The first half was the push for Billy Donovan.
The Bulls coach pushing his young core to understand what goes into winning basketball games, pushing the likes of a Zach LaVine to finally get All-Star recognition by doing a better job of being a two-way player, and pushing a rookie like Patrick Williams right into the deep end of the pool, asking him to guard the likes of elite talent named LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard.
That push is over. Now comes the pull.
“We have a long way to go and I’m trying to not have them be satisfied and we need to keep trying to pull more out of each other,’’ Donovan said last week, discussing the upcoming second half of the season.