Not far from the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia where the Bulls Monday defeated the streaking 76ers 108-104 is the famous site, Independence Hall, that became the enduring American symbol of what it means to come together as a unit to surprise and overcome the odds.
It was in the squat Georgian structure with its towering steeple and fortifying marble keystones where this country’s most famous document, the Declaration of Independence, was signed. With an eminent display of their own in Philadelphia, perhaps the Bulls are beginning to dissolve the bands that have anchored and connected them to their own despair.
So when the Bulls look back on this 2023-24 season, maybe it will be have been here, with this game, particularly with their own spirit of independence, determination and resiliency that defeated more celebrated opposition that these Bulls will say they staked out their path.
“We’re playing with a much more aggressive mindset at both ends,” said Nikola Vučević, who had 23 points and eight crucial ones in the last few minutes to hold off a 76ers comeback after Philadelphia took a brief lead midway through the fourth quarter. “The way we’ve been playing, playing for each other, sharing the ball, playing at a faster pace has really brought out the best in everybody.
“We’ve been enjoying playing,” said Vučević. “Each night it’s a different guy stepping up. All of us are supporting each other. You can just feel that. And when you play that way, it’s contagious and just brings out positive energy and guys enjoy playing with each other. We haven’t been as stagnant as we were early on. We’ve been getting downhill, finding the open guy, making the extra pass. That’s how you get everybody involved. The ball is going to find the main scorers and it’s our job to find everyone else and involve everyone and it’s contagious when you do. We know what works, so we have to stick with and continue to trust one another whether the ball is going in or not, play for each other. There’s a lot of work ahead, but a good first step and we understand this is the only way it’s going to work for us and we have to stay with it.”
It was the theme of a buoyant and relieved post game locker room after that deflating late game loss in Miami on Saturday. Being connected was the theme: Being there for one another either passing the ball or Coby White with a team-high 24 points sliding over defensively on a last gasp Joel Embiid finish with 6.6 seconds left and the Bulls hanging on by two points that led to Embiid fumbling the ball into a miss. DeMar DeRozan rebounded and then wrapped up the game with a pair of free throws.
“Vooch did a great job in the coverage, Coby was there for support, and then Vooch was able to get back (in the play), and then even when Embiid put the ball up on the glass, the play is not over with his size and length, and then DeMar to have the wherewithal to grab the rebound. Those are the plays that got us beat in Miami, quite honestly, where we had opportunities where our first shot defense was pretty good,” Donovan pointed out. “Coby stepping up and providing support there in front of the restricted area and then Vooch with how to get back, it was a really good defensive play.
“The most important thing is the connectedness, the assists, sharing and moving the basketball, covering for eachother, five guys connected,” Donovan emphasized. “The extra passing, rotations, taking charges; those things to me all are about being connected. If you don’t have that and the talent level is equal or you’re undermanned and your talent level is less, you have zero chance to win, none. I believe the more connected you are as a team, you know what, ‘I don’t want to let this guy down next to me; I’ve got a responsibility to him.’ We’re starting to get to that part where you can feel that.”
Perhaps apropos in Philadelphia where after those Founders signed on, Benjamin Franklin emphasized their connection in what effectively was treason.
"We must all hang together,” Franklin famously declared somewhat whimsically, “or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”
Although it first came from a Shakespeare play—like everything else—when the colonies’ upset victory was assured at Yorktown, George Washington thanked his army as "one patriotic Band of Brothers.”
So if America was about teamwork and connectedness what better model for these Bulls. America’s Team, anyone?
Like that last line of the Declaration of Independence, “We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
And an extra pass?
Heck of a model for these Bulls at an appropriate venue.
“I think we are finally at how ever many games we are starting to click, finding a rhythm, locking in on the things we’ve talked about all year and competing on a high level,” said Alex Caruso, who returned from an ankle sprain to play 31 minutes. “This stretch, as crazy as it sounds, we could be 10-0 instead of what 6-3, 7-3; couple of late games we could have won.
“We just won at Philly, we won at Miami,” Caruso pointed out. “Two-and-one on this road trip. Was up a bucket or two buckets three minutes to go in Miami in the second game. Those are two of the teams that were in the (Finals discussions), teams trying to win the Finals again this year. Two of the best teams. Beat Milwaukee. I think we’ve just got guys that care about each other. We have great energy, great camaraderie. We crack a lot of jokes and keep it light and have done a good job of locking in and focusing on the game plan when we go on the court. I think we can play with anybody when we play our best. It’s just about doing it.”
And still two thirds of the season to go as the Bulls moved cautiously to 11-17.
But this was an impressive and important victory, on the road, against one of the league’s hottest teams having won six straight and with the largest margin of victory for the season with an average winning margin of almost 40 points per game the last four games. It also became the first time all season the 76ers lost to a team with a sub-.500 record, which belied the less competitive nature of the Bulls record. They didn’t feel contrary to the poplar aphorism that they were their record. They may be right.
“Our guys that have been young for the last couple of years are growing up and they’re getting experience,” said Caruso. “They're starting to be around winning plays more often, and they're making them. Pat [Williams] has been playing great for us, Coby’s been playing great for us, Ayo (Dosunmu) has been playing great. Nobody's perfect, but they've learned what to do, what not to do and I thought they've been much more consistent with the stuff that we're trying.”
