The Chicago Bulls came into Saturday night's game missing a huge chunk of their rotation, but still found a way to pull out a hard-fought win...
The Chicago Bulls came into Saturday night's game missing a huge chunk of their rotation, but still found a way to pull out a hard-fought win. Chicago came into the night third in the league in assists per game (29.8) and continued to rely on that unselfishness to catch the Miami Heat off guard in South Beach.
The Heat came into the game as near six-point favorites, showing the lack of faith in a Bulls squad that would be starting Patrick Williams at center for the evening, and relying real bench minutes from the likes of little-used guards Jevon Carter and Yuki Kawamura. But the Bulls got the last laugh on all front.
Chicago raced out to a 31-25 first quarter lead, getting all-around contributions scoring-wise in the absence of their top-three leading scorers in Josh Giddey (18.6 PPG), Coby White (18.6 PPG), and Nikola Vucevic (17 PPG).
Jevon Carter likely won't be remembered much from this game, but he gave the Bulls a much-needed lift from the perimeter. Carter hit a pair of quick trigger 3-pointers in the first quarter, and finished the night with 11 points, including 3-8 from deep. The aforementioned Kawamura was electric, providing the Bulls with a spark that got the entire Bulls bench off their feet and locked in on the game.
In his 11 minutes, the 5-foot-8 Kawamura was everywhere, and finished with 6 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and no turnovers on a night where the Bulls finished with a whopping 23 turnovers as a team. Kawamura was dependable, and managed to still show off his creativity with his trademark flashy passing skills while still taking care of the ball. On top of all that, Kawamura had perhaps the highlight of the night in winning a jump ball.
The Bulls got blasted by the Heat in the second quarter, and went into the half trailing 63-56. The third quarter is where Ayo Dosunmu started his takeover of the game.
Dosunmu sparked a 10-0 Bulls run with just over 9 minutes left in the third quarter. He would go on to finish with 23 points in the second half, and a full game statline of 29 points (11-16, 5-6 3P), 9 assists, 8 rebounds, and 2 steals. The upcoming unrestricted free agent is having the best season of his career at the perfect time.
At the time of this writing, Dosunmu has scored 20+ points in three of his last four games. Tonight's 37 minutes were the most that Dosunmu has played since December 1st, and Chicago may need to continue to rely on him that heavily as they try to navigate the nagging injuries of White and Giddey.
Matas Buzelis--expected to carry a larger offensive load sans Vucevic, White and giddey--had an impressive game more so because of his ability to battle through adversity. Buzelis scored the second-most points on the team with 21 points on 7-15 shooting.
Buzelis had a nice variety to his game on the evening, going 4-4 from the free throw line, 3-7 from the 3-point line, while crashing the glass (8 rebounds) and playmaking more than usual (4 assists). The big issue, of course, was the game-high 8 turnovers by Buzelis. That comes with the territory of the young forward trying to do more, and Donovan and Co. will likely have to live with those mistakes as Buzelis develops his game.
Overall, Chicago should be extremely proud of a total team win on Saturday night. The Bulls should be extremely confident in their group heading into the final game of their three-game mini-series with the Heat on Sunday.