The heat was on the Bulls.
The promise of a resurgent season seemed to be going up in smoke with seven losses in the previous nine games, and now starting the second of a back-to-back Saturday against the defending Eastern Conference champion trailing 22-1 in the first seven minutes of the game. It was a time when one might begin sweating in the glare of the bright demands of the season. Instead, the Bulls applied some block — as well as steals, offensive rebounds and fast break domination — and beat the Heat 102-97.
“All it does is take one, honestly,” insisted DeMar DeRozan, who was crucial down the stretch in preventing the Bulls from getting singed with 12 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter and the effective game winning 18-footer with 21.9 seconds left in the game. “One game at a time. This feeling we have now you’ve got to want it even more, and it’s going be tough Monday night playing against the same team again. We understood how we put ourselves in the hole and not to do that again and feed off a game like today.”
The victory certainly was an unexpected balm for the chafing and chapped season this seemed to be heading toward as the Bulls inched their record to 5-9. That’s because of the way this was looking after the consecutive losses to the central Florida guys earlier in the week, huge deficits and then disappointments at the close. It felt like deja vu all over again, as Yogi eloquently stated, with the Bulls zero for 11 start Saturday, no field goals the first seven minutes and a timeout with 5:48 remaining in the first quarter and trailing 20-1.
“It’s 20-1; there’s nothing good going on when that’s happening,” agreed Bulls coach Billy Donovan.
So, Billy, just what goes on in that huddle?
“Those guys know it’s 20-1; can’t start games like that,” said Donovan. “I try to give them a little bit of time to talk…it’s listen, ‘We have got to pick up our pace here.’ They’re talking, the talk is constructive. There is positivity in there like, ‘C’mon, let’s go, we’re better than this.’ That kind of stuff. There’s no finger pointing of, ‘What are you doing?’ ‘What are you doing?’ There’s none of that. They are all trying to lift each other up like, ‘C’mon, here.’
“It’s great to talk, but we have to go out and do it,” said Donovan. “I’m glad we were able to overcome it, but it’s certainly a hard way to live doing that.”
Especially after everyone discussed following Friday’s loss how this just couldn’t be allowed to happen again. Until about 20-some hours later….
“The feeling we all have when we look up and you see that, it’s definitely frustrating, embarrassing,” said DeRozan. “It’s on us. We just got to stop it. We’ve just got to take it out of our mind that we’ve put ourselves in that situation so many times and just go out and play. You get down a couple shots don’t go in it kind of steam rolls. Stay with it one play at a time and not get caught up in missing shots, not get caught up in them making shots, letting the crowd down; just one possession at a time.”
And this time the cliche worked.
It still got to 24-3 Miami, but Nikola Vučević scored on a short jumper and Donovan began to substitute. After a poor outing Friday perhaps adjusting to Alex Caruso becoming a starter, the reserves responded. Torrey Craig made a three, Ayo Dosunmu got a pair of free throws pushing the pace, Andre Drummond muscled back a miss, an 11-0 Bulls welcome back to NBA basketball.
“I give our bench credit,” said Donovan. “I though they did a really good job getting us back within 10 (early in the second quarter after the first ended 26-14). And that closing group did a good job. Zach (LaVine with an excellent all round game) stepped up, DeMar hit a big shot, Caruso’s three (on a LaVine assist for a 97-94 lead with 51.8 seconds left). They all contributed coming down the stretch and played off each other, which was good to see.”
It was an impressive denouement this time against a Miami show featuring seven straight wins and led by Jimmy Butler with 25 points and Bam Adebayo with 24 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.
But it was Caruso and LaVine forcing Butler into multiple misses in the last minute that clinched the game for the Bulls.
“Once he (LaVine) picked it up being aggressive scoring, you saw them trying to pick up on him a little more defensively and from there he made the right plays finding guys, making the right plays,” said DeRozan. “He made some big plays and without what he did offensively and defensively we don’t pull this one out.”
