Miami Heat, Eastern Conference regular season wins leader last time. Check, got them last week in a consequential opening day victory.
Boston Celtics, Eastern Conference 2021-22 champions and undefeated the first three games of this season. Check, got them Monday in a particularly counterintuitive way, the Bulls adroitly turning a 19-point first quarter deficit into a 120-102 victory to even their season record at 2-2.
Now to figure out how to beat the crap teams.
“No, no, whole new season,” reminded DeMar DeRozan, who with a team-high 25 points led a democratic Bulls effort that featured the vast roster population. “You don’t expect teams that didn’t make (the playoffs) last year to become worse teams; you expect them to come out and compete. I’m pretty sure they don’t want to be in the same position, so you’re going to get their best blow. And we have; we got our butts kicked against Cleveland (Saturday), and we responded tonight.”
The Bulls did so in a way coach Billy Donovan has been hoping with energy, spirit and enthusiasm, the reserve group that featured Derrick Jones Jr. with 10 points, Alex Caruso with a game high plus-29 rating, Javonte Green, Goran Dragić and Andre Drummond contributing the beating heart to the starters’ sturdy frame.
Nikola Vučević had a massive game with 18 points, 23 rebounds and five assists and Ayo Dosunmu made nine of 10 shots for 22 points and all four of his three-point attempts. Zach Lavine added 19 points.
But like it was Saturday in their brief reprieve against the Cavaliers, the often forgotten bench guys provided the ballast that kept this Bulls season from starting to sink. Yes, just the fourth game, and perhaps not quite in the must-win/backs-to-the-wall category quite yet.
But after a 32-point home loss to Cleveland Saturday and LaVine forced to miss the season opener with knee issues, and then getting outscored the first eight minutes by Jayson Tatum alone and trailing 35-16, it was becoming team-meeting time.
Postpone that as the threes began going awry for the Celtics, and the Bulls shock troops stunned most everyone in the building, especially the now 3-1 Celtics.
And that relentlessly annoying narrative last season of being unable to beat the quality teams, the Bulls 1-14 last season against the East’s elite.
And now 2-0.
Choke on their dust!
“We dug ourselves a hole,” agreed Donovan, perhaps facing lava from this crevice. “I give our second unit a lot of credit. Those guys came in and played with great energy and great enthusiasm and turned the game. I felt like our second unit all of training camp was really good and maybe the first two games hadn’t played like I’ve seen them play. I thought those guys did a really good job, changed momentum with their energy and defense. The way they contested and competed, and then when we got back to our starters those guys played extremely well, also.”
Though it’s going to be a bit of a conundrum for Donovan as he continues his predictable early season mad scientist mashup of lineups and rotations to determine which gears mesh appropriately.
Donovan has stuck with the same starting group of Vučević, DeRozan, LaVine, Dosunmu and Patrick Williams, and they’ve mostly fallen behind to start the games. They are the team’s prime talent with Lonzo Ball out injured. But, especially now with LaVine facing a knee “maintenance” regimen, they rely more on their artistry than their activity. Donovan has cautioned that this Bulls team to be successful must play primarily with that vitality and alacrity.
“It’s about making quick decisions, not holding the ball,” Donovan explained. “They (starters) have to make quick decisions. Holding the ball is not good for us because what happens is the other three guys don’t know what to do, the floor gets really crowded. I do think they can play that way. It’s not like they are going to be up and down the floor, but they can be very efficient. Boston went through the same thing. Give (Jaylen) Brown and (Jayson) Tatum a lot of credit. Those two guys are great offensive players, but they had to learn to move it, make the extra pass and find the open guy. There’s a learning curve for that and us being new last year it took us time.”
Hello, DeMar and Zach?
So Donovan has patiently mixed lineups as the game has proceeded. After the Bulls disappeared early into that black hole of arithmetic despair Monday, Donovan linked LaVine with the bench brigade to produce a combination that stunned the Celtics.
Less than seven minutes after trailing by 19 points in the first quarter, the Bulls had tied the game less than four minutes into the second quarter, led by double digits at halftime, and then by 17 late in the third quarter when most of the Celtics were ready to signal for the check.
Substitute Boston coach Joe Mazzulla got himself ejected with two technical fouls for demanding Vučević be assessed one for Vučević's pantomimes. Then the Celtics’ Grant Williams, scoreless to that point so not that anyone really would notice, got himself ejected for apparently bumping an official.
First thing he hit all game.
Maybe they just wanted to see the rest of the Patriots and Bears. Bad night for Boston. And the White Sox were better than the Red Sox this season.
Too many of those baked beans, possibly, and their inevitable release.
“It was good to respond the way we did once we got down,“ said Vucevic. “We got off to a bad start, but good for us to respond. We’ve had times when we’d fall apart and go from bad to worse, but today was good to respond and once we got back into the game we never got down.
