he better not be.

Midway through the first half, the No. 14 overall pick from Pittsburgh split the Bulls’ defense and had a clear path for an easy basket. One problem: Basketball had other ideas. The ball slipped as Carrington went up and he actually threw the ball into the shot clock that was at the top of the backboard.

Nothing but LED lights.

Carrington awkwardly leaned his head on the padding of the support.

This is what a renovation looks like.

A real lack of real talent, a painful rebuild. Take notes, Arturas.

Thanks to 21 points from Coby White, the Bulls gave Washington its 12th^Th Back-to-back losses, 127-108, dropping the Wizards to 2-14 on the season. Small picture? The Bulls stayed alive and advanced in the NBA Cup, improving to 2-1 in Group C pool play. But the big picture? For Arturas Karnisovas, the Bulls’ executive vice president of basketball operations, it was a showcase to see how poorly other NBA front offices are willing to go in hopes of buying a lottery ticket for Cooper Flagg’s draft sweepstakes in June to take purchase.

However, that’s not exactly Billy Donovan’s concern.

The trainer only cared about the product continuing to progress. Offense, defense, pace, rebounding, everything.

“You look at a few things in terms of what (the Wizards) are strong at,” Donovan said. “They were on par with us in terms of speed and scored a lot of points in transition. I think you look at it like, “Okay, what are the things we’re supposed to do?” How did we get back into transition against one of the better pace teams? Are we taking any steps there? What about the reporting, in terms of communication and conversation?”

All right, Donovan had a good feeling about the review.

The Wizards were a good springboard for that, but he also knows what comes next when he takes on the Magic on Wednesday night.

“I think you have to play who is in front of you and you have to ask yourself, ‘Did we do the things we talked about?’ Donovan said. “There’s no question there was growth.

“When you come out of this game you don’t think, ‘Oh wow, everything is OK.’ My thing is, can we do it (Wednesday) night against a team that’s bigger, stronger and more athletic?”

The only real resistance from the Wizards came in the first quarter when Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma came out of the gate looking for a big scoring night, scoring 15 points on 6 of 11 from the field. That was the last highlight Washington would experience that evening.

The Bulls (8-11) not only took control of the game in the second period, but did so in impressive fashion, outscoring the Wizards 40-18 and shooting 62% from the field in the stanza . Meanwhile, Kuzma & Co. stayed dry, shooting 8 of 22 (36%) in the second half while turning the ball over six times.

That’s what the Bulls players wanted to focus on. The steps that were taken.

“This is the NBA, so there are great players throughout the league,” Ayo Dosunmu said of the win. “You really can’t look at records because every night there are players hungry to prove themselves. You have to look internally at how you can get better.”

Boxes Dosunmu wanted to check off. The Bulls didn’t allow another night over 140, kept turnovers under 17 (11 to be exact) and didn’t let up when they were ahead.

“What have we given up, 108?” Dosunmu said. “I thought we played a great defensive game. What were our sales, 11? That’s another thing we’ve been playing around with.

“This progress.”

Both teams made progress on Tuesday, but for very different reasons.