CLEVELAND — The Chicago Bulls knew the stakes the moment they touched down in Cleveland. The Cavaliers have been nipping at the Bulls’ heels for weeks, aided by a recent Bulls slump in their quest to overtake them in the Eastern Conference.
With only a one-game advantage entering Saturday, the final meeting of the regular season offered the Bulls the chance to keep the Cavaliers in their wake. Every fan at the sold-out Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse seemed to understand the gravity of the night.
The result wasn’t picture-perfect. It didn’t need to be. It was sloppy at times, gutsy at others. Both teams struggled to shoot the ball well. But for the Bulls, the only numbers that mattered were those on the board at the final buzzer: a 98-94 win over one of their closest conference competitors.
“We played desperate tonight, we understood how important the game was and I think it showed,” center Nikola Vucevic said. “We’re a good defensive team. We were all over the place. We’ve just got to continue to do it consistently. We’re capable of doing it. We have the talent — that’s obvious. We just have to be willing to do it.”
The Bulls (43-31) maintained their one-game lead over the Toronto Raptors (42-32) for fifth place in the East, while the Cavaliers (41-33) dropped into seventh place.
Coach Billy Donovan used the game to test different rotations — swapping Ayo Dosunmu for Javonte Green in the starting lineup, then sitting Patrick Williams in the first and third quarters to allow for longer stints in the second and fourth. The smaller opening rotation benefited the Bulls, who have been focused on breaking out of stagnant ball movement.
The Bulls spread the ball rigorously in the opening quarter to set the tone for the game, finishing with 23 assists on 36 made baskets. And the balanced lineup allowed Alex Caruso and Dosunmu to record the type of unselfish statlines both players prefer: Caruso finished with seven assists, eight rebounds, two steals and 10 points on five attempts, while Dosunmu had five assists and 11 points on six shots.
It was still an imperfect offensive performance. The Bulls missed 11 straight shots from behind the arc in a stretch spanning from the first to third quarters, finishing 23.8% (5-for-21) from 3-point range. They turned the ball over three times after stepping on the sideline.
But the Bulls were bolstered by their star duo of Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan, who returned to the court together after DeRozan missed the last game in New Orleans with an adductor strain. LaVine led the Bulls with 25 points, while DeRozan scored 10 points in the fourth quarter and finished with 22.
The Bulls also were helped by the fact the Cavaliers were entirely out of sorts with the ball in their hands. Cleveland shot 31% from the field in the first half, including 1-for-18 from 3-point range.
The Bulls contributed to the sluggish offense — plucking five steals and forcing eight turnovers — but the Cavaliers spent the first three quarters missing nearly everything, including open shots. It was difficult to determine how much the Bulls contributed to that funk.
“When any NBA team goes 1-for-18, certainly it was not our defense,” Donovan said. “I thought we worked like crazy on our defense, but when that ball goes up in the air, it’s really out of anybody’s control.”
Then suddenly, they weren’t. The Cavaliers crunched a 19-point deficit to three points in the fourth quarter, going 11-for-19 after shooting 37% in the first three quarters and hitting a trio of 3-pointers. But even with Darius Garland and Caris LeVert leading the surge, the Bulls were able to hold off the comeback.
Still, the final minutes dragged out at a staccato pace as a series of shot-clock glitches jolted the game to consecutive halts. The Cavaliers used fouls to attempt to stretch out the remaining seconds. Dosunmu fouled Darius Garland as he took a 3-pointer with 6.7 seconds left, but the Cavs guard missed two of his free-throw attempts, and the Bulls held on.
Neither team cracked 100 points, but the game still stood as an opening test for the Bulls as they draw closer to the playoffs — which are only eight games away.
“I tried to just lock in and treat it like playoff prep,” Caruso said. “I think it showed from the opening tip. I thought we were the better team for the majority of the game. I really don’t think it came down to shots going in but execution, the tenacity we played with, really scrambling and helping each other. Those are the things that we’ve been talking about for a couple weeks that we really needed to start doing.”