“Obviously, we can’t put ourselves down ten, 15 every game and hope to get back in the game,” Vučević noted. “But we didn’t fold and found a way. This team now has been together longer, so we know each other better and that helps. Sometimes you have to hit adversity to learn about one another.”
But a week in?
It’s not going to be easy for these Bulls with Ball away and now the surprising news about LaVine and uncertainly regarding back to back games.
“I think Zach’s getting his legs back under him,” said Donovan.
LaVine was just five of 15 and didn’t seem to possess his usual explosive lift. He’s gotten stopped at the basket going up several times already, which was rare in the past.
Let me interrupt myself, however, to point out that it was me and not anyone connected to the Bulls who denigrated the two teams who defeated the Bulls, the Cavaliers and Wizards, both of whom missed the playoffs last season.
Just kidding, guys. It was a happy time in Chicago Monday.
Actually, the Cavs could be really good with Donovan Mitchell, and the Wizards look better with Bradley Beal back from injury.
Which is an issue for the Bulls this season with the objects in the rear view mirror really closer than they have appeared before. It’s a relief that several of those expected to be speeding ahead have stalled with Miami, Philadelphia and Brooklyn all off to sputtering starts.
Not that patterns can be detected after four games other than Russell Westbrook’s shooting, but the Bulls wins and losses have had distinctive disparity.
Miami and Boston are among the smallest “elite” teams in the conference, employing a surfeit of scoring wing players and more mobile but relatively Lilliputian centers.
So Monday against the Celtics, Vučević and Drummond were dominant, combining for 35 rebounds in the Bulls 60-45 overall edge. Vučević had 10 offensive rebounds, routinely reaching over the Celtics’ interior leprechauns. Similarly against Miami, Vučević had a game-high 17 rebounds against Miami’s all-guard-and-Bam Adebayo lineup.
Both teams rely on switching defense, and this season with the comfort Vučević discussed, Bulls players are more swiftly recognizing the mismatches and passing to Vučević or seeing Vučević on the boards against guards.
“There were good opportunities with a team that switches where I could get to the paint and get some easy ones when I had a smaller big on me,” said Vučević (Boston is missing its center, Robert Williams). “That creates a lot of open looks for us. And also when you get a small on you on the glass, get offensive rebounds. So I just tried to be aggressive and establish myself down there.
“It’s all about getting to the paint and creating shots,” said Vučević. “I’m not a big analytics guy, but it’s just common sense: You get in the paint, the defense collapses and you make one, two extra passes, you’re going to get wide open shots. It’s something we’ve had issues with in the past and something we are trying to work on and find ways to do that and I feel so far it’s been much better than last year.”
Conversely against a Washington team with Brobdingnag Kristaps Porziņģis and Cleveland’s chorus line of Goliaths, the Bulls explorations into the painted area were explicitly whitewashed too often.
It’s another work in progress, for which there is plenty of time since 2-2 sounds a lot more relaxing than 1-3.
“I thought our guys really battled and competed in Miami,” said Donovan. "We dug ourselves a hole in Washington and gave ourselves a chance at the end. I didn’t think we played to the standards we needed to play to against Cleveland, and they dominated us. To me, it’s about the consistency night in and night out.
“Their shot making ability was similar to what happened to start the game against Cleveland,” Donovan added of Boston eight of 11 on threes in the first quarter and 10-37 afterward. “Cleveland was red hot from three. We didn’t handle it well and we were kind of in the same situation this first quarter, but it was a better response from us than the other night.”
It was ugly to start with Tatum, who led Boston with 26 points, strolling into open threes with the Bulls scrambling inside to cut off penetration and then watching helplessly as the ball swung around. Donovan used two timeouts in the first eight minutes, but then began to get the dynamism he was demanding.
Jones, who wasn’t even in the rotation to start the season, was vital in the decisive second quarter with slam dunks and dives to the rim for free throws.
“We (reserves) just played as hard, as we could and once we got the lead we didn’t look back,” said Jones.. "We just started playing a lot more physical, got our hands on balls, getting a lot of deflections, and just trying to be disruptive on defense.”
The Bulls led 65-54 at halftime and then 100-79 after three with the Celtics missing now their second coach of the season. But Donovan signaled this is never going to be easy. Even after the Celtics with 5:27 left trailing by 21 points raised their arms and the white flag with a lineup that included Luke Kornet, Sam Hauser and Blake Griffin, Donovan following a timeout with three minutes left kept his starters in for another minute.
“I’ve seen enough crazy things happen in the NBA, and I felt our guys played a really, really good game and I asked Vooch and DeMar, ‘I just need a minute, we need to close the game out.’ But I’ve seen enough where a team puts shooting on the floor like they did, and they knock down a couple of threes, and there’s a turnover, and the next thing you know you’re in a single digit game...”
Buckle in. This roll isn’t for coasting.
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