Late rally lifts Bulls to 10 straight win over Raptors
How the dinosaurs became extinct is less of a mystery than how the Bulls have managed total dinosaur domination over the past two seasons. The Bulls rallied for their 10th straight victory over the Toronto Raptors on Saturday at the United Center.
The streak was in serious jeopardy when the Bulls trailed by double digits midway through the fourth quarter. But thanks to some long-overdue help from the bench and a little more Jimmy Butler late-game magic, the Bulls rallied to win 123-118 in overtime.
Butler continued his incredible week by scoring 42 points. He added 10 rebounds and hit 18 of 20 free throws. Dwyane Wade added 20 points. DeMar DeRozan poured in 36 points for Toronto (24-12).
"Obviously you can put Jimmy up with the superstars in this league and put him in that category, there's no doubt about that," Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said. "Again, you just put the ball in his hands in the fourth quarter. He made unbelievable plays, made some good kicks to the backside where we knocked down some shots, just did everything for us."
The Bulls seemed down and out for most of the second half. They trailed by as many as 19 points and were down 13 with 7:30 remaining.
"We started making shots that we were missing," Butler said. "We started guarding, rebounding."
In some ways, this was a milestone victory for the Bulls (19-18) because the comeback happened with significant contributions by Doug McDermott (17 points, 10 rebounds) and Nikola Mirotic (12 points, 9 rebounds). The slow pace of that duo's development has been a big reason the Bulls have been stuck in neutral this season. Having two floor-spacers on the court does seem to open up possibilities for Butler.
Mirotic knocked down a corner 3-pointer after an offensive rebound by Butler to give the Bulls a 104-101 edge with 2:20 left in regulation.
Toronto took a 105-104 lead on DeRozan's free throws with 59.4 seconds remaining. On the next possession, Butler again rebounded his own miss and a couple quick passes led to a McDermott 3-pointer with 39.5 seconds left.
Toronto tied the score on a pair of DeRozan free throws and both teams barely missed a couple shots in a frantic final 12 seconds.
In overtime, McDermott helped put the Bulls in command. With the score tied, McDermott drew a foul on a 3-point shot and buried the 3 free throws. On the next possession, Butler hit a cutting McDermott for a two-hand dunk to make it 116-111 with 2:17 left.
"It was huge for those guys to stay with it," Hoiberg said. "Doug missed a wide-open one (late in the fourth), then the very next possession stepped up and shot it with no hesitation, knocked it down. That was a huge shot. Niko hit a big one in the corner and made contributions on both ends of the floor."
The Raptors were within 118-116 when Butler added the dagger, a 3-pointer over Lowry with 17.3 seconds on the clock.
The Bulls trailed 99-87 with 6:20 left when Cristiano Felicio got things going with a 3-point play off an offensive rebound. Then Butler scored 9 straight points with a 3-pointer, 4 free throws and a jumper. The Bulls capped the 14-0 run with a Butler dish to a cutting Wade for a two-hand slam.
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