The Bulls this time just couldn’t keep up the pace.
Or with the Pacers, who ran and shot out to a 25-point third quarter lead before the Bulls refuted Randy Newman with a short people lineup that actually got the Bulls a lead with eight minutes left in the game on a Coby White slump breaking three. Like a United jet accelerating, the United Center was roaring its approval.
Until, that is, the Bulls takeoff was aborted when its defensive engines finally failed and the engine that drives these Pacers, Tyrese Haliburton, finished off a 120-104 Indiana victory.
The loss dropped the understaffed Bulls, who were led by Patrick Williams with 22 points and DeMar DeRozan with 21, to 14-19. The Bulls also got 16 points from Coby White and 16 each from feisty Alex Caruso and speedy Ayo Dosunmu. But the Bulls’ reversion to three-point ineptitude with a fourth consecutive game shooting below 30 percent on threes proved fatal as Indiana made 19 of 42 threes (seven of 27 for the Bulls) and three straight after the Bulls took that lead, including two by Haliburton.
“Certainly he made a couple of tough shots,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said about the Pacers’ marksman. It’s Indy 500 country now for the Oshkosh native, but no brickyard for him.
“Besides that, obviously, he made a lot of great decisions and made the game easier for those guys,” agreed Donovan about Haliburton’s profound and historic box score line of 21 points and 20 assists without a turnover and six threes. “No question he made some plays; the two threes were big.”
They were after the Bulls inspiring comeback triggered by a height-challenged lineup that included Dalen Terry with a crazy, as the kids say, plus-29 rating in a 16-point loss, Dosunmu, Caruso and Williams and Terry Taylor splitting “big man” center time. Their pressure defense, transition play and attacking inside play for 60 paint points looked like it actually might turn this speeding Pacers car into an ugly wreck.
“We got downhill and played aggressively and that was a big reason we got back in the game,” said Donovan. “I liked the tempo and pace. I thought our physicality was much better when we got down; that really got us back in the game. A lot came from our bench guys, the energy they brought. We fought our way back. I give our guys a lot of credit. We did, I thought, a better job when we were a little bit smaller.”
But it wasn’t sustainable with Haliburton’s defining run.
If you didn’t care who won, it was entertaining to watch.
The Bulls are starting to feel it being without Zach LaVine, Torrey Craig and now Nikola Vučević. Defenses have been finding White more quickly and regularly, and after he made that very long three for a 91-90 lead to break an oh-my-goodness for 16 drought, Indiana forced him into a pair of turnovers. Coming out of that first one Haliburton sought out DeRozan in a switch and fired a three over him. Then Haliburtin ran ahead to the deep right corner after the second White oops and made another three.
Then after a Bulls miss, the fast pace Pacers with 31 fast break points in the game got Myles Turner out way ahead of Andre Drummond and Turner scored on a fast break layup with White fouling trying to help. That 12-0 Indiana straightaway turned what looked like it would be a Hoosier choke effectively into Windy City checkmate and a 104-95 Pacers lead with about five minutes left.
It would be a lot to ask of the Bulls to climb out yet again after their own super deep bore hole.
But then came Williams’ play of the game with a gravity defying running tip dunk of a DeRozan miss, and who knows? These Bulls have done stranger things and made bigger comebacks.
Darn that Tyrese, as it turns out. He got DeRozan on a switch again and made a long two. And then with the Bulls doing everything but making him wear a blindfold, he still passed to Turner ambling down the lane for another easy rolling layup for Turner. Buddy Hield then closed it with another three as Caruso played his own box and one on Haliburton, who then set the screen for Hield.
“We didn’t shoot the ball tonight particularly from behind the line, and they shot it a lot better than we did,” Donovan agreed. “With all that being said, we still were able to get up and do things to get the lead.”
Though you have to worry some with all those injuries.
The Bulls pace in contrast slowed with just 19 assists and 41 percent overall shooting, which does make it difficult to accumulate the assists. The Bulls do work at it and had a dozen more shots with 13 offensive rebounds, seven by Drummond.
