of chicago bulls Wednesday night, they moved up 3-2 for the 2022-23 season with a 124-109 win over the Indiana Pacers at the United Center.
Here are 10 observations:
1. There was clear team-wide intent to involve Patrick Williams early on, and the third-year forward seized on it in a refreshing turn of events.
In a five-minute stint in the first quarter, Williams scored five points on a catch-and-shoot three-point shot and a steal-and-score sequence, scoring Buddy Hield’s pass intended for defensive duty, and Nikola Vucevic. Sprayed to dime. 3rd place, first assist of the season. There were positives even in a stumbling layup his try, the only on-field goal attempt that Williams has failed in this period. It was the Bulls’ first possession of the game.
Williams checked out at the 6:31 mark in the first quarter, receiving multiple first-half stints for the first time in two games, and started the next at the 7:20 mark in the second quarter. A strong driving floater followed, leading him to seven points on 3-for-4 shooting. A pick-and-pop three in the third quarter pushed him into double digits for the first time this season.
2. The Bulls’ offense hummed aggressively early on against a Pacers team that had every reason to beat them badly. His 38-point first quarter for them was their highest-scoring quarter of the season, recording 9 assists and his 3-point shooting 5-9. By halftime, his 19 assists on 26 successful baskets matched his game total from last week’s losses against the Wizards and Cavaliers.
The offense stalled after that, but they also had season-highs of 124 points and 34 assists by the end of the game.
3. Billy Donovan’s rotation pattern is starting to take shape. Donovan, who still had his eyes on Zach LaVine’s lap, replaced two-time All-Star with Williams at the 6:31 mark in the first quarter alongside Ayo Dosunmu, DeMar DeRozan and Vucevic alongside Coby White. and Javonte Green ran. Three minutes later, White, Dosunmu, DeRozan and Vucevic came on, followed by Lavigne, Goran Dragic, Alex Caruso and Andre Drummond.
That line-up, with Derrick Jones Jr. starting the second quarter on Green again, was as devastating as Monday’s win over the Celtics. In about eight minutes between the first and second quarters, they extended their 13-point lead to 23 with typically active, energetic play.
Four. But the Pacers didn’t spend the night quietly. Trailing by his 24 points in the first two quarters and his 19 points at halftime, they rose to a blistering pace in the third quarter, including his perfect 3-3 success for Hield, who was the first to score. Succeeded in his six of his seven three-point attempts in . That stretch cut the deficit to 9, and at the 2:51 mark in the third he was tied by 95-91.
Five. LaVine and Dragic then came in, joining Caruso, Drummond and Green to stabilize their side. The Bulls took the lead back to his 10 points heading into the fourth quarter, and in his last three minutes of the quarter he stole three steals and had multiple fastbreak attacks in an 8-2 runoff. .
Jones replaced Green again to start the fourth game, and the lead extended even further thanks to more forced turnovers and 3-point shots from Dragic and Lavigne. By the time this group disbanded, they had made his 17-6 run and he trailed 112-97, with just under eight minutes left to put him in fourth. The Bulls finished with a season-high 43 bench points.
6. Acquiring Dragic and Drummond in the offseason may have seemed insignificant at the time, but the impact on the Bulls’ tier wasn’t that great.
Dragic scored 13 goals (5-9, 3-3 from deep) and five assists in just 16 minutes, pushing the tempo and releasing teammates with predicted pass after predicted pass. Meanwhile, Drummond tallied his double-digit rebounds for the third time in his five games, pulling down 13 boards as he achieved eight points and blocked his shot.
And the chemistry between the two that started as teammates in Brooklyn and quickly blossomed in Chicago was fun to watch.
7. LaVine posted his best scoring game since his debut, going 6-6 on 13 shots and going 8-6 from 3-point range for 28 points. Two promising signs of him related to monitoring his knee pain: He plays (and shoots) sharply off screen, one of his most devastating qualities when healthy. It seemed to me. And he reached the free-throw line 12 times and made 10.
8. White played 12 minutes and was clearly Donovan’s go-to option to nominate LaVine during the mid-first-quarter rest, but the fourth-year guard was a strange off the bench between Caruso and Dragic. It is clear that he is a man. That’s especially true for Donovan’s recently established rotation. White played just 9:24 against Boston, the first game a Bulls coach staggered LaVine in his second unit, but there was a lot of wasted time in that 18-point win. was.
9. For the first time since Lavigne’s debut, Donovan introduced his favorite closing group, which includes Dosunmu, Lavigne, DeRozan, Caruso and Vcevic. The Bulls held on to a 15-point win, though he trailed by 5 minutes and 37 seconds between 9:35 and 3:58 in the 4th quarter while he remained on 112 points.
And the game’s icing sequences were perfect. Caruso stole his third steal from Jalen Smith on the drive, assisted Vucevic, and in the other end he made one layup. Caruso was phenomenal with 8 points, 3 steals, 2 blocks and countless individual defenses.
Ten. With 24 points in the game, DeRozan became the 54th player in NBA/ABA history to surpass 20,000 career points. Instead, he had just five shots in the first half and finished with just 17 points when the Bulls braked with a jump from Indiana. Seven points away from the milestone, DeRozan would get his next crack against his old coach Gregg Popovich in San Antonio.
After the Bulls comes the San Antonio Spurs on Friday.
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