Young doesn't miss on second chance to beat Bulls
Give a great player a second chance and this is bound to happen.
After shooting 3-for-17 from the field last week at the United Center, Atlanta's Trae Young was ready for the rematch. He scored 39 points, including a pair of clutch 3-pointers in the final 1:13 to hand the Bulls a 130-124 loss, their third straight.
The Bulls took a 118-116 lead with two minutes left on a Nikola Vucevic tip-in. On the next trip, Atlanta took the lead when Bogdan Bodganovic hit a corner 3 after the Bulls swarmed Young. The all-star starter came back with two tough 3s to seal the win and hit 7 of 9 attempts from long range.
"He's who he is for a reason," DeMar DeRozan said of Young. "He's a big-time player, one of the stars in this league. That's his M.O., hitting big shots. You try to make everything as tough as possible for him. It was his night, he pulled it off. You've got to shake his hand."
DeRozan finished with 22 points and hit 10 of 20 shots. He missed a few down the stretch, but the Hawks were also working hard defensively to get the ball out of his hands. Zack LaVine also scored 22, while Vucevic finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds.
The Bulls shot very well from 3-point range (14 of 26), but lost the foul line badly. Atlanta won the free throws 24-6.
"There were just a lot of breakdowns," coach Billy Donovan said. "We fouled entirely too much. Generally when you see a discrepancy like that I think coaches complain and sit there and say, 'How can it be?'
"We fouled. We fouled. We've got to be better and more disciplined. We've got guys jumping through the air, shot-fake discipline, rebounding, we talked about it before the game, things you can control."
The Bulls (39-24) tried something new in this game, playing Vucevic and Tristan Thompson together. Donovan said he thought the Bulls needed a little more physicality on the floor and wanted to see how it looked.
"I think it works," Thompson said. "I've done it before with K-Love (Kevin Love in Cleveland) and I think Vuc and K-Love have a lot of similarities in terms of being a big that can pick and pop, can roll, can pass and make plays."
The Bulls have to come right back and play again Friday against Milwaukee at the United Center. It could be an emotional game since the last time these teams met on Jan. 21, Bucks guard Grayson Allen was ejected for a flagrant foul against Alex Caruso, who broke his right wrist on the play and has been out ever since.
"That play is over and done with, it's gone," Donovan said. "We need to play better basketball. I think everybody's disappointed that Alex has had to sit out, but we've got to keep our mindset and focus on things that are going to help us get better."
Thompson wasn't on the Bulls at the time, but is aware of the play and shared his thoughts after the game.
"Take one of my dogs out like that, we're going to have issues," Thompson said. "You've got to set the tone. That's what Bulls basketball is about, setting the tone. What he did affected one of our guys and I don't think anyone should forget about that, so I'm pretty sure United Center's going to be rocking tomorrow.
"I think guys have it in the back of their head and if guys want to play chippy, let's play chippy. I like it. I like a little blood and sweat. I enjoy it. I like to wrestle. Everybody knows that."
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