For whatever reason, Scott Skiles is still adamantly refusing to give credit where credit is due. Despite watching the Pistons hold Chicago to a ridiculous 16% in the final quarter of Thursday's game, this is what Skiles had to say about Detroit's defense:
By the way, Bulls coach Scott Skiles sought to dismiss this media zone-a-mania. "Is their zone getting all kinds of public recognition? Is that what's going on?" he said. "I think it's kind of funny and I don't mean to show them any disrespect, but we have been getting shots all over the place."
And then today he added this:
"It's not unlike, maybe, what 10,000 high schools do all over the country, every day, every game," he said Friday.
No disrespect taken, Skiles. I guess your guys just can't shoot straight. Maybe the pressure is starting to get them, maybe they're playing a little tight. At least, that seems to be Rasheed Wallace's take on it:
But Rasheed Wallace had a few words over in the Detroit locker room afterward, trying not to chortle. "As we chopped it down," he mentioned of the lead and the Bulls, "them butt holes got tighter and tighter."
Is Skiles simply trying to light a fire under his team by demanding more from them? By refusing to buy into the (increasingly hard to ignore) notion that no matter what Chicago does on the court, Detroit will be able to do it better? Or ... is he trying to separate the performance of the players from his performance as a coach?
I honestly I have no idea, but I'd just as readily accept (c) he's just a jerk.
Even the guy in bronze knows the Bulls are in trouble [USA Today, via Full-Court Press]
Bulls Skiles won't admit the obvious [Detroit News]