The debate about the best backcourt in the NBA has started and ended most of the last decade, if not so much anymore, with Splash Brothers Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. It now veers toward Devin Booker and Bradley Beal if they actually ever play much together. But there’s also Luka and Kyrie, so good first names are enough, Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland, Trae Young and Dejounte Murray, Shai Gilgeous Alexander and Josh Giddey, Damian Lillard and Malik Beasley, Tyrese Haliburton and Buddy Hield, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White.
Make way for Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu.
Because Thursday in the Bulls tyrannical 124-116 victory over the Miami Heat, White and Dosunmu, the latter starting the second half for Alex Caruso who aggravated his sprained ankle five minutes into the game, did something few of those star twos likely ever did. White and Dosunmu combined for 50 points and 16 assists without a turnover, with 35 minutes for Dosunmu and 40 for the surging White to silence Miami.
The play of the dynamic duo supported by 24 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists from Nikola Vučević and 23 points from DeMar DeRozan gave the Bulls the rare wire-to-wire victory in historic fashion, a 25-point lead for the Bulls eight minutes into the game—that’s right, the Bulls we always are saying are slow starting—that was the second biggest such early lead in the NBA this season. And in Bulls franchise history, it was the largest lead of its kind to start a game in 25 years and the first time since the early expansion period in 1969 with four players scoring at least 23 points.
Even though the Heat made several runs to within three and four points, a late second quarter 26-7 blitz to get within 60-56 at halftime and Miami within 113-109 with about three minutes left in the game, it was the Bulls making the big plays and shots each time. It was Dosunmu rebounding from some difficult games recently for a wing three after that last Miami gasp within four with about two and a half minutes left, and then a corner three curtain closer with about 30 seconds left in the game.
“I thought he really played well and with the shooting efficiency that stands out,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said about Dosunmu overall 10 of 12 and three of four on threes. “I thought he was good defensively and made really good decisions when he got in the paint, kicking it out. We had talked at shootaround that against them you really have to put pressure on the paint. I thought he did a really good job with constant pressure. And that opened up things for him and then he was able to open things up and make plays.”
Though the star again was the White Hot Coby with a game high 26 points and 11 assists, his first double-double of the season and almost his first career triple double with seven assists in those 40 minutes without an error, though he surprisingly missed four free throws. But cashed four more threes to continue his league run of most in the last month.
Though White repeatedly dismisses any personal achievements and talks mostly of having to improve, he has been meeting the first test of greatness, which is consistency. Pretty much just write it down now; Coby’s giving you 20 to 25 and a nourishing assortment of threes to fill up the box score as the Bulls broke their two-game losing streak and moved to 10-16.
“The ball was moving and we were playing really fast (to start) and we were active on the defensive end,” said White about that 33-8 Bulls start. “We were getting open looks (making seven of their first nine threes). We knew they were on a back to back, so we were trying to take advantage of that; yeah, it was fun.”
Even more than at South Beach.
OK, perhaps I’m getting a little ahead of myself, though when I go there the fun usually involves getting a large vanilla cone instead of medium. The Bulls remain in Miami a few more days with the end of the teams’ season series Saturday with the Bulls holding a 2-1 advantage.
But this one Thursday was a balm for the Bulls after the heartbreaker against the Bucks and the back breaker against the Nuggets. Especially dropping a bomb like that on the Heat who don’t do the humble brag well in their certainty of if not winning them all, outplaying the others.
Hardly this time as the Bulls made them look slow, defenseless and desperate. The Heat, true, were without their All-Star center Bam Adebayo, and Vučević took advantage of a miniature Heat team. Especially in a crucial part of the game after halftime when Vučević scored 15 points in the third quarter after Miami came within 63-60 two minutes in.
Vučević was constantly on the move taking scoring passes from White and Dosunmu as the Bulls were the deli slicer for the meat of the Heat defense.
And typical of White—who says he’s not a facilitator?—the quickly maturing fifth year pro handed off the praise to his teammates.
“Vooch and Ayo were clicking in the third and that partnership is really growing,” said White. “I feel we are all trying to grow as a team. Vooch is easy to play with because of how talented he is in the pocket and the passer he is; he’s a great teammate and makes it a lot easier.
“Especially when the game was close and they went on a run toward the end of the third, he (Dosunmu) ran off like 10 straight (eight),” White pointed out. “He’s a killer. He’s the reason we won, in my opinion. He stepped up big. His defense was really good and he was playmaking and he was everything for us tonight. He has a killer mentality. Every time he steps on the floor you know he’s going to give it his all and compete at a very high level.”
The Bulls did that as consistently as they have all season from a start like no other against the headwinds of percolating turmoil.
“Our guys just enjoy playing basketball,” said Donovan. “I don’t think that they think too much about that (trade talk). They came back and responded. Had a hard fought game against Milwaukee and I think we were disappointed with the way we played against Denver, and we came back and responded. I think they are thinking about playing basketball.”
Beautifully the way it started in Miami where the waters are turquoise, the beaches sandy white, the art deco structures cobalt blue and golden yellow and the face of Heat coach Erik Spoelstra bright red calling multiple early timeouts and lifting most of his starters a few minutes into the game.
The ball was popping so much for the Bulls to begin, Garrett’s was jealous.
Heat players like to strut, but if anyone was on fire, hot dog it was the Bulls who were relishing the start and as direct as a pickle spear. If there were any crabs, they were on the Miami bench.
Yes, I better eat before writing these things.
For the Bulls, it was just feasting on Miami and old pal Jimmy Butler, who led the Heat with a quiet 20.
