White believes strong finish for Bulls is still possible
Do the Bulls have enough left in the tank to make a move over the final 21 games of the regular season?
It was starting to seem doubtful as injuries, a tough schedule and defensive attention drawn to Coby White took a toll. White shot 26% from the field in the first four games after the all-star break.
But late Monday night in Sacramento, White came alive with a career-high 37 points, hitting 14 of 19 shots in the process. The Bulls rallied from 22 points down in the third quarter to beat the Kings 113-109. DeMar DeRozan scored 19 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter and Ayo Dosunmu (20 points) kept the Bulls afloat in the first half.
“At this point in the season, however you can get wins, you've got to get wins,” White told reporters after the game. “You've got to start stacking wins. I don’t care how we get them. I don’t care how it looks. At the end of the day, if we win, that’s all we care about.”
The Bulls (29-32) have beaten three teams with winning records (New Orleans, Cleveland and Sacramento) since the break. If the season ended today, they would host Atlanta in a first-round play-in game. With a win, they would then face the loser of Miami vs. Indiana, two teams they've beaten this season. If the Bulls won that, though, they'd face Boston in the first round of the official playoffs, which may not go well.
Moving up or down in the standings looks like a long shot. They're 4½ games behind Indiana for eighth, and 2½ ahead of Atlanta for 10th. The Bulls have already clinched the season series against the Hawks and have two games left against the Pacers.
So treading water for the final month of the season is a reasonable result. It's been a grind at times with Patrick Williams and Zach LaVine both out for the year. Coach Billy Donovan suggested forward Torrey Craig could return from a knee sprain later this week, which would help the Bulls' small lineups.
This season's finish is irrelevant, but there is a path for the Bulls to improve next year. That's mostly due to the improvement of White and Dosunmu, while DeRozan continues to show he's got plenty left in the tank at 34.
The two-highest scoring games of White's career happened in Sacramento. He scored 36 on Jan. 6, 2021. The opponent seems meaningful, because Kings point guard De'Aaron Fox represents a decent template of what White could become. Both players have the speed to get through defenses and can also be elite playmakers. Fox, who is two years older, is averaging 26.8 points and 5.7 assists this season.
White is at 19.6 points and 5.3 assists. Since Nov. 30, when the Bulls began their turnaround after a 5-14 start, he's averaging 22.3 and 5.9, plus he's been a better 3-point shooter than Fox.
White finished a pair of driving lay ins to tie the score, then put the Bulls ahead with 38 seconds left in Monday's game.
“I was just trying to let the game come to me,” White said. “Not force it. Ayo really had it going in that first quarter, so I was just trying to play off him. Let him keep doing his thing and then when my opportunities came, just wanted to take advantage of it. I didn’t want to force anything, just trying to play within the flow of the offense.”
Fox finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds Monday, after scoring 41 in the Kings' win at Chicago on Feb. 3. Another important moment was White's driving lay in and 3-point play with 2:57 left, which drew the sixth foul on Kings forward Domantas Sabonis.
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