It all made up for an impressive and welcome team effort, as they emphasized, with six players scoring in double figures despite Torrey Craig out with a heel injury. The Bulls reserves led by Jevon Carter making four threes led the 76ers 29-23. Embiid was brilliant with 40 points, 14 rebounds and six assists, and Tyrese Maxey had 29 points, though Caruso made him work for it with 23 shots. But no other 76er player scored in double figures.
The Bulls did move the ball quickly and unselfishly in the half court, but they strategically played more slowly and packed the lane to limit easy Embiid points and keep an erratic 76ers shooting group outside. So the 76ers were a modest 11 for 32 on threes and despite their size advantage were outscored in the lane by the Bulls. The Bulls led in rebounds by one.
“We’ve competed well against the better teams,” Donovan noted. “It’s just the matter for us can we continue? I think we’re starting to see more consistency. The ups and downs of the game are going to happen, they happen for every team. But I like the way we’re responding back like we get down by 15 against Miami, we cut it to one at the half, we get up in the third, we go into the fourth down 11, we take the lead again; that’s the kind of fight back you want to see. Up by 11 tonight you know they’re gonna come fight back. They come all the way back and tie it up, and we kind of go up by six or seven, they come flying back. (We had) the resiliency and the toughness mentally to kind of keep pushing through that. If we can keep building that that’s where your consistency comes from.”
It looked like the kind of game that would be too much for the Bulls after the rigorous games in Miami and last second loss. Particularly when the 76ers with what seemed like little effort were off to a 16-4 start. But there came Coby to inaugurate an 11-0 Bulls run giving Embiid a head fake and going by for a layup. Make him a giant killer, too.
“I’m just playin’, I’m just hoopin,” White said in his post game on court TV interview. “Like I always say, I give credit to my teammates, my coaching staff, the organization - they believe in me and continue to believe in me. That gives me confidence each and every day to go out there and be myself. So I can’t thank them enough.”
Not only is this kid becoming too good to be true, but so seems his continuing run of not only 20-plus points scoring games, but big shots and big plays at big times.
Although Vučević and DeRozan controlled the scoring at the close of the game Monday, White was breaking down the defense for the assists on Vučević’s clutch threes. White may not be the classic point guard, but his quickness gives him an ability to get to the basket. And then he’s willing and anxious to make those long cross court skip or back-out passes for open looks. And with him scoring so much recently, he’s become a priority for defenses collapsing on him. In this NBA, that’s how many of the top point guards do play from Damian Lillard to C.J. McCollum to Fred VanVleet.
It was the second time in the last three games White has chased a triple double, this time with the 24 points, nine assists and eight rebounds. It was White’s 13 first quarter points, most late, that erased that 76ers start that included a nice blow by of briefly-a-Bull Patrick Beverley.
Carter, who had been on the fringe of the rotation recently, took advantage of Craig’s absence in the second quarter with a pair of threes to get the Bulls spacing out the lead. Dalen Terry had a slick driving move for a score and Williams with a steady 13 points had a jaw dropping reverse slam dunk on a sleek Dosunmu bounce pass. Williams did slip awkwardly on an errant shot to end the half with the Bulls ahead 55-44. But Williams remained in to make a pair of vital threes in the fourth quarter.
And so went the see-saw as the Bulls missed nine of 10 shots early in the third that enabled the 76ers to reclaim a lead. But then came White with a driving fast break dunk, Carter with a three and a revitalized Vučević who outplayed a guy who scored 40 against him.
“We’re playing faster and the ball is moving better and he’s a player who functions very well in that kind of environment,” Donovan said about Vučević. “There are times like I've told him he gets the ball in the post in a switch against a guard and he throws it right back out because they’re open. That’s just the way he plays. I’m like, ‘Vooch, you have a guard on you.’ He says, ‘Yeah, but he’s wide open.’ He just plays like that. The faster we play he can screen, he can slip into the pocket; he’s really smart.”
By late in the third quarter with the Bulls letting Embiid get his—and not so much the others—Embiid still had more points than everyone else on his roster combined. The Bulls then led 81-69 after three quarters, but a smaller 76ers lineup without Embiid to start the fourth quarter got the 76ers not only back, but ahead 89-87 on a Maxey three midway through the fourth quarter.
Losing time? Not this time.
“I liked the way they were after the Milwaukee game and the Miami game (losses),” said mad scientist Donovan. “Not that I want to see them there, but there was genuine hurt. There have been some games this year, quite honestly, where we have no right to be upset after the game because we didn’t even give ourselves a chance to win. But when you fight like they did against Milwaukee and Miami and come up short, that hurts. And then you’ve got to look at what we have to do better.”
And so every time the 76ers scored the Bulls came right back, White with a drive and then Caruso also taking advantage of Embiid being out and little rim protection instead of settling for jumpers. Williams then made a pair of corner threes with assists from Vučević and White, and then Vučević and DeRozan fired the final winning shots heard if not ‘round the world, certainly around Philly.
About that Continental Army: lost most of their early battles amidst calls to break them up and shut them down, to forget this campaign season against a more celebrated foe. But those kids kept fighting, and they believed, and well, you know the rest of the story.
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