Dunleavy puts this one in the bank for Bulls
MILWAUKEE — This was about to go down as a typically frustrating Bulls loss.
Milwaukee broke a tie with 29.8 seconds left when forward Khris Middleton tossed in a leaning, left-handed runner as the shot clock was about to expire.
Mike Dunleavy was guarding Middleton at the time and got a chance to deliver a trick shot of his own a few seconds later. Dunleavy banked in a 3-pointer with 5.8 seconds on the clock to give the Bulls a crazy 91-90 victory over the Bucks at the Bradley Center on Friday.
“Yeah, I was thinking about switching hands and shooting it with my left, like the previous shot that went in for them,” Dunleavy joked in the locker room. “Honestly, with (Bucks center John) Henson switching out, I wanted to get it over him. So I got a lot of arc on it and straight as an arrow, just banked it in.”
Sitting nearby, teammate Carlos Boozer screamed out, “That's exactly how we drew it up.” Then Dunleavy acknowledged that, yes, things did happen the way he intended.
“The second it left my hand, I thought it was going in,” he said. “I thought it was going to be banked in. I wasn't surprised what happened at all. Maybe other people were. I just wanted to get it over Henson.”
Dunleavy, who spent the previous two seasons in Milwaukee, got off to a fast start in Friday's game, but when he hit the 3-pointer, it was his first field goal since early in the first quarter. He finished with 12 points.
Center Joakim Noah had the stat line of the night. Perhaps in response to Henson's big game in Chicago earlier this week, Noah finished with 21 points, 18 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 blocked shots.
There wasn't a straight line between Middleton's leaner and Dunleavy's bank. In between, Jimmy Butler slipped on a drive and was called for traveling with 19.2 second left.
The Bulls (9-12) needed to foul, but trapped Milwaukee guard Gary Neal aggressively and got a jump ball call, with Noah easily winning the tip. After Dunleavy's bucket, the Bucks didn't call time out and Noah blocked O.J. Mayo's 13-foot runner in the lane just before time expired.
“I think you see it: They have great belief,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “I think you need to have that. Right now, we can't get comfortable. We've got to fight, scratch, endure and keep battling. Once we start getting players back, I like our team. I like our team a lot.”
Butler returned Friday after missing 11 games with a turf toe injury on his right foot. He didn't shoot well, but scored 16 points, attempted a team-high 8 free throws and played 37 minutes.
“It felt all right. Rusty. Out of shape. Terrible,” Butler said. “It looked terrible, but my guys pulled this dub (win) out. We definitely needed one.”
Butler said he did get his toe stepped on during the contest, but had his eye on Saturday's home game with Toronto.
“Maybe (it slowed him down) on a few steps, but that's not an excuse,” Butler said. “If I went out there and played on it, then I've got to be all right. So I feel like it's definitely getting better.”
Guard D.J. Augustin made his Bulls debut, playing 12 minutes in relief of Kirk Hinrich, and Thibodeau said Luol Deng is close to returning from a sore left Achilles. The Bulls are now 3-7 since losing Derrick Rose to a knee injury.
“We were able to hang in there hang in there and sure enough, the basketball gods gave us one back,” Dunleavy added. “It felt afterwards like one of those ones you deserve, the way stuff has gone the last few weeks.”