Robin Lopez talks crime and punishment; Bulls get out-tanked by the Magic

ORLANDO, Fla. — There’s a big difference between punishment and sacrifice.

Bulls center Robin Lopez made sure to remind everyone of that Friday.

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Lopez was healthy and in uniform but didn’t play in the Bulls’ 90-82 victory against the Magic, an all-too-familiar pattern for him since All-Star Weekend. The Bulls’ front office has kept up with the rest of the NBA’s basement-dwellers, cleverly disguising tanking as “player development.’’

The Bulls are more efficient on both ends of the floor when he’s playing, so Lopez was asked if he felt he was being punished as the team tries to improve its draft position.

“I don’t know if it’s a punishment so much as a sacrifice,’’ Lopez said. “Teammates sacrifice for each other. That’s how I’m viewing this.’’

Plus, Lopez knows all about punishment.

After picking up two technicals and an ejection in the loss in Miami on Thursday, Lopez heard from the league office before the game with the Magic. He was fined $25,000 for his antics after the ejection and for refusing to leave the court in a timely fashion.

“I anticipated something,’’ Lopez said. “I think [$25,000] is a lot of something, but I anticipated something. There were going to be repercussions.’’

But Lopez isn’t about to change his ways.

He still plans to play with emotion, he still plans to do the little things on the court to try to win games and, somewhat surprisingly, he still wants to do it with the Bulls.

Considering the way he has been shelved since late February and with only one year left on his deal, Lopez has a right to complain and just might let the Bulls know that his role needs to go back to what it was if they plan to keep him around next season.

Lopez reiterated that he won’t point fingers publicly, but he will let the coaching staff and front office know about his frustrations during exit meetings after the season.

“I think they encourage you to be a little candid [in those meetings],’’ Lopez said. “I think that’s best for everybody, to be open about things.’’

Coach Fred Hoiberg doesn’t want Lopez any other way, on-the-court outbursts and all.

“We do need emotion, and Robin is a guy that’s going to bring it every time he plays,’’ Hoiberg said. “He does it in practice; he does it obviously in games. He’s going to do a lot of things for your team. He’s played an enforcer-type role in this era where there aren’t many of those guys, so he’s going to try to protect his teammates, and that’s why he’s such a popular guy on the team and why guys love him.’’

Despite his lack of action against the Magic, he was always encouraging his teammates, especially when they blew a 13-point halftime lead in the third quarter and were down with 4:07 left in the third after D.J. Augustin’s three-pointer.

Thanks to Sean Kilpatrick, however, the Bulls outscored Orlando 24-13 in the fourth quarter, ending their seven-game losing streak.

Good for the players and Hoiberg. Bad for almost everyone else in the organization.

The victory bumped the Bulls from the seventh-worst spot to the eighth-worst as they swapped places with the idle Nets again.