Paul leads Thunder to big comeback over Chicago Bulls
This was another one of those nights for the Bulls. Just when it looks like everything is clicking, some veteran players gang up on them in crunchtime.
Chris Paul scored 28 of his 30 points in the second half and Oklahoma City came back from a 26-point deficit to defeat the Bulls 109-106 on Monday night at Chesapeake Energy Arena.
Zach LaVine led the Bulls with 39 points. On the first leg of a four-game road trip, the Bulls played as well as they have all season while rolling up the big lead in the first half. The Bulls shot 58 percent before halftime and piled up 19 assists. But then they were outscored 60-38 in the second half.
"We just gave it up, man," Zach LaVine told reporters after the game. "They did their thing, but it's our game right there. We were playing great. I think we even played good in the second half, but we just let them get in a rhythm, walk us down and Chris Paul took over, had a dang flashback moment and went nuts in the fourth. That's what happens when you give teams opportunity in the fourth quarter. That can happen."
When Paul got it rolling, the Bulls couldn't stop him. The veteran point guard made his first 5 shots from 3-point range in the fourth quarter. The Thunder was using screens to switch Paul onto a big man, and he shot over them repeatedly.
As the game wound down, Kris Dunn made a concerted effort to get through screens and stayed locked on Paul, but the damage was already done.
Paul's fifth 3-pointer came after he sneaked in and deflected Wendell Carter's outlet pass after a defensive rebound. That shot put OKC ahead 104-100 with 2:38 left.
"I thought they made shots over us," coach Jim Boylen said. "He made a couples 3s over the top of us, those are shots, you've got to live with those. They didn't get to the rim, he didn't get in the paint. They were end of possessions, so give him credit for that."
To the Bulls' credit, they came back and tied the score at 106-106 on LaVine's driving lay-in with 25.9 seconds left.
The Bulls were on the wrong end of a couple of strange calls late in the game. There was a jump ball between Carter and Steven Adams with 1:22 left and Carter was called for a foul after the tip was made.
Looking at the replay, Adams grabbed Carter's arm before the ball was even tossed, then wrapped his arm around Carter when the ball was in the air. Boylen used his coach's challenge on the play and was denied, which meant the Bulls lost their final timeout of the game.
When the Thunder had the ball with the game tied, Paul drove into the lane and had his shot blocked by Carter. A jump ball could have been called there, but referees let the play go, Paul caught it on the ground, was tied up by LaVine and the ruling was timeout Thunder.
So OKC kept the ball and Carter was called for a foul on the ensuing inbounds pass for wrapping his arms around Adams. That foul was legit, but it sent Adams to the line in a tie game with 4.3 seconds left.
Adams banked in the first free throw. Since the Bulls had no timeouts left, Boylen took a chance by subbing Coby White for Carter, in an effort to get the ball down the court quickly for a final shot. But when Adams missed the second free throw, the long rebound bounced to Paul and his free throws sealed the win.
"It can go either way the last two minutes. It didn't go our way," Boylen said. "I'm not going to make this into, 'we're less than or we're not this or we're not that.' We're learning, we're growing and I was proud of how we played.
"We made mistakes. That happens. We've got to do better in some areas. That happens. But this team is growing, it's getting better. We're playing better together. We've got to foul less and we've got to turn the ball over less in the second half."
Twitter: @McGrawDHBulls