Bulls add some defense to their 3-point shooting, beat Orlando
The Bulls pulled out all the stops during Wednesday's game against Orlando.
For his nightly spill, Benny the Bull dressed as a giant bag of popcorn. Keeping in the spirit of Halloween, Benny then switched to an angel costume and introduced Sky forward Angel Reese sitting courtside.
Everyone knows the famous movie quote, “When you hear a bell, an angel gets its wings.” On Wednesday, the ringing sounds inside the United Center were shots clanging off the rim.
The Bulls and Orlando Magic opened the fourth quarter by going a combined 0-for-24 from the field. Ayo Dosunmu's fastbreak lay-in at the 4:50 mark was the first made field goal of the final quarter.
The Bulls survived the slugfest. Patrick Williams knocked down the first — and only — 3-pointer of the fourth quarter with 54.1 seconds left to help seal a 102-99 victory at the United Center.
The Bulls trailed by as many as 20 points in the second. The Bulls cut that to 10 by halftime, then opened the third by knocking down 7 of their first 10 attempts from 3-point range to take the lead.
This was the second game in a row the Bulls rallied from 20 down to win. Coach Billy Donovan and players pointed to sticking to their style of play — keep it fast, hoist a ton of 3-pointers and see if the opponent can keep up.
“Toward the end of the game, some of their players, their shots were short, they were missing easy shots they normally make,” Dosunmu said. “I just think that's us sustaining the same level of play, same level of speed, up and down. It gave us a chance at the end of the game to win.”
The Bulls broke a 95-95 tie with three free throws by Nikola Vucevic and Josh Giddey. After Williams' 3-pointer made it 101-97, the Bulls missed a chance to stretch the lead and Paolo Banchero's layup made it a 2-point game with 20.8 seconds left.
The Bulls couldn't get the ball inbounds, despite using two timeouts, giving Orlando another chance, but Jalen Suggs missed a 12-foot turnaround over Dosunmu and Giddey added a free throw with 0.1 seconds on the clock.
Banchero actually banked in a shot from near midcourt as the buzzer sounded, but referees waved it off. There needs to be more time on the clock to catch the ball and shoot it.
Coby White led the Bulls with 21 points, while Giddey had 20 and Vucevic 18. Banchero scored just 11 of his 31 points in the second half. The Magic went 3-for-20 from 3-point range after halftime.
Orlando has been an awful matchup for the Bulls lately, going 6-1 over the past two seasons. So an obvious goal for the Bulls was adding some defense to the 3-point, up-tempo game plan. That seemed to lock in as the game wore on. One difference was a concerted effort to make sure Williams guarded Banchero and avoiding switches.
Williams has struggled to find his role in the NBA, but this is something he's been good at — guarding power forward-sized scorers. Banchero was coming off a 50-point game against Indiana on Monday.
“I thought Patrick did a phenomenal job,” Donovan said. “Obviously, Banchero had a great game, but I thought Patrick's effort tonight was phenomenal doing multiple things.”
Lonzo Ball missed the game with a sprained right wrist and the team expects him to be reevaluated in 10 days. Ball told reporters at the morning shootaround the injury happened in the first quarter of the Memphis game, when he jumped to try to deflect a long pass and fell backward upon landing.
According to Donovan, Zach LaVine said his shoulder was bothering him at halftime, but he played the second half without issue. LaVine didn't have his best game, finishing with 11 points and 10 rebounds on 2-of-9 shooting.
Jalen Smith, who has played well so far, also missed the game with left knee soreness. Two-way player Adama Sanogo played the backup center minutes. Orlando's Franz Wagner went to the locker room during the third quarter and did not return.