It’s considered growth when the Bulls don’t lose a lead in the second half, let alone rallying against a playoff contender.
And it wasn’t that Zach LaVine or any one teammate did most of the heavy lifting. Several Bulls made heady plays to upset the Clippers 106-103 Saturday night at the United Center.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
1. The Bulls’ game-winning play looked like it came out of a football playbook.
After Wendell Carter Jr.’s putback dunk brought the Bulls within 103-100 with 2 minutes to go, Zach Lavine hit a 3-pointer and Kris Dunn’s fight for a loose ball set up Denzel Valentine for a game-tying 3-pointer at 106-all. LaVine then sealed the game — with some help — on his go-ahead three-point play.
Coach Jim Boylen compared Dunn to an NFL defensive back and LaVine’s game-winning play, which was keyed by Dunn, certainly looked like something out of a football playbook.
As Dunn inbounded to LaVine, Carter blocked down on Paul George and released. As George trailed LaVine, Dunn ran a screen that effectively acted as a rub route — only it was Dunn’s defender who screened off his own teammate, George, as confusion set in and Clippers players failed to switch off.
“You want me to actually give you the name?” Dunn said and laughed when asked about it. “We can’t have that in the playbook out there. Just try to go out and run that guy off, and that’s what I did. Zach made a big-time play.”
Whatever the Bulls call it, it put Montrezl Harrell in a horrible position and LaVine knew it.
“Once the lane opened up, I tried to get a one-on-one,” LaVine said. “He’s a tough dude. I knew I could attack his body.”
LaVine’s ensuing free throw forced the Clippers to try for a game-tying 3.
“We made big shots,” LaVine said. “(Valentine) hit a big one. KD was tremendous from defense to the play where he got the rebound (and) tipped it back out, (and) the little confusion play. He did an incredible job tonight.”
2. Doc Rivers is a fan of Matt Nagy — and high school bragging rights over Patrick Beverley.
Doc Rivers, the Clippers coach and Proviso East great, naturally talks about all things Chicago with Patrick Beverley, the Clippers guard and Marshall High School product.
“We talk about Chicago probably every single day,” Rivers said. “We probably talk about the Bears the most. I’m a big Bears fan, as you know. I’m a big Nagy fan. Really I think he’s a terrific coach. Every once in a while you have a feeling about someone and I have that about him. So we talk about him a lot.”
Rivers said he and Beverley also discuss “the dominance of Proviso East over Marshall and every other team. He didn’t like that conversation very much.”
Proviso East plays Marshall on Jan. 20 in the MLK Shootout.
3. The Bulls leaned on Kris Dunn’s defense again.
Kris Dunn already was making his case for first-team all-defensive team. And Saturday, his defense of Paul George on a couple of fourth-quarter plays loomed large for the Bulls.
The Bulls were down 100-98 with just over three minutes to go when Maurice Harkless try to pass to George along the sideline for a 3-point attempt, but Dunn stole the ball just as it was reaching George’s hands. The Bulls couldn’t capitalize on the other end, but Dunn stopped George’s run where he had a hand in the Clippers’ previous nine points.
On the last play, Dunn closed on George but didn’t bump him, forcing George to dribble around before missing a potential game-tying 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Dunn was trade fodder last season and started this season coming off the bench — a role he accepted without complaint. But now he’s back in the starting lineup, albeit due to a few injuries.
“I’ve been through a lot but toward the end of the game you need defense,” Dunn said. “That’s what I hang my hat on and coaches know I’m not scared to take on any challenge and that’s what I do.”
“I know everybody has heard the saying: Defense wins championships. Got to have defense on the defense, so that’s what I bring.”
Here is more coverage from Saturday’s game:
The Bulls needed one of those big moments they’ve talked about — the kind that can make the difference between a win and loss — and they got several of them Saturday night against the Clippers.
There was Wendell Carter Jr.’s putback dunk with just over two minutes left when the Clippers were leading by five, followed by Zach LaVine’s 3-pointer.
Those were equaled by Kris Dunn, surrounded by Clippers, tapping an offensive rebound to Lauri Markkanen, who passed to Denzel Valentine for a 3-pointer that tied the score with 48 seconds to play.
But the best moment of all came from LaVine, who saw the lane clear out, drove and baited Montrezl Harrell into fouling him as he lofted a layup. That, the ensuing free throw and Paul George’s missed 3-point attempt with two seconds left gave the Bulls a 109-106 victory.
The Bulls got their first win of the season against a team with a winning record and snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Clippers dating back to the 2015-16 season.
“Kind of gets the monkey off our back a little bit,” Dunn said. “Got to take this and build momentum to the road trip we have. We have OKC next and we gotta go in there and we gotta do the same thing. You gotta go in there and be tough and you gotta scratch a win out.”
Coach Jim Boylen said Dunn’s contribution was pivotal.
“We talked about at halftime that 50-50 balls were gonna be the deciding factor in the game,” Boylen said. “I thought the 50-50 ball that KD kept alive, Lauri had it and it ends up in Denzel’s hands and he knocks it down to (tie) the game, I thought that was huge moment.”
LaVine scored a game-high 31 points, including four 3-pointers. Reserves Thaddeus Young and Valentine added 17 and 16 points, respectively.
Markkanen was active at the rim, grabbing 17 rebounds in a game-high 40 minutes a night after his near-15 minute absence against the Hornets prompted questions of Boylen. Markkanen made 3 of 6 3-pointers and scored 13 points.
LaVine thought back to Friday’s ugly 83-73 loss to the Hornets — “we played terrible obviously — but was resigned to notion that those kind of games happen on occasion.
“We’ve been playing good (lately) but we just haven’t been able to get that win in the last two minutes or three minutes of the game,” LaVine said. “So it feels good to go out on a high note, hopefully we start stringing some together.”
The short-handed Clippers were missing Kawhi Leonard, Lou Williams, JaMychal Green and Chicago native Patrick Beverley, who suffered a concussion earlier this week.
Boylen brushed off the suggestion that the Bulls’ win has a little less shine without those players on the floor.
“Well we didn’t have (Otto Porter) or Hutch (Chandler Hutchison) or (Daniel) Gafford,” Boylen said. “We can ‘Yeah, but’ it maybe a little bit, too.”
Harrell had 30 points and seven rebounds for the Clippers, and George added 27 points and six assists. Both teams shot 45% from 3, with the Bulls going 14-for-31 and the Clippers 10-for-22.
The Bulls climbed back from a 15-point deficit to lead by 14 late in the third quarter, but Harrell and George led the Clippers back to a 91-91 tie with 7 minutes, 41 seconds left.
