DeRozan's 50 points carries Bulls to big comeback over Clippers
Maybe the Bulls had a good-luck charm when they returned to the United Center after a five-game road trip.
Injured Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard sat on the bench wearing a beige White Sox cap. With Leonard supporting Jerry Reinsdorf's other pro franchise, the Bulls rallied from a 16-point deficit, got some good fortune when they needed it and won a 135-130 overtime thriller on Thursday.
Los Angeles native DeMar DeRozan was back in his pre all-star groove, scoring 50 points while hitting 17 of 26 shots and 14 of 15 free throws. The one missed free throw could have given the Bulls a 1-point lead with 3.5 seconds left in regulation, but it all worked out.
"Man, it felt like a bomb went off inside my head," DeRozan said of the missed free throw. "I was just frustrated with myself. Went up there calmly, knocked down the first two. I just had to lock back in, kind of calm my internal emotions down for overtime.
We needed a moment like that, all of us. It was one of those fun games. You go out there, compete. This is the best time of the year, when everything matters."
The break the Bulls needed was a foul by Clippers guard Terance Mann before an inbounds pass was made. The Bulls were down by three with 7.2 seconds on the clock when Mann grabbed DeRozan before Alex Caruso threw the ball in play. By rule, DeRozan shot a free throw and the Bulls kept possession.
Now trailing by two, DeRozan went for the win, but was fouled by Paul George. DeRozan went to the line to shoot 3 free throws with 3.5 seconds left. He hit the first two, missed the third and time ran out since the Clippers were out of time outs.
The two teams missed the first 4 shots of overtime, but the Bulls delivered their best execution of the night after that. First Nikola Vucevic backed down Clippers center Ivica Zubac for a post-up lay in to put the Bulls in front.
After getting a defensive stop, DeRozan said something into Zach LaVine's ear as they headed back upcourt. The instructions were clear a few seconds later as LaVine acted like he was going to post up, then cleared the lane and DeRozan blew past Nicholas Batum for a dunk to put the Bulls up by four.
From there, the Bulls were able to hold serve. After Luke Kennard hit a three to cut the lead to a point, Patrick Williams launched a high-arcing corner 3-pointer that caught nothing but net to get it back to a 4-point edge. Williams added a dunk off some good ball movement.
This was DeRozan's second 50-point game of his career. Playing for Toronto, he scored 52 against the Bucks on Jan. 1, 2018.
"The win is more meaningful," he said. "I just wanted to win this game ... badly. You see how tight the race is and every single game is extremely important and we have no more room to be dropping any more games and that's just my mentality."
This was the Bulls' last game of the season against a team with a sub-. 500 record, but the Bulls had the misfortune of witnessing George's second game back.
After recovering from an elbow injury, George played his first game since Dec. 22 on Tuesday and scored 34 points in a win over Utah.
George wasn't quite as sharp in this one, but produced 22 points. Point guard Reggie Jackson led the Clippers with 34 points and 7 assists.
The Bulls' defense struggled to catch up to the Clippers all game long. After screens, the Bulls tended to give too much help, couldn't scramble back into position and the Clippers' collection of professional shooters got plenty of open looks. Los Angeles hit 5 of 7 three-pointers in the first quarter and held a double-figure lead for much of the night.
Williams started second half instead of Caruso. Caruso has been dealing with a back contusion. After checking out of Thursday's game for the first time, trainers put a wrap around his waist.
As the third quarter began, Caruso stretched in front of the Bulls bench. Eventually, he returned to the game and played 33 minutes. Williams' defense definitely helped against the Clippers' big-bodied front line with Marcus Morris (20 points) and Batum (20).
The victory kept the Bulls (45-32) from dropping into sixth place in the East behind Toronto. Cleveland lost to Atlanta, so the Bulls are essentially four games ahead of the No. 7 seed and a play-in spot with five left to play, since they hold the season-series tiebreaker over the Cavs.
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