Billy Donovan says the quiet part about the schedule out loud

The The Chicago Bulls were one of the most pleasant surprises of the NBA to start the season, but the team’s 143-130 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday night acknowledged the head coach Billy Donovan’s chance to take an honest look at his roster.

Donovan was blunt when it comes to his team’s lack of defensive strength, a weakness that was evident while the group was without center Nikola Vucevic against the Pelicans.

“Our team, other than maybe Isaac Okoro, we don’t have one guy on the team right now that he sits and ‘this guy is a defensive stopper,'” Donovan told Joel Lorenzi of the Athletics. “This is what this guy hangs his hat on.’ It’s not one man’s fault, it’s all of us. These are coaches, players. … It’s a team issue.”

The Bulls allowed the Pelicans to shoot 51 percent from the field and also surrendered 78 points. Eight players scored 10 or more points in the winning effort for the Pelicans. The Chicago Guardian Coby White secured 24 points, but was honest about his team’s weak defense.

“We don’t have the personnel of the Oklahoma City Thunder, and all the individual defenders are really good,” White told NBA.com’s Sam Smith. “So we’ve got to do it collectively, we’ve got to do it as a unit. We’ve got to buy in and do it on a consistent basis. We’ve got to stick together and figure it out.”

Aio Dosunmu scored a team-high 28 points for the Bulls and provided an optimistic view of the team’s ability to become more effective on defense.

“We’re trying to figure it out as a team, figure out what we have to do,” Dosunm said, “We keep talking and trying to find solutions. But at the end of the day it comes down to ourselves. The coaches can only do so much. We play the game, so we have to do our job better collectively. I wouldn’t say it’s a frustration to understand how we have to work. We play that way the results and outcomes we get.

“We are a tight-knit group,” Dosunmu concluded. “It’s early in the season and we just have to gel as a unit. We’ve shown that a lot of times this season; we just have to do it on a consistent basis. We’re going to do it because we love playing with each other and for each other.”

The Bulls are 9-8 on the season. They will meet the Hornets in Charlotte on Friday.