Billy Donovan Breaks Down Nikola Vucevic's Bulls Game-Winner vs. 76ers

Gavin Dorsey

Nov 5, 2025, 05:17

Gavin Dorsey

Nov 5, 2025, 05:17

Updated at: Nov 5, 2025, 05:17

Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan spoke after the game about the clutch final play between Josh Giddey and Nikola Vucevic against the 76ers.

Nikola Vucevic's game-winning corner three-pointer capped off an epic 24-point comeback from the Bulls, giving his team a thrilling 113-111 victory. Despite allowing 45 first-quarter points to the 76ers and trailing for all but 3.2 seconds, Chicago came up with the win on Tuesday night behind lockdown second-half defense and clutch shot-making from the team's biggest stars.

With under 10 seconds remaining and Philadelphia ahead, 111-110, Josh Giddey took the ball to the hoop against Sixers wing Kelly Oubre Jr. He leapt into the air once he hit the restricted area, wrapping the ball around Oubre and Joel Embiid before firing a left-handed pass to Vucevic in the corner. Quentin Grimes rotated over to get a hand in Vucevic's face after Embiid collapsed into the paint, but it was too late.

Vucevic — cool, calm and collected — knocked down the shot to clinch Chicago's sixth win in seven games. The Bulls are 6-1 to start the year and sit alone atop the Eastern Conference.

After the dust had settled, head coach Billy Donovan broke down the play call.

"We tried to create some confusion out top, tried to get Josh downhill and maybe Kevin [Huerter] flaring back for a three," Donovan said during his postgame press conference. "Josh got downhill, he got the defense to collapse, obviously made an incredible pass to Vooch in the corner and Vooch was able to knock it down. It was a great play by Josh. Kevin, the way he came up, he kind of slipped out of it and it just gave Josh a little bit of a lane to get downhill."

On the prior possession, Giddey drove into the lane on a similar-looking play. With the opportunity to take the lead, the point guard had to stop his momentum instead of driving past his defender. The heavy pressure forced a turnover from Giddey, and thankfully for the Bulls, he was able to take advantage of his second-chance do-over.

Given the way that possession ended, Donovan decided to call a timeout and let his team get more organized with a shot at the game-winner.

Ultimately, the Bulls' ability to battle and push past adversity made the difference down the stretch. In the second half, Chicago outscored Philadelphia in points in the paint (26-16), second-chance points (14-4), fastbreak points (19-7) bench points (13-4) and points off turnovers (15-5). The Bulls also held the rebounding advantage, 33-15, including nine on the offensive glass.

That last part — the team's late-game rebounding — may have been the biggest reason that Chicago pulled off the colossal comeback. Donovan gave his players credit for the way they responded and bounced back from being physically "dominated" in the first half.

"I'm happy they really fought, never gave up and really battled and competed," Donovan said. "I'm really happy that they were able to win and proud of the way they played, but we're not going to be a very good team if we just try to rely on running up and down the floor, shooting the ball, trying to get downhill and just spraying it around. That's part of the iteration for this group; we've got to be more physical, and you saw the difference. As well as [Philadelphia] shot it, you can overcome good shooting nights if you do a lot of other things, and we were fortunate that we did enough of them in the second half."

Billy Donovan Breaks Down Nikola Vucevic's Bulls Game-Winner vs. 76ers