The first number is 27, which is approximately the number of times that I watched the game-winning play while writing this story.
Here are 10 more significant numbers from Game 4 playoff joy.
30. Derrick Rose went 30 consecutive game minutes without making a shot from the field. He hit a three in the first minute of the game to give the Bulls a 3-0 lead, and then did not make another shot from the field until there were roughly seven minutes to play in the fourth quarter. (And he only made one trip to the free throw line in that span, so it is not like he was scoring in other ways.) Individual defenders like Michael Carter-Williams and Jerryd Bayless did a fine job of staying in front of Rose at the point of attack, and the team threw a lot of pressure at him on every step of the court (for example, Jared Dudley and others sometimes applied full-court pressure to either delay the offensive push or get the ball out of his hands altogether). They forced the Chicago point man into eight turnovers, just about right from the start, like when he launched a pass a few rows into the stands early in the first quarter.
20. Speaking of which, it was fitting that the Bucks stole the ball from Rose on the final Bulls offensive possession. It was their 20th steal of the game, setting a new high for the season (previous high was 17). Bayless had a pretty wonderful final 19 seconds against Rose. First, he walled off the driving lane and pushed Rose toward helping defenders Dudley and Khris Middleton, which resulted in the steal. Then, he got Rose all turned around on the game-winning layup. Bayless also had a huge and-one leaner against Rose to go up 85-79. Anyway, eight different players had at least one steal for the Bucks, highlighted by six (six!) from Zaza Pachulia in just 22 minutes.
39. The Bucks forced 25 turnovers and scored 39 points off those turnovers. That is a lot.
55.6 percent. It felt like the Bulls were finally missing some threes in this game. I am genuinely alarmed when the Bulls miss a three at this point. After O.J. Mayo hit the massive three to get the Bucks to 90 points (the second time he did that, that is), the Bulls sprang Nikola Mirotic for an open three. His Twitter handle is threekola. I was shocked when it did not go in. Naturally, Rose hit one on the next possession. Even on a night when it seemed like the Bulls were not killing the Bucks from outside, they were still banking in last-second threes and shooting 55.6 percent from outside.
3. Can we please take this moment and talk about how odd it is that you (by you, I mean officials) can take points off the board multiple possessions later due to a replay review? I thought at the time that Mayo’s three which gave the Bucks a 90-81 lead came after the shot clock expired. But they counted it. If you want to review it, then review it. But they did not. Instead, they played on, and the Bulls came down and hit a three. Then, the officials decided to review the Mayo three. It was pretty jarring to go from 90-81 to 87-84, just like that. The main problem is that everything that happened after the original Mayo three was potentially affected by it. Like, of course the Bulls shot a three after that; they were down by nine with two and a half minutes to play! Not okay. Well, sort of okay, because Mayo came back and hit another three, for enjoyable measure.
23. More Mayo, who somehow did pretty much everything in just 23 minutes. In addition to the clutch three (/threes), he led the team with 10 points off turnovers and nine second-chance points. He made 4-6 threes, converted both of his free throws, managed an absurd four steals, scored eight points in the fourth quarter, racked up four assists (including a beautiful cross-court pass to Dudley for a three in the second quarter), and was an assertive menace on defense all night.
5,456,322. That was my favorite play of the game. I don’t know exactly how many tip-outs the Bucks had, so I estimated approximately 5.5 million. John Henson in particular seems to be perfecting this. And how about that around-the-back pass from Mayo to prevent the back-court violation? And then he knocks in the three. Gushing times here.
4. John Henson had four blocks in 25 minutes, which is pretty standard stuff from the most prolific shot-blocker in the NBA this regular season on a per-minute basis. It just felt like each one was incredibly important and impressive in this game, particular with three in the fourth quarter. He blocked Rose. He swatted Mirotic. His stuff of Joakim Noah at the rim late in the fourth quarter made me write in all capital letters in my game notes, and I never write in all capital letters. And then not even than two minutes later, he smashed a point-blank Pau Gasol layup attempt, inciting a plea from Gasol to call goaltending (it was not). Gasol eventually got the ball back, and Henson helped poke the ball away for a steal. Gasol was not thrilled with playing hoops against Henson.
5. In the first three games, the Bulls owned the offensive boards. In the regular season, the Bulls were the fifth best offensive rebounding team in the league, while the Bucks ranked 25th in defensive rebound percentage. Yet the Bucks held them to just five offensive rebounds and five second-chance points in the Game 4 win. Critical, excellent stuff. Giannis Antetokounmpo led the way with seven defensive rebounds in 26 minutes. Antetokounmpo was a pretty good defensive rebounder during the regular season, ranking behind only Zaza Pachulia on the team in terms of defensive rebounding percentage. Pachulia, by the way, didn’t allow a single offensive rebound on the night.
100.0 percent. Khris Middleton made four shots, and they were all assisted. Jared Dudley made five shots, including 3-5 on threes, and they were all, 100.0 percent, assisted, in stride, as well. That is when the Bucks are at their best, when they are swinging the ball around for good looks to shooters like Middleton and Dudley. Four of the five assists came to Dudley from Mayo, while Henson had the other. Overall, the Bucks totaled 25 assists. Dudley had a mighty fine one himself, with the high-pressure, pinpoint toss to Bayless for the game-winner.