Bulls barely survive against Pistons despite LaVine's 41 points
This was a good test for whether the Bulls can put together a strong finish to the regular season.
They didn't exactly pass with flying colors, but caught a huge break in the waning seconds Wednesday to pull out a 117-115 victory at Detroit. Pistons rookie Jaden Ivey called a time out his team didn't have in the final 10 seconds to help the Bulls snap a five-game road losing streak.
The Pistons own the worst record in the Eastern Conference, but the Bulls were playing the second leg of back-to-back games, while Detroit was coming off a day of rest.
It all started out well, but the Bulls reverted to a really bad habit from earlier this season: They led 100-79 with just over a minute left in the third quarter and gave it all away.
After the game, Bulls coach Billy Donovan was perplexed.
"I was really encouraged the way we played basketball in that first half," he said. "We had 20 assists, I think we had 69 points at the half. We were moving the ball. Then we come out very carefree, relaxed.
"We didn't close out the third quarter the correct way, didn't start out the fourth quarter the correct way and you saw what happened. They're playing with energy and they're overwhelming us because we had our foot on the gas in the first half."
The Pistons came back to tie the score three times in the final three minutes. Zach LaVine, who scored a game-high 41 points, hit a pair of free throws to put the Bulls up 114-112 with 48.9 seconds left.
After the teams traded misses, the Pistons gained possession trailing by 2 and called time out with 9.7 seconds on the clock. That happened to be Detroit's last time out, and when Ivey couldn't get the ball inbounds right away, he called the errant time out while his coach and teammates threw their hands up in disbelief.
"It didn't come down to that one play," Detroit coach Dwane Casey said. "I know everybody's going to say it, but it started way before that. We can't wait until the fourth quarter to play like that."
So the Bulls got a free pass in some ways. They played good defense on the inbound play, but Ivey had a couple of decent options to throw it to teammates.
The resulting technical foul led to 3 free throws. So it didn't matter when Cory Joseph banked in a 3 with 4.3 seconds left.
LaVine shot it well, hitting 14 of 20 shots overall and 6 of 9 from 3-point range. Patrick Beverley filled the stat sheet with 10 rebounds, 10 assists and 4 steals.
Bojan Bogdanovich led the Detroit rally with 34 points, while hitting 8 of 12 3-pointers.
Blowing a 20-point lead is nothing new for the Bulls. They've lost several games like this and Donovan hasn't been able to figure it out.
"I have a lot of hope and optimism with this group because you see the best of these guys," Donovan said. "As long as we're playing to that standard or trying to for 48 minutes, it's fine.
"I don't know really what the word I would use - relaxed, foot off the gas, urgency, an edge. There's not an edge. It bleeds into everything. It bleeds into broken pick-and-roll coverage, it bleeds into lack of communication on defense, it bleeds into carelessness on turnovers."
At this point in the season, the Bulls (29-34) should never lose their sense of urgency. They are 3-1 since the all-star break, but need to make up ground in the standings with just 19 games left.
In Wednesday's fourth quarter, the Bulls hit just 2 of 16 shots from the field - both by DeMar DeRozan - and added 5 turnovers.
"All these things just pile up and before you know it, you're giving a team incredible momentum and energy to get back into the game," Donovan added. "What happens is, you can see we're on our heels and their physicality and force and energy has us back."
Twitter: @McGrawDHSports