The grapefruit for the Bulls was the sour look for Caruso as he left the game after making a pair of three pointers in the 16-5 start just under five minutes in. He stumbled out of bounds defending a drive by Duncan Robinson and apparently stepped on Vučević’s foot and again sprained his ankle. Donovan said it was the same place where Caruso was just and had to miss the previous two games.
“We came out as a unit the first five minutes we were playing with so much energy,” said White. “He’s (Caruso) been killing all year and playing so well and then it’s just like stuff you really can’t control happening, stepping on someone's foot, or them step on his foot. We all feel bad for him. No, not feeling bad for him because he wouldn’t want us to feel bad for him. It’s just unfortunate because obviously we love when he’s out there because of what he brings.”
This time the Bulls didn’t lose anything as Dosunmu became the Venn diagram for Caruso the way he overlapped what Caruso brought with perhaps not quite the defense but an offense just a basket off his career high.
Like White previously, Dosunmu has moved from starting to the bench and big minutes to fewer. He slumped recently, but he said he felt he was close and just needed a bit more work on his shot. Dosunmu embraced his playing relationship with White, and was perhaps as animated in his post game comments as he’s been as a Bull. He seemed to be having a really good time.
Stopped for an NBC Sports Chicago interview coming off the court, Dosunmu said White’s journey has inspired him.
“It’s motivation because I understand what he went through his second, third, fourth, fifth year,” Dosunmu said. “I understand how many people counted him out. He did nothing but work. Me seeing that first hand gives me motivation to keep going, to rise to another occasion. We push each other to be great. When I see him doing what he’s doing now, it’s nothing but giving me excitement.”
Afterward by his locker in the visitor’s dressing room where the Bulls have recounted some epic highs and lows, Dosunmu said he felt his shots recently were accurate if unrewarding. So he just took a lot more in practice. It’s been his speed that has killed.
“Being fast, being strong, being able to flatten the defense out and get downhill and make plays, push the tempo,” Dosunmu said about his game priorities. “I think when the tempo is up we are at our best because guys get in transition and get easy baskets. So that’s pretty much what I try to do, get it out and use my speed.
“We had to understand we came out hot, we were making threes. I don’t know how many in a row, and the realization of that is you are not going to make those shots the whole game,” Dosunmu noted. “You miss a couple of shots and human nature is when you are down early you pick it up and have more energy. They had us down 22-1 at our place (and the Bulls won last month). I tried to tell the guys they are going to make a run. ’It’s OK, stay with it, it’s going to be a long game.’ We know the Heat, the culture, the coaching staff, that they hold themselves on playing hard and never quitting. We understood they were going to fight back. So it was all about keep going, keep going, keep going, over and over again.”
It succeeded with a pair of White second quarter threes and some nifty assists to set up DeRozan. On one possession, White grabbed an offense rebound and faded out for his own three. The Bulls were outworking Miami whenever it mattered. Vučević had that run to create space to open the third quarter. Dosunmu then closed it to maintain a 93-88 Bulls lead after three quarters. And then in the fourth quarter with Miami defenders moving up, Coby adjusted and went in. The Heat were the ones this time who never could make the big enough shot.
Delighting in it all sitting courtside were former Bulls Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer.
Just hol-dat!
“I just try to read what’s in front of me,” said White. “In the second half, they were running a lot harder at me than they were in the first half. I got a lot of open ones in the first half. In the second half, they ran a lot harder at me and I just wanted to get downhill and look for kickouts, look for my teammates. I always say I feel I have a long way to go in manipulating a defense, but I am getting better and that’s all you can ask for, getting better.”
It’s been therapeutically obvious in it’s made the Bulls feel a lot better.
Donovan to his delight was even able to get into basketball nerd mode.
“There were times he doesn’t do a great job setting up pick and roll,” Donovan said about White. “Early in his career, it was all straight speed; there wasn’t a lot of detail. He’s getting better now at coming off (screens) with some force and using the screen. As an offensive player and the basket is in front of you and a pick and roll comes, the minute you turn your shoulders you are a non player. You watch any great offensive player, the shoulders are always at the basket. He’s getting better at making those reads. But he’s the one who deserves all the credit. I have great respect for him. He’s put a lot of work into that on his own.”
And White new backcourt mate, Dosunmu, was unusually expansive for him about his works in progress. As often detailed, Dosunmu had those sophomore ups and downs last season. So he said it was about strength and touch for him, and student of the game he is studying the shooters like Kyrie Irving.
“If you look at most of the (top) guards in the NBA who finish at the rim, Kyrie, Kyrie is good because he has amazing touch,” Dosunmu marveled. “His touch is second to none and then you have guys like Steph Curry. He has similar touch, but when he does it’s different than mine because our bodies are different. So I want to pretty much take some of the Kyrie touch when you get to the rim and put it off the backboard with different angles because when you get to the rim with seven footers you have to get it over them; not what I was accustomed to in college. You have to find a way to be creative. Kyrie is six foot, 6- 1 on good days, but he still is effective. Seeing that, seeing DeMar and how he gets to the rim different at angles. At some point, you have to have that touch around the rim and not just the speed and athleticism; Zach, the way he gets in there. It’s just about finding ways to get better.”
Like White down the stretch, rebound and full court 94 feet of hardwood drive for a score, blowing past Robinson for a score, finishing past Jaime Jaquez Jr., straight line from the wing past Heat defenders having no prayer to make it 103-97 with 7:50 left. The Bulls dominated inside 52-38 with also 13 more field goal attempts.
And each time Miami crept closer, there he was again, White with a bullet assist to Vučević for 105-99, White finishing again this time from Vučević for 112-101 with 4:41 left, White with 14 fourth quarter points that included four of six free throws. And then Dosunmu finishing it off with those threes.
Jerry and Norm would be proud.
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