CHICAGO — DeMar DeRozan scored 28 points and found Nikola Vucevic for a key hook shot with 9.3 seconds remaining, helping the Chicago Bulls beat the Portland Trail Blazers 110-107 on Monday night.
“It’s sometimes more than just making a shot,” teammate Alex Caruso said of DeRozan’s performance in a game-high 40 minutes. “It’s boxing against their guys who are crashing hard. It’s all about finding Vooch on the mismatch down low to make the layup and keep us up three. He’s just a winner at heart.
Vucevic had 22 points and nine rebounds in Chicago’s third win in four games. Ayo Dosunmu finished with 23 points and 10 assists.
Anfernee Simons scored 12 of her 30 points in the fourth quarter for Portland, but couldn’t make a 3-point attempt from the top of the key before time expired. Deandre Ayton had 25 points and 15 rebounds in his sixth straight game with at least 20 points.
The Blazers lost for the seventh time in nine games.
“Maybe half a second,” Simons said of how he was close to making the final shot. “We had some good opportunities and they just didn’t fall.”
The Bulls’ NBA-leading 24th victory — a game within five points with less than five minutes remaining — brought them into a .500 game at 34-35. But they were dominated 32-21 in the last quarter.
“We got lazy, we got careless with the ball and started being less aggressive,” DeRozan said. “We let them get down, we fouled them, we let them make layups. We let go of the rope a little.
Each team played without its second-highest scorer. Bulls guard Coby White missed his third straight game with a strained right hip, and Portland’s Jerami Grant sat out for the fourth straight game with a strained right hamstring.
Dosunmu was 9 of 17 from the field while running the offense in White’s absence. He scored a career-high 34 points in Saturday night’s 127-98 win over Washington.
With 3:32 left in the fourth, Simons hit a contested 3-pointer from the left wing to give Portland a 105-104 lead for its first lead since the first quarter. But Simons’ would-be go-ahead long-range attempt fell short with 34 seconds left.
Vucevic’s hook shot made it 108-105 with 9.3 seconds left, and Caruso intentionally fouled Simons to put him at the free throw line rather than giving him a chance to tie 3 on the next possession.
“It’s definitely a one-on-one game,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said. “We talked about committing three.”
Portland entered Monday averaging the third-most turnovers in the NBA, and its mistakes once again weighed heavily. The Bulls scored 19 points off 13 Blazers turnovers, including a Vucevic dunk on a fast break opened by a Torrey Craig steal that put Chicago up 82-66 with 3:15 left in the third.
“It was a tough night for us,” Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups said. “End of the game, I don’t think we executed very well in the last sequence when it really mattered.”
FOLLOWING
Trail Blazers: Return to Portland on Wednesday for the first of two consecutive home games against the Clippers.
Bulls: Visit the Rockets in Houston on Thursday.
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