Through two-and-a-half quarters, spotty Chicago Bulls' defense looked poised to sink them in a winnable game at the Brooklyn Nets.
But Zach LaVine, with 20 fourth quarter points, and the rest of his side had other plans once closing time came around, and the Bulls left New York Tuesday night with a 108-99 victory and 4-4 record on the season.
Here are 10 observations:
1. Breakdowns in the Bulls' help and transition defense again yielded far too many open 3-point looks — and against a team that, for all its faults, can burn you from long range. In the first quarter, after which Brooklyn led 27-25 thanks to a scoring flurry by Kevin Durant, the Nets shot 5-for-10 from deep, 9-for-19 (47.1 percent) in the first half, overall.
In one especially poor stretch, they completely lost Joe Harris, a career 43.8 percent 3-point shooter, three times in four possessions, leading to a frustration timeout by head coach Billy Donovan.
2. Those issues continued into the third quarter, with the Nets pulling ahead by as many as 12 points and missing some open looks that could have made the deficit worse.
But a lineup of Goran Dragić, Ayo Dosunmu, Alex Caruso, DeMar DeRozan and Derrick Jones Jr. engineered a 12-4 run in the final 3 minutes, 14 seconds of the third to send the Bulls into the fourth trailing just 80-77. Four unanswered points to begin the final frame later and they had an 81-80 lead, setting up a back-and-forth finish before the visitors eventually pulled away.
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3. The heroes of the stretch run were the Bulls' starting backcourt mates. First, it was Ayo Dosunmu, slashing to the rim for a layup after the Bulls fell behind 88-84 on a Royce O'Neale jumpshot, then minutes later assisting a Caruso 3-pointer, goading Kyrie Irving into an offensive foul out of a timeout and finishing that possession with another lay-in to put his side ahead 91-88. In addition to sublimely defending Irving (2-for-12 shooting) all night, Dosunmu later speared two steals in the final three minutes to ice the contest.
"He was the one guy who helped us get off to a good start. We’ve gotten off to some poor starts. Him getting downhill and getting us some layups really helped," Donovan told reporters after the game. "I think even late in the second half, he had some good drives and finishes at the basket. We need his penetration going downhill and I thought he made some really good decisions."
The Bulls' starting point guard 17 points, 4 assists and 3 steals in his return from missing one game with a thoracic contusion.
4. And then it was Zach LaVine, who labored through three quarters to the tune of 9 points on 4-for-11 shooting, but came alive in winning time, scoring 15 points (5-for-6 shooting, 3-for-3 from 3-point range) in the first 6 minutes, 23 seconds of the fourth quarter. He was fired up heading into a Nets timeout with 5 minutes, 37 seconds to play and the Bulls ahead 99-90:
By the final horn, LaVine outscored the Nets as a team in the fourth quarter, 20-19, and racked up a season-high 29 points in a season-high 37 minutes, shooting 10-for-21 and 5-for-9 from 3-point range.
5. In all, the Bulls outscored the Nets 31-19 in the fourth quarter, at one point engineering a 17-2 run to go from down 88-84 to ahead 101-90, and shooting 52.4 percent from the field and 5-for-7 from 3-point range. That was a break from a first seven games of the season that saw the Bulls rank 30th in the NBA in fourth quarter offensive rating, shooting 33.6 percent from the field and 13-for-45 (28.9 percent) from beyond the arc in the final 12 minutes of games.
6. A small Nets frontline offered a matchup against which Nikola Vučević should have feasted. But after a handful of intentional attempts to establish him in the post early went wayward, he struggled to a final offensive line of 7 points on 3-for-8 shooting. He also had some tough defensive moments, particularly in the first half, as Brooklyn shot 8-for-11 in the restricted area.
At the very least, though, Vučević made a positive impact by notching 15 rebounds, more than double his next-closest teammate.
7. With Andre Drummond sidelined for the second straight by a left shoulder strain sustained against the Spurs last Friday, Donovan again went small behind Vučević, deploying a staggered frontcourt of some combination of Javonte Green, Derrick Jones Jr. and Patrick Williams and Jones, in his starting center's rest minutes.
This Nets team is a much better matchup for such a style than, say, the 76ers, who at times hurt the Bulls on the offensive glass with Drummond missing on Saturday. Brooklyn entered play dead last in the NBA in defensive rebounding rate (64.1), with opponents pulling down over one-third of their misses, and 18th in opponent second chance points per game (14.9). In this one, the Bulls amassed 11 offensive rebounds and 20 second-chance points.
8. Patrick Williams was a bright spot in an otherwise shoddy first half. The opening two quarters represented the third-year forward's best half of basketball of the season, with 8 points (4-for-7 shooting), 4 rebounds, 2 blocks and a steal in 18 minutes. Three turnovers aside, he was decisive offensively, whether hitting spinning fallaways from the midrange or making the extra pass; and he was incredibly active defensively while serving as the Bulls' best primary matchup for Durant.
(While the Bulls levied double-teams at Durant all night, it was no coincidence that he did not make his first field goal attempt of the game until after Williams' first quarter stint concluded. Durant went on to score 14 points on 4-for-5 shooting in the final five minutes of that frame, 10 of which came with Williams off the floor.)
Williams added a slashing layup and converted a putback off an offensive rebound early in the third quarter, and went on to post season highs in points (12), rebounds (7) and shot attempts (he finished 5-for-10) for the evening. He is finding his way after a slow start.
9. Dragić woke up with revenge on his mind. Playing against the team with which he spent the final four months of the 2021-22 season, the Bulls' backup point guard contributed 15 points and four 3-pointers off the bench, including 13 points on 4-for-5 3-point shooting in 12 first half minutes. It was needed on a night that Coby White sat out with a left quad contusion.
10. Despite scoring just two points in the fourth quarter, Durant was a problem for the Bulls for most of the night. Between the final five minutes of the first quarter and the end of the third, he scored 30 points on 8-for-12 shooting, plus 12-for-12 from the free-throw line. With the exception of a few nice Williams possessions, the Bulls did not have enough perimeter size to bother him between Dosunmu, Caruso, Jones, Green and even persistent double-teams.
But Durant's co-star, Irving, did not pull his weight. Irving missed his first seven shots of the game, including some open jumpers, and failed to score until the 10:20 mark of the fourth quarter. He finished with 4 points on 12 field goal attempts. Needless to say, the 2-6 Nets, which parted ways with head coach Steve Nash earlier Tuesday, are in disarray.
Next up for the Bulls: Back home to finish a back-to-back set against the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday.