And off they went, the Sacramento Kings taking an early lead, but then the Bulls moved to the outside to lead into the first corner. Next, it was the Utah Jazz who showed some late speed. But the Bulls held them off in the second round. Before, it was the Golden State Warriors at full gallop before the Bulls took the lead in this third round, three successful legs of this race in the grueling field of the NBA Western Conference.
Lo and behold, the Bulls came out of the corner and stormed down the stretch Saturday, taking a 62-46 lead early in the third quarter over the Los Angeles Clippers with Ayo Dosunmu’s second straight three-pointer.
But this time, the tiring Bulls didn’t have that final kick as the Clippers rolled to a 112-102 victory to drop the Bulls 3-1 on this rough Western Conference road track.
“It would have been great to have been able to go 4-0 on the trip; that didn’t happen,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan noted. “The guys fought and competed (in the 1 p.m. local time match). I feel like we are dealing with adverse situations.
“We’re on the road against some really good teams and it’s not going to be easy, is it? There’s going to be some back and forth and how can we respond? Donovan said. “I thought we responded in terms of competitiveness. I didn’t feel like we were frustrated or left out of things. This part was encouraging. For me now I’m more worried, the game is over, I wish we would have won, but after leaving the west coast and a home game (Monday against Dallas) then on the road (to Indiana) , these matches come very quickly. We have to recover mentally and emotionally and we have to be ready against Dallas with basically a day in between and then get back on the road. I’m happy with what these guys are doing, the way they’re playing and the way they’re trying.
So it was a loss Saturday to cap a difficult road trip, the third game in four days and perhaps a predictable ending given the circumstances of the trip, Zach LaVine and Patrick Williams out for the rest of the season and Donovan conceding that , yes, these guys play a lot, a lot, a lot.
“I’m not trying to make excuses for these guys,” Donovan said. “I asked a lot of these guys for their minutes.”
This has been an ongoing discussion lately with injuries as Torrey Craig is back, albeit in limited playing time and even had a twisted ankle scare early in the game. It has been noted several times that, surprisingly, Coby White and 34-year-old DeMar DeRozan were the number one and two leaders in the NBA in minutes played this season.
And yet both were the stars throughout the season and especially during this road trip.
White had 37 points and DeRozan 19 in the fourth quarter in the massive 22-point victory to shock the Sacramento Kings on Monday. DeRozan had 17 points in the fourth quarter to help hold off a late Jazz run in Salt Lake City on Wednesday. And Thursday in San Francisco, it was Cool Hand DeMar with the big buckets in the final moments to make the thrilling shot against the Warriors.
It just wasn’t there on Saturday, which was hardly surprising given the circumstances after the Clippers took the lead in the third quarter before the Bulls still led 85-83 in the fourth quarter.
But the Bulls didn’t have much left as White, Alex Caruso and Onuralp Bitim combined to miss four straight three-pointers in the first three minutes of the fourth, and the Bulls missed their first seven field goal attempts before that White finally made a three after the Clippers took a 94-86 lead with about nine minutes left.
These Bulls, as they will, did not back down.
Dosunmu had an invigorating strip off Paul George’s dribble in the backcourt and Caruso with four more steals and two seemingly routine blocks for the game took the ball a second time from Kawhi Leonard. But the Clippers’ size, a problem the Bulls impassively overcame throughout the trip until Saturday, was too much when the Clippers finally found their shooting range. The Bulls were five of 18 in the fourth quarter and one of nine from three. But for the game, the Bulls hit 13 threes to the Clippers’ 12.
DeRozan led the Bulls with 24 points, but did not make a field goal in the fourth quarter. Vučević had 22 points and 11 rebounds and White scored 19 points. But the Clippers, using more players, had a 34-15 advantage on the bench and 45-38 on the boards with 18-13 second chance points. The Bulls fell to 31-33 while giving up an average of more than 20 second chance points per game on this trip.
It’s part of who they are, being undersized virtually every game with Caruso as the power forward — or against the other team’s best player — and DeRozan as the small forward. But it continued to produce a wave of improvement in play and reasoned optimism for a fabulous finish with seven of the next nine games at home before the Bulls closed the season with six of nine away games. Of course, between now and then, like last season, some teams could play to increase their losing record.
This is not the case for the Bulls, who remain ninth in the Eastern Conference, but play two big games starting Wednesday against Indiana, eighth.
And it may have been the Bulls’ best stretch of the season with those wins in the Western Conference and some recent victories against rival teams like Cleveland, Minnesota and New Orleans.
“I’m happy with what these guys are doing, the way they’re playing and the way they’re trying,” Donovan said. “I think some of the minutes I’ve asked some of these guys to play have been long. I’m not making excuses for Coby’s shooting (seven of 16 in each of the last two games). I think some of the minutes I asked these guys to play were long. Maybe some of the minutes those guys played might have contributed to us not shooting the ball well. But that also adds to the fact that they are a very good defensive team and are long.
None of the Bulls players, especially these players, will complain about playing too much. If anything, DeRozan grimaces at the thought of being taken to rest.
And although this time the Bulls didn’t have that final kick that has been so impressive this season with the so-called clutch time hits, the game seemed to get away with more with a subtle adjustment than the Clippers did after the Bulls won the half 57-46. lead.
The Clippers, led by George with 22 points, started the game poorly by shooting, three of 12 from three in the first quarter, despite being the second-best three-point shooting team in the league. The Bulls had something to do with this by using trapping pressure against Leonard and Caruso to get their hands on everything but their water bottles.
Dosunmu’s buzzer-beating three to end the first half pushed the Bulls into double digits. And they extended that with his encore to start the third quarter. But the Clippers bombarded the Bulls with four dunks or layups in a minute without a pick and roll – what else since that accounts for 95 percent of NBA offenses, as much as Tex Winter must be turning in his grave – and seven in their next eight fields. goals. The Bulls’ double-digit lead had become a deficit.
The Bulls in previous seasons have mostly seen their center drop against the pick and roll. He often produced easy shots from mid-range. More this season, Vučević has come to harass the ball screen. In the first half, the Clippers’ ball handler came vertically off the screen toward the basket and thus gave the Bulls more chances to clog the lane. During this third quarter, the ball handler began to take the ball more horizontally to extend the play. This gave the Clippers screener more room to maneuver. The Bulls’ centers generally aren’t quick enough to block and the inside help defenders are smaller.
The Bulls adapted by passing more under screens. But by then the Clippers had regained their footing and the Bulls were just missing that final kick, unsurprising given the schedule.
But there’s still a big race ahead with high stakes and the Bulls feel like maybe they can be the thoroughbreds.
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