White lends some assists to another Bulls blowout win
The Bulls have gotten to the point where they can add style points to their victories.
Nikola Vucevic piled up rebounds, Coby White dished out assists, Zach LaVine tossed in a 360 dunk for a few highlights of the Bulls' 131-117 victory over Atlanta at the United Center on Wednesday.
Interim coach Chris Fleming improved to 3-0 since stepping in while Billy Donovan is in health and safety protocols.
"One of the things we had talked about this morning before our shootaround was trying to get out and run a little bit more, kind of make the game easier, especially on our main guys," Fleming said. "They've been playing at an incredibly high level shooting the basketball, but how do we make things easier on them?"
With just three players available from the regular roster, the Hawks were in no position to play much defense and the Bulls started the game hitting 16 of their first 20 shots.
Vucevic delivered his first 20-rebound game as a Bull, to go with 16 points and 3 steals. It was the first 20-rebound game for Vucevic since he grabbed 24 for Orlando on Jan. 6, 2020 against Brooklyn.
LaVine led the Bulls scorers with an efficient 25 points on 13 shots. He hit 10 of 13 shots overall and 5 of 7 from 3-point range, DeMar DeRozan added 20 points.
White, meanwhile, piled up 12 assists to go with 17 points. This was White's fourth double-digit assist game in the NBA and one short of his career-high, set last season against the Clippers.
Filling in as the starting point guard for Lonzo Ball, White got in early foul trouble trying to guard Young as the start of Monday's game in Atlanta. This time, Javonte Green took on the assignment of trying to slow down the Hawks' high-scoring guard, while rookie Ayo Dosunmu did some nice defensive work against Young off the bench, collecting 2 blocks and a steal.
It's easy to peg White as someone who's best NBA role is to bring instant offense from the bench, but he showed Wednesday he can bring a variety of talents to the floor.
"I know who I am as a player," White said. "A lot of people talk about who I should be. I know who I am as a player, so I'm going to stick with that and being who I am, I know I can bring a lot on the basketball court more than just putting the ball in the basket. I'm going to continue to be me and I still have the support of my teammates and the coaching staff. They just want me to be who I am."
White also shared some thoughts on why the Bulls are off to a 22-10 start, while also admitting he wasn't expecting this group to click so quickly.
"We have the talent to play with anyone," he said. "The biggest thing on this team is that we just all have fun while playing basketball. I think that's the key. Everyone's unselfish and everyone loves playing with each other and we have fun on and off the court.
"It's easier to play with guys like that. We're just really all connected. We all have one goal and that's to win as many games as we can."
Bulls forward Derrick Jones Jr. made his return from a hamstring injury, but played just the final 3:48 of the contest. Mac McClung made his NBA debut at the 2:33 mark, which was good timing, because the fans were loudly cheering Cat Barber's 2 missed free throws, which meant free hot dogs.
McClung started with a turnover on a behind-the-back pass, but later knocked down a foul-line jumper for his first points in the league.
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