CLEVELAND – This Bulls organization isn’t much into conventional wisdom.
When a majority of the NBA believed the Bulls should have zigged earlier this season, they zagged. Tell them the sky is blue, they’ll swear it’s a shade of gamboge. Call for a tank, they go all in. Then when it is time to go all in, well, they sit four starters and make it a bench game.
Can’t make this stuff up.
And when the smoke cleared Tuesday against Cleveland with the home team winning 135-113 against the short-handed Bulls, there were still more questions than answers.
Coach Billy Donovan did his best to explain.
“It was more like if you take away the standings and take away all that stuff, it’s OK, what’s in the best interest of the guys’ health?” Donovan said. “That’s what it came down to. You can always play devil’s advocate, like you’re in the moment, right? You’re making one of these decisions, but you also play this side of, ‘Why wouldn’t we rest these guys? We’re in the play-in. All of a sudden, so-and-so is out for a week now, and was playing those guys in a back-to-back too much?’
“I’ve told medical that I view it as what’s in the best interest of these guys? Listen, every time these guys step across the line they’re always putting themselves in harm’s way, anything can happen. With some of the things they’ve done load-wise, there was just a concern with what’s coming down the road.”
That’s why the decision was made to sit Nikola Vucevic (calf/injury management), Coby White (rest), Josh Giddey (wrist) and Kevin Huerter (neck), despite the Bulls entering the evening just ½ game in front of Miami at the No. 10 seed and a game behind suddenly sinking Atlanta for the No. 8 seed.
The Heat were idle and play in Chicago Wednesday night and the Bulls do own the tie-breaker, but the Hawks lost to Orlando, so it was an opportunity lost.
And the kicker was according to a source, three of the four Bulls starters wanted to go, but were overruled by medical. Huerter was the only one that was seriously hampered by his injury but was still looking to return against Miami.
If the Bulls end the season in a tie with Atlanta – the Hawks have the tie-breaker – and stay in the No. 9 seed? It could be a big what if.
“Just being on a team like this next man up is something we try and live by,” Talen Horton-Tucker said afterwards. “Just knowing if we stick to our identity and play the way we’re supposed to play, we can be in any game. That’s pretty much it.”
And while there were good moments, specifically a third quarter in which the Bulls made the Cavaliers work in wrapping up the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, it was an uphill battle most of the night.
Patrick Williams scored a season-high 21 points, rookie Matas Buzelis was impressive with his 19, and of course Horton-Tucker chipped in 17 off the bench, but without the one-two punch of White and Giddey, as well as what Vucevic brings, there was a talent deficit even with the Cavs sitting All-Star Donovan Mitchell.
“They got a lot of pieces,” Horton-Tucker added of the Cavs. “I feel like they’re a complete basketball team. When they’re hitting shots, they’re pretty hard to beat.”
Watching the Cavs go 25-of-50 from three-point range was evidence of that.
The Bulls quickly have to now flip the focus to a Heat team that could push them to the bottom play-in seed if Miami wins.
“Look at the long-term fact that it’s Miami then Washington then Philly,” Donovan said of the decision to sit players. “So we have three games left, so how do we make sure we’re being responsible for their health, and then also putting them in a position where they can perform and play well?”
A decision the Bulls now live with.