Coby White was preparing for his hero-of-the-night post game TV interview following the Bulls tenacious 129-123 win over the high flying Minnesota Timberwolves Tuesday when DeMar DeRozan interrupted, grabbed the microphone and shouted to the delirious United Center crowd, “Coby White is a bad man!”
So let me explain the contronym since I relate to that generation so well and you might say I am sort of a pop culture muse. Heck, I was into hip hop decades ago hanging around hip Greenwich Village when it was a hop and a jump from school. So try to understand, Coby was good.
Very, very good.
So how good you might ask.
Twenty-one fourth-quarter points good, just two points fewer that the entire West contending Timberwolves team, and 30 second-half points to rally the Bulls from a 23-point third quarter deficit to the spectacular-if-unlikely victory. See, just like we said after the loss to the Sacramento Kings last week; if the Bulls could just get behind 23 points in the first half instead of 30.
“It’s a hard way to live, honestly,” White agreed about the sublime Bulls retorts to distress. “Sometimes, like tonight, offensively we got good shots in the first half and they didn’t fall and Minnesota, they made some really tough shots. Ant (Anthony Edwards with 38 points) hit some shots that as he released your were clapping his hand and Karl (Anthony-Towns with 33) hit shots. But I feel in that second half we started to make shots and the crowd gets behind us and we kind of changed the momentum and obviously came out with the win. But it’s not a fun way, digging yourself a hole. We’ve got to figure out a way not to let the first and second half look so drastically different.”
Talk about the good and the bad, and at least this time less ugly.
So now the conun-Drum for the 24-27 Bulls.
Tuesday’s victory was the final game before the final NBA trading deadline of the season Thursday. So was it a harbinger of different — and better — times for the Bulls with Andre Drummond getting his first start alongside Nikola Vučević as a rare counter for the Minnesota front line of seven-footers Towns and Rudy Gobert?
Drummond was, even as Bulls coach Billy Donovan said, “great” with 16 points, 16 rebounds, four blocks and a couple of powerful overtime baskets, the latter basically the clincher on a DeRozan pass for a 127-122 Bulls lead with 1:22 left in the overtime.
“I always say he’s probably the strongest guy in the league,” said White. “He was terrific; awesome. When he brings that physicality and energy we are a whole different team. So I’m not surprised. He started tonight. Whatever role it is, he adapts and he handles it like a true professional. He’s always locked in.”
Though Drummond mostly has been locked to a reserve role and perhaps 15 minutes per game in his two-season Bulls tenure. Though in that role he’s been hardly hum-Drum as one of the per minute leading rebounders in the league. Talk about a guy coming down on opponents with his version of a steel-Drum.
Though now the question is whether he should be Drum-ed out of town.
Drummond is in the final season of his Bulls contract and thus with a short-term and making basically a veteran’s minimum salary, he’s likely in high demand around the NBA.
Cash in now? Or bank an asset?
“I control what I can control,” said Drummond. “I’ve been doing this for 12 years. It didn’t change then, it won’t change now. There’s nothing I can do about it. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, great. Whatever jersey I put on, Chicago Bulls is who I play for now. Either way, I’m just going to come in and do my job on a daily basis. Great night for me, great night for the team and an excellent win. Enjoying the moment.”
Though whether just moments left is a big question.
Donovan commended Drummond’s play, but he didn’t quite endorse the towering two-fold combination for the Bulls, which to the surprise and doubts of many around the NBA, the Timberwolves are making work (35-16) with Towns and Gobert.
“Overall, I thought those two guys played well together,” said Donovan. “Andre was really good on the glass and was physical on his postups when we found him. I thought Andre and Vooch (Nikola Vučević with 24 points and also four blocks) together gave us some stabilizing force up front with how big they are; that really helped. I thought it was a real good team effort all the way through.”
But Donovan also hedged in noting with the gentle jumbos it often took away Vučević's roll to the basket plays. And Donovan has mostly eschewed that duality, though the two have played more together this season than last.
But with that kind of win against such a quality opponent is this an opportunity for the Bulls to demonstrate a different look that might provide more matchup issues for opponents? Or cash in Drummond, who could leave without compensation after the season for the starting job he’s often said he should have?
“It’s been a long time coming,” Drummond said about the new look. “I’ve looked forward to playing alongside of him. We’ve done it a few times already, so it was good to see it in a full-game stint. It shows the type of team we are. We continue to fight no matter what the score is; whether up or down we always find that fight. Sometimes later that others, but we figured it out and came out with a win.
“They’ve got to pick their poison,” Drummond said about he and Vučević simultaneously. “Whether you let me beat you up in the paint or whether shoot a three. It’s a great duo. I still stand on that message (about deserving to start). The opportunity comes, I try to seize the moment and show the best I can within the team’s chemistry. I don’t see why it can’t work. Vooch has played with bigs throughout his career. I’ve played with other bigs throughout my career. So it’s not a shock factor or nothing new. We figured it out (without much practice). He’s a smart player. I’m a smart player. We found good chemistry.”
