Bulls discover winning formula, pull away late to beat Pacers
During the opening week of the regular season, the typical Bulls fan has been like a point guard looking over at the team's bench for the play call.
Is it time to panic yet? How about now?
Despite some shaky signs in the first three games, it's OK to step away from the panic button. The Bulls actually put together a nice performance and beat Indiana 112-105 on Monday in Indianapolis.
It was far from perfect, but the defense was solid and the Bulls strung together enough winning plays down the stretch to finish the victory.
These first four games seemed to demonstrate the Bulls' lack of a cohesive plan. The Pistons are blessed with an athletic front line, the Thunder is loaded with length, the Pacers have speed and shooting, built around the skills of point guard Tyrese Haliburton.
The Bulls don't have any particular skills that stand out. Defense can be a strength when everyone's in sync. But they don't have any young, budding all-stars. What they do have is an imperfect three-star system, players with a tendency to work in isolation.
In this game, the three alphas delivered. The score was tied with four minutes left when DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine scored on three straight possessions by going to the rim.
On the next trip, center Nikola Vucevic was unguarded on the weak side and waved his arms, calling for the ball. Once he got it, he backed Haliburton into the post for a 3-point play that put the Bulls ahead 108-102 with 1:55 left.
"The minute we start holding the ball and try to size defenders up, the floor shrinks, everybody's (potential) help and it's really hard to play like that," Bulls coach Billy Donovan told reporters after the game. "You can have possessions like that, but you can't contain that and expect to win."
The box score was approximately what the Bulls should look like as far as balance. Vucevic led the way with 24 points and 17 rebounds. LaVine added 23 points and DeRozan added 20. On the other hand, just one other player reached double figures, Jevon Carter with 11; both DeRozan (6-for-19) and LaVine (6-for-17) shot it poorly and only one player (DeRozan) collected as many as 4 assists.
The Bulls also cut back on their 3-point attempts, going 6-for-17 after averaging 36.3 shots in the first three games.
LaVine scored a career-high 51 points against Detroit on Saturday, but the Bulls lost that game by 16 points.
"I didn't feel like the ball stuck. Even if there wasn't a lot of passes, it was decisive," Donovan said. "If we can get everybody involved and play downhill, there's plenty to go around for everybody to eat. And that includes Zach and that includes DeMar and that includes Vuc."
After both players went scoreless in Saturday's loss at Detroit, Coby White and Patrick Williams tried to be more aggressive, producing mild results. White did have the assist of the game in the fourth quarter, pushing the ball upcourt, then finding Alex Caruso for a flying, tomahawk dunk that put the Bulls ahead 99-97 with 4:26 left.
Indiana (2-1) was off to a good start this season, scoring 143 points to beat Washington in the home opener, then adding an impressive road win at Cleveland. It's a small sample size, but the Bulls held the Pacers to 32 points below their season scoring average.
Twitter: @McGrawDHSports