On a night in which the Bulls defense was going to be challenged by the highest-scoring team in the league, they stepped up in a big way, downing the Pacers by 26.
Nam Y. Huh/AP
It was unique territory for Billy Donovan to find himself in.
Just minutes after watching his Bulls team win a game by 26, and it not even feeling that close, there was very little for the coach to pick at.
The defense had held the highest-scoring team in the league under 100 for the first time this season in the 125-99 win, the bench showed some life, and the offense understood the importance of feeding the bigs, as Nikola Vucevic and Andre Drummond were headaches for the Pacers all evening.
In a month in which there have been very few moments to breathe, Donovan was able to calmly take a deep one on Wednesday.
“I thought we really were connected defensively,” Donovan said. “We were on point when we needed to switch, were on point when we needed to stay. The only way to do that is through communication. I give our guys a lot of credit.”
Deservedly so.
The win not only kept the Bulls 1 ½ games in front of Atlanta in that battle for No. 9 and No. 10 of the play-in, but kept them within four games of No. 8 Philadelphia with nine to play.
All that mattered to Alex Caruso was it was a win.
“First time they’ve been under 100 this whole season?” Caruso asked surprisingly when the question was tossed his way about handcuffing the Pacers. “I didn’t know that.
“They seemed a little tired, but we played well. We didn’t have any of those lapses where we give up a slip-out lay-up or we forget to rotate or didn’t battle for the rebound. I just feel like for the most part, besides the way we started the third quarter we were pretty consistent.”
A performance that was needed.
If this Bulls team has showcased a strength this season it has been they don’t dwell on stains from previous games.
The Monday loss to the Wizards was as greasy a stain as this roster earned in quite some time, but yet they flipped the page quickly, evident by a second quarter in which they outscored the visiting Pacers 37-20, and looked seamless in doing so.
Vucevic led the way with nine points in the quarter, but he wasn’t alone in building a 23-point lead against Indiana.
The Bulls outscored the Pacers 12-4 in the paint, won the battle of the benches 10-4, and they outrebounded Indiana 9-6 in the second quarter, completely dismantling the division rivals on both ends.
The Pacers (41-33) did try and climb off the mat in the third quarter, using their transition game and three-point shooting to get within nine, but hoop-and-harm on Drummond put-in kicked the lead back to 12.
DeMar DeRozan and Coby White made sure to put hi-tops on throats, starting off the fourth on a mission and building the lead back to 20 within five-plus minutes of the final stanza.
The win not only ended a three-game losing streak, but also earned bragging rights in the season series, taking it 3-1.
Still, Donovan has been coaching against Rick Carlisle long enough to know that the Pacers were still a very dangerous team, especially if the Bulls somehow have to meet them in a play-in scenario for the Eastern Conference.
“He has always come across to me of trying to use his personnel to the best of his ability,” Donovan said of Carlisle, who he also coached against back in their Oklahoma City-Dallas days. “I think (Tyrese) Haliburton is such a unique player, and it’s to a certain extent what we tried to do with Lonzo (Ball) – get guys down the floor, let him throw it up, let him advance it.
“I think (Carlisle’s) always done a great job of, ‘OK, here’s the personal, how do we utilize it?’ “