Heading into Sunday night’s game with the Miami Heat, coach Vinny Del Negro wanted to see his team attack more on the fast break. In the first two games, the Bulls had a total of 10 fast-break points.
“You have to get stops, you have to get boards, you have to get it out quicker even if they do score and Derrick [Rose] has to play with more thrust and pace,” Del Negro said. “Kirk [Hinrich] does that a little bit better.
“We’ve talked about. We want to be smart, but we also want to push it up, see what we can get and use Derrick’s athletic ability.”
Rose is working his way back from an ankle injury that caused him to miss much of the preseason and has been somewhat cautious in the first two games.
“I think it’s early in the year, he missed a lot of training camp and he’s not in great condition right now, so I think he’s just feeling his way through a little bit,” Del Negro said of Rose. “We’ve had two tough opponents the first two games. This one’s not an easy one by any stretch. We’re gonna have to play well [and] Derrick’s gonna have to pick his game up like everyone.”