It was no surprise to see the Pacers targeting DeRozan late the way the Bulls have had to rely on him so much for offense with the Two away. Seemingly ageless, DeRozan has often come through as he did to close the win against Atlanta. But as much as Donovan tried to give him breaks, DeRozan played more than 37 minutes Thursday and has played more than 40 minutes in four of the last eight games. He’s at a 10-year high in average minutes played per game and second in the league in most minutes played, just barely behind White at No. 1.
DeRozan is the only player older than 30 in the top 10 in minutes played other than Anthony Davis, who is 10th. DeRozan is averaging 38.7 minutes per game the last 15 games. It is a lot to ask, and Donovan understands. But, you know, there’s a lot of guys suddenly missing.
“I am concerned,” Donovan admitted. “It is the situation we’ve been in with Torrey, Vooch and Zach out. I play him a lot. I want be mindful of that. I (do) check with him. He’s good with communication (about his ability).”
The Bulls weren’t much communicating to begin the game as the Pacers raced out to a 37-31 first quarter lead, 63-52 at halftime and then what looked like an early night on the West Side 83-58 with Turner making jump shots with Drummond loath to chase outside and Haliburton making threes.
Drummond did have 12 rebounds in the first half and 16 for the game. But he had foul trouble early and Indiana constantly challenged his mobility with Turner’s shooting. Turner led Indiana with 24 points and a game most plus-30.
But credit this Bulls team unlike many in the NBA that they don’t accept the apparently inevitable. Instead of going to a big man like G-leaguer Adama Sanogo with Drummond’s fouls, Donovan defaulted to his favored small group with speed and alacrity. It worked as the Bulls extended their defense, pressuring Indiana on the perimeter and denying the lanes.
This Pacers team has been a throwback to the run and gun Doug Moe Denver Nuggets of the 1980s who were a marginally competitive fun watch team that usually won between 45 and 50 games and holds the NBA all-time season record for scoring at almost 130 per game. Moe’s Nuggets once opened the playoffs against the great Lakers of that era and Moe declared before the opener they had no chance of winning one game. He was correct. So Pacers coach Rick Carlisle after this breakneck pace start that has the Pacers leading the NBA in scoring and 29th worst in defense ahead of only AAU Washington changed his starting lineup to spice up this tasty offensive dish with some defense. I guess it worked, though the Bulls were missing three of their top six players.
By the way, it's not going to help this season since he's been declared out. But pregame Donovan said Lonzo Ball was back with the team recently and said he is pain free from his knee surgeries. Rehab continues.
Meanwhile, it would have helped the Bulls more if Haliburton didn’t play, which he said he almost didn’t with a back injury. He was listed as questionable for the game, and said afterward he had to stand all day because if he sat his back would have stiffened too much to play. Sit down, Tyrese! Sit down!
The Bulls eventually went down.
The Bulls closed the third quarter on a 16-2 run carried by DeRozan’s scoring and some rim rocking play from Williams with his fourth game scoring at least 20 points this season, a career most.
“The way we played (from behind) we were more aggressive, more physical on both ends and that’s something we can take away,” said Williams. “You never want to put yourself in position to fight back from that deficit. We did a good job working our way back in the game, but it was tough, spent a lot of energy to get back. We’ve won games that way, but have also lost. So we have to start off better. (When we got up) they made a lot of tough shots. I’m just playing basketball, making the plays I think I can make.”
And so was Terry, who had mostly worked his way out of the rotation. But who thus night was an igniter with crucial hustle plays all over the court, drawing a charge, finishing on the break and even earning his way back into the game down the stretch.
“Yeah definitely,” said Terry when asked if this is the most impact he’s had in a game for the Bulls. “I don’t really aim for that, but got to keep doing it. I feel game by game I get a little bit more comfortable. I definitely feel when I was out there I impacted the game in a lot of different ways whether it was getting guys the ball, defending, creating energy. Every game I feel I have been a little more comfortable and I feel like I am gaining more trust (of the coaches) as the game goes on.
“We’ve got to keep building as a team, keep building energy,” said Terry, who had six points and three blocks in 18 minutes. “If you hit two or three more threes and get a few more stops that game is a lot different. I think we just ran out of energy.”
And into a bit too much of the other guys’.
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