No rest, no Luka, so Bulls roll past Dallas
The Bulls did everything right Saturday at the United Center. They got defensive stops, pushed the tempo, moved the ball and knocked down 3-pointers.
Just one problem: This was essentially an automatic schedule win. The Bulls rolled over Dallas 144-115 one night after the Mavericks played a late-night home game against Milwaukee. Dallas star Luka Doncic sat out with a right quad strain.
So nothing that happened in this game seemed very meaningful, including the Bulls setting a franchise record with 82 points in the first half. Dallas, with owner Mark Cuban sitting at the end of the bench, showed up because it had to, but delivered far from a max effort.
"I think we played as a team and played to our strength," Bulls guard Zach LaVine said. "We got out in transition, I think our defense was really locked in today. We kept doing what we're supposed to do."
The Bulls (11-14) will be on the opposite side of the rest deficit Sunday when they play in Atlanta. The Hawks had Saturday off.
LaVine said he plans to play Sunday. He skipped some of the early-season back-to-backs since he's coming off knee surgery in the spring, but this is the first time the Bulls have played on consecutive nights in about six weeks.
Coach Billy Donovan said Alex Caruso will not make the trip to Atlanta. He left the game after six minutes due to a low-back contusion and did not return.
DeMar DeRozan led the Bulls with both 28 points and 9 rebounds. Nikola Vucevic scored 20, Ayo Dosunmu had 17, while LaVine and Patrick Williams finished with 16 each.
Williams set a career-high in 3-pointers made by going 4-for-5 from behind the arch. Derrick Jones Jr. also went 4-for-5, but Williams is now shooting 45.3% from 3-point range on the season. Logic dictates the Bulls should be going that way more often.
"Trust me, we tell Pat to shoot the ball probably more than anybody," LaVine said. "He's doing a great job, I think he's found a really good rhythm, been shooting it great. When the ball find him, we just tell him to be aggressive."
Williams was pulled from the starting lineup during the recent West Coast road trip. But his replacement, Javonte Green, missed his third straight game Saturday with right knee soreness, so Williams was right back in the lineup.
The Bulls hit a season-high in made 3-pointers as a team, going 19-for-34, which was also was a season-high for accuracy. Making more 3s is an obvious goal, since they ranked 26th in the league heading into the game.
"It's not that we need to lead the league in 3-point shots, I just think there's opportunities for us to take more 3s, that are good shots," Donovan said. "I'm not just saying we want to launch them up, because I think you've got to take what the defense give you, but there are opportunities for us to take more and I thought we did a good job recognizing and taking the ones we should take tonight."
The Bulls were hot right away from a long range and jumped to a 24-6 lead. Dallas got within 5 late in the first quarter, but early in the second, the blowout was officially underway. The Bulls led 82-53 at halftime, but missed a chance to stop at 80 in honor of legendary forward Bob Love's 80th birthday.
"We're talking a lot about the ball movement and making the game easy fro each other," Donovan said. "Finding the open man, taking what the defense gives you, recognizing how we're being guarded, those kind of things. All that's got to be predicated on putting pressure at the basket. Vuc and DeMar and Zach demand a lot of attention."
Spencer Dinwiddie, an original Windy City Bull, took advantage of Doncic's absence by scoring 27 points to lead the Mavs.
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