ATLANTA – It was a whatever-it-takes game as far as Zach LaVine was concerned.
So Saturday against the Hawks he took it.
The Bulls guard had his reasons.
Sitting in street clothes for the last three games while nursing a strained adductor and watching too many bad moments, LaVine knew it was time to right the ship.
“I think we lost some games we weren’t supposed to,” LaVine said.
Not the Hawks game, however, as LaVine and the Bulls (4-6) overcame an 18-point deficit to beat Atlanta 125-113.
As for LaVine, he played one of his more complete games of the season, scoring 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting, handing out seven assists, hitting two clutch shots to turn things in the fourth, and helping hold Trae Young to just 6-of-16 on the defensive side.
“I didn’t feel like I was pressing too much,” LaVine said. “It was whatever was coming to it. They started doubling in the fourth, I felt like I made the right plays. And when it came down to me having to make a couple shots, I did that as well. I’m just glad we got off the snide.”
It wasn’t like the Bulls defense did itself any favors right off the tip, allowing Atlanta (4-7) to get really comfortable, really quickly.
While it wasn’t 45-points-fourth-quarter-bad like it was against the Timberwolves on Thursday, coach Billy Donovan couldn’t have been pleased. The Hawks jumped out to a 15-point lead in that opening stanza using a very familiar formula for Bulls opponents – attacking the paint and taking advantage of careless turnovers to turn that into points.
All the signs of a team that’s played three games in four days and hasn’t had much practice time fixing a defense that at times looks broken.
“You always like to be out there on the court being able to drill it, work on it,” Donovan said of the lack of practice time to make repairs. “I give the guys credit. We talked to the guys about that (Saturday) morning, that we’re going to have to utilize walkthroughs, shootarounds and film sessions to try and improve.”
Or a game against the very underwhelming Hawks.
The Bulls weren’t the only team in the State Farm Arena to have issues on both ends of the floor so far this season. While the home team controlled most of the game heading into the fourth quarter, the Bulls stuck to their blueprint and slowly ran that lead down.
When Jalen Smith got the pass from Josh Giddey and slammed it home, the Bulls had the one-point lead with 8:04 left.
Then it came down to one team executing on the offensive end and the other team unable to get out of its own way.
Back-to-back LaVine baskets put the Bulls up five, and then after an errant Jalen Johnson pass led to a nasty one-handed slam by Ayo Dosunmu with the foul.
The Hawks kept disintegrating, and the Bulls kept taking advantage. By the time Dosunmu hit two more free throws with 1:54 left, the lead was up to 11.
Even more impressive was eight Bulls players finished with double figures, led by Dosunmu and his 19 points off the bench.
“Each game is going to be different this year,” LaVine said when asked about the season after 10 games so far. “I can see the style of play is going to be different. There’s going to be games where they need me to score the ball, and there’s going to be games where they need me to defend or facilitate. I understood that coming in. I’m just trying to be as efficient as I can. That’s the mentality I’m trying to take into it.”