On a night that the Bulls needed someone to step up Ayo Dosunmu did just that, and on both ends of the ball on his way to scoring a career-high 29 points.
Alex Slitz/AP
ATLANTA — Bulls coach Billy Donovan saw it in training camp in Nashville, Tennessee.
That’s when he knew guard Ayo Dosunmu had put in the work during the summer and no longer was playing with any doubt.
‘‘I felt like in training camp, you could see the signs that he was starting to do those things,’’ Donovan said. ‘‘You saw him making the [right] decisions. I think he has a much better feel of how he’s being guarded and what are the things he can go to.’’
That go-to bag was full against the Hawks on Monday, and Dosunmu emptied it all out.
Thanks to his career-high 29 points, the Bulls cruised to a much-needed 136-126 victory against a team that was breathing down their necks in the Eastern Conference standings. The Bulls are in ninth place and Hawks in 10th.
‘‘Very important,’’ Dosunmu said of the victory. ‘‘Right behind us in the standings, and we understand that this stretch and then coming out of the All-Star break is going to be very crucial. Every game is going to count. We let one get away [Saturday] in Orlando, so we knew we had to come out here and find a way by any means to get the win.’’
It wasn’t an easy mission, considering the Bulls were missing guard Alex Caruso (left foot) on top of forward Patrick Williams (left foot) and guard Zach LaVine (surgery on right foot). That’s where Dosunmu stepped in.
It wasn’t just the point total, it also was how he scored. He stretched the Hawks’ defense out by going 5-for-7 from three-point range. He also had seven assists and shut down Hawks guard Trae Young on the defensive end.
Young, who came into the game averaging 27.1 points, was limited to 19 points on 3-for-14 shooting, including 2-for-10 from three-point range.
It wasn’t the first time Dosunmu had given Young some problems on that side of the ball.
‘‘He’s one of the better guards in the league,’’ Dosunmu said. ‘‘My length is able to affect him, but he’s a good player. He brings competitiveness out. I love competing against him because every play you’ve got to be ready. I love it. This is my third year now, so we’ve had a lot of battles.’’
But it wouldn’t have been a Bulls game if they didn’t dig themselves an early hole to climb out of. That’s exactly what they did, falling behind by 13 points in the first quarter after a three-pointer by Bogdan Bogdanovic.
Then came the grind back, led by Dosunmu. Not only did he go
5-for-6 from the field in scoring 13 points in the second quarter, but he connected on all three three-pointers he took.
Just like that, the Bulls had turned a 13-point deficit in a one-point lead at the half.
The Bulls finally took control in the second half, specifically in the last six minutes of the game.
Dosunmu added seven more points on 3-for-4 shooting in the fourth before Donovan signaled for his closers. Coby White (20 points) and DeMar DeRozan (29) finished things off, giving the Bulls a 2-1 record in the first three games of a four-game road trip that ends Wednesday against the Cavaliers.
‘‘I thought Ayo’s pace and tempo in that second quarter really got us back into the game pretty quickly,’’ Donovan said. ‘‘I think one of the reasons he’s shot the ball so well is he’s invested a lot of time into it, and the other part of it is he’s always ready to make the next play.
‘‘He did a lot of really good things out there.’’