There were a lot of fingerprints on this one, especially DeRozan’s with what’s become a less frequent game-winner. But it was sweet this time, a tough 18-foot turnaround fading shot against a stout defensive effort that gave the Bulls that 99-97 lead with 21.9 left.
“I was trying to bait Jimmy into coming, but I knew he wasn’t going to leave off Zach,” DeRozan explained. “So I was just taking my time getting my footwork so I could explode and get the shot over. I knew it was going to be a tough contest. Just me trying to get my balance after I turned into the shot. Felt good to see it go, get the crowd reaction and especially how we started and then to go back down court and get stops and close out the game from there.”
Butler had just made a tough corner three to tie the game at 97 with 42.7 seconds left after the Caruso three that gave the Bulls their first lead of the game. But then with Miami trailing by two, LaVine came out to help on Butler when Kyle Lowry picked off Caruso on a screen. Butler’s three-point attempt to take the lead missed everything with 12.4 seconds left.
DeRozan caught the air ball and was fouled. And in an uncharacteristic free throw line game for him. DeRozan made one of two, his fourth free throw miss of the game for the career 84% shooter.
“Man, trust me, my daughter already is cussing me out,” said DeRozan. “I’m sure my son will be cussing me out, too.”
Coming out of the timeout with 10.9 seconds left and trailing 100-97, the Bulls brought in Craig to defend Butler. Craig Velcroed himself to Butler, whose three was found wanting and to DeRozan on the rebound. And DeRozan free throws finally to end the Bulls three-game losing streak.
“It was a grind-it-out game, especially the way it started,” said LaVine. “It was just good to get a win. Everybody was in here happy afterward, obviously. We’ve been playing hard and playing from behind the last three, four games. So to be able to finally come up with one was good. Obviously, don’t want to be (behind) 20-1. Found a way to win tonight, but obviously not going to be able to sustain that (with the large deficits). We have the capability to come back in a game. It’s always tough to finish, but today we were able to.”
And given how the Bulls have been buffeted by the rumored and speculative trade winds lately, this is probably just one of many small disturbances to come. When the game ended, there was a social media puke as LaVine headed for the vomitorium toward the locker room. The interpretation was that LaVine had ignored a request to remain for the oncourt TV post game interview.
“Just a miscommunication with the PR team,” explained LaVine when asked in the locker room. "We’re all fine; I’m not ticked at all. I’m happy we got a win. We play these guys in a couple of days. You don’t want to just sit around and celebrate. I’d rather celebrate in locker room.”
Still, there were enough conspiracy theories that it almost seemed time to get Kyrie Irving to explain things.
Meanwhile, it probably was LaVine’s best all around game this season with 13 points on just 10 shots as Butler shadowed LaVine everywhere. So LaVine equalled his season-high with eight rebounds, added six assists to lead the team and had a season-most three steals with a block. In addition, LaVine drew two defenders to get Caruso open for his clutch three, and earlier in the fourth quarter with Miami clinging to a three-point lead at 90-87 rushed Butler into an air ball that set tip a DeRozan driving score.
“Jimmy's great,” said LaVine. “I’ve always appreciated playing against him; he hit some tough shots. I went back at him and tried to hit some tough ones, too; that’s the game. I was one for (three) in the first half; just trying to do everything else. I was able to create and rebound and try to find my opportunities in the third and fourth (two fourth quarter three pointers). Just try to do everything I can to help us get a win at this point.”
Desperately needed as November games go and deserved despite the horrendous start with a 44-34 Bulls edge in rebounds, 21-7 in fast break points, a hefty 16 of 45 threes and some fine contributions from Coby White with 14 points and four of 10 threes and Caruso with 11 points and two more threes to keep him at 50% on threes for the season. Caruso is remarkably shooting 61.5% overall with few layups. More than half his attempts have been three-pointers.
Not so unexpectedly by late in the first half with the Bulls pulling back within 49-40 at halftime, the officials stopped play to wipe the blood leaking from Caruso’s arm. Blood, sweat and, especially the way it was going, tears in this one. And the other guys getting burned for a change.
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