Bulls, DeRozan seem to have conquered the ‘clutch’ moments
The Bulls seem to be working backward to build a contending team.
They've been very good in fourth quarters. Now they just need to work on getting better in the first three.
Late Thursday night in San Francisco, the Bulls did not outscore the Warriors in the fourth quarter, but made the important plays to secure their third straight victory on this West Coast trip. The Bulls will try to make it a perfect 4-0 on Saturday against the Los Angeles Clippers.
The key play against Golden State was DeMar DeRozan's three-point play with 26 seconds left that gave the Bulls a 121-119 lead. After rookie Brandin Podziemski missed a clean look at a driving reverse, Nikola Vucevic added two free throws to put the game away. DeRozan and Vucevic finished with 33 points each.
“DeMar is one of the great closers in the game. He has been for 10 years,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after the game. “Watching them on tape coming into this game I was pretty worried just because you could see the force that (the Bulls) were playing with and the confidence. They came in and earned it.”
The Bulls are still a game below .500, but they can say they're good at being clutch. Here's some evidence:
∙ According to OptaStats, DeRozan became the only NBA player in the last 25 years to score at least 17 points in back-to-back road wins. He tallied 19 in Sacramento, then 17 against Utah.
“That’s the best part of the game,” DeRozan said after the Utah win. “That’s where you turn it up and have got to pull out the win. Whoever wants it the most, you see it in the fourth.”
Golden State's Moses Moody talked about how everyone warns to be wary of DeRozan's pump fakes. But when defenders don't bite, DeRozan tends to hit tough shots. So then they try to guard him a little tighter and that's when he draws fouls.
“The game plan was to keep him off the line and once we got undisciplined the game changed,” Moody said. “It’s kind of like dancing on that line, how to be aggressive and not be too aggressive, stay disciplined and not let him bait you into fouls.”
∙ The stats page on nba.com tracks “clutch” stats, defined as the last five minutes of a game within 5 points. The season leaders in clutch plus-minus are three Bulls — Coby White, Vucevic and DeRozan.
∙ When it comes to total points scored in the fourth quarter this season, DeRozan ranks third in the NBA behind Giannis Antetokounmpo and De'Aaron Fox. White is 12th.
∙ Team-wise in the fourth quarter, the Bulls have the third-best offensive rating in the league, after the Clippers and Bucks.
Play like that for four quarters and the Bulls might be Finals contenders. But they're still struggling with the mix of rising stars and older veterans, plus season-ending injuries to Patrick Williams and Zach LaVine.
Torrey Craig did return from a knee sprain Thursday and played 14 minutes. The bad news was Craig's return cut rookie Julian Phillips' time down to 4 minutes, but Jevon Carter (10 points) and Onuralp Bitim (6 points) played well off the bench.
“It’s big for everyone’s confidence,” Vucevic said Thursday. “With all the injuries and everything we've been through this year, I think it's really brought us closer together and really built trust within one another.”
Twitter: @McGrawDHSports