Is this finally the alchemy that produces gold for the Bulls?
Or just brings in a pot of it?
It looked again first like the Bulls merely were overmatched by one of the best teams in the Western Conference; and then like they might be just good enough to dream.
Except this time it wasn’t a nightmare — if only for the Timberwolves — with DeRozan matching White’s 33 points and carrying the overtime with 10 of the team’s 14 points after missing a potential game-winner at the regulation close.
“I think we can play better in those first halves,” agreed Donovan. “The reason why we were down so much, they had (11 first-half) fast break points, layups in the half court. That’s where you dig yourselves a hole. It’s not like we are not competing and fighting. We have to have more attention to detail, the turnovers, careless passing. But they (players) are competing and fighting and battling as a group.”
It is uncanny, in a sense, the way the Bulls have so often if not come back to win these games basically never make it easy on the opponent if they lose. The Bulls finished with a season-most 16 blocks and nine steals, 26 fast break points with the transition play from so many of those, and 56-40 inside against the bigger Timberwolves. But a lot of the Western Conference teams aren’t much accustomed to the hand-to-hand combat defense of some of the East teams like the Bulls, who are so adept slapping and deflecting the ball. Alex Caruso was the third Bull with four blocks and also had two steals, and at least with help from his friends in the second half put more pressure on Edwards. Donovan’s halftime adjustments were crucial.
But it mostly was White’s shooting, a pair of three-pointers to kick off an early third quarter 11-0 Bulls run, and that’s back in the game after trailing 69-47 at halftime.
“That first half every shot I took I really felt like it was good, like it was going in,” White insisted. “I was focused and locked in and they just didn’t go in. That second half, I just tried to stay disciplined in my shot and it started to fall. I have to be there for my teammates and bring a positive energy and go out and compete.
“At the start of season, I was shooting the ball very poorly. I stayed positive and talked to myself, ‘You’re going to make shots, you’re going to make shots, stay disciplined every game in your shot.’ And I started to make shots,” White explained. “I try to control what I can control. I didn’t feel like I was playing bad at the beginning of the year. I just wasn’t making shots, and now I’m making shots. I feel like this year I’m more comfortable in the in-between game. I feel like last year it was a three or to the rim. This year I’ve been more confident in my in-between game. Watching other good players and how they get to their spots and reading the game.”
Perhaps also a little bit of a look-at-me for the commissioner Tuesday selecting Trae Young and Scottie Barnes to the All-Star team as replacements for the injured Joel Embiid and Julius Randle?
White added another three and with the Timberwolves noticing what White was doing, Vučević was able to slide into the paint for some of those short shots and by the end of the third quarter the Bulls were trailing 92-83.
Like the coaches always say, get it under 10 and it’s a game.
Game on, Garth.
And yes, they were worthy.
Coby, especially, as the ascendent Bulls star scored on a reverse drive with that middle game — remember, this also is one of the best defensive teams in the NBA — a three after Kyle Anderson forgot to bend down to pick up a loose ball, Coby with another three after an Ayo Dosunmu steal and with a 30-foot White pull-up with eight minutes left, the Bulls were within 99-97 and you just felt this one was going to end differently.
It took some stuff, like Caruso stripping McDaniels going up for a shot with three minutes left that led to a yes-him-again Coby score. Caruso, of course, had three points and led the team in plus-minus at +19. White finished a driving layup and foul for a three-point play with 2:28 left in regulation and the Bulls first lead at 112-110 since 6-4 three minutes into the game. Torrey Craig had a dynamic block on a Towns three-point attempt just after that, but Towns got an open three to tie the game at 115 with 50.5 seconds left. White missed a three after that, and after Towns got open and missed with 5.3 seconds left for the lead, DeRozan got a 10-footer at the buzzer that went awry.
Though DeRozan quickly made up for that by dominating the overtime with the first 10 Bulls points, single handedly leading the Timberwolves 125-119, and then assisting on that Drummond finisher.
What, no Coby?
“I’m grateful for the opportunity,” said White. “It’s still a growing process for me. The best way to go through it is to be in it, and I’m grateful to have the ball in those moments, especially in the fourth quarter. That’s when winning time occurs, so I’m super thankful for that. So I try to learn from the older guys like Deebo and what’s his mental like and what are his emotions and how is he carrying himself (at those times). Tonight I played good in the fourth, but I really didn’t do anything in the overtime. So for me just trying to continue to learn and as teams change coverages on me and adapt to how I am playing.
“At the end of day,” noted White, “we're trying to win the game. Deebo has showed he’s Mr. Fourth, Mr. Overtime, whatever it’s called. So at the end of the day, I want those moments. But he got it going in overtime and Vooch got it going, and Drummond had two big baskets. It was more a collective effort. Everyone made some huge plays down the stretch and in overtime. We did it together.”
Those Bulls, indeed, were bad. That’s what’s known as a Janus word. It comes from ancient Rome and that statute you’ve seen of a man facing opposite directions. We’re all anxious come Thursday to see the direction the Bulls will be facing. Hopefully no Dol-Drums.
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