The Chicago Bulls piled extra work onto an already grueling stretch of seven games in 10 days with an overtime thriller Thursday night in Toronto.
But despite a big night from Nikola Vucevic, the Bulls couldn’t break a trend of underperformance on the road, falling 127-120 to the Raptors for their seventh loss in the last eight games away from the United Center.
The Bulls often have needed a quieter version of Vucevic than fans were accustomed to during his days as the leading scorer for the Orlando Magic, filling a complementary role alongside Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan. But there’s nothing quiet about what the big man has done for the Bulls in the last nine games.
Vucevic on Thursday had his eighth double-double in nine games. He reached double digits in points and rebounds midway through the first half, paving the way for a 30-point, 18-rebound performance. Vucevic offered a bit of everything against the Raptors — smashing through players for dunks, shoveling passes to Javonte Green for slashing drives to the rim and sinking pop-out 3-point shots off the pick-and-roll with rookie Ayo Dosunmu.
“I feel like I’ve been able to really find my rhythm, finally able to find my role within the team and play off my teammates,” said Vucevic, who matched his season high in points. “Sometimes as a big man, because you don’t have the ball as much you have to depend on others. It just took a little bit longer than I wanted to early on, but I felt like the last couple of weeks I’ve been playing much better. I just want to continue to build on that.”
The Bulls and Raptors are at their best when they’re playing fast. The Raptors rank third in the NBA in fast-break points (15.1), and the Bulls are ninth (13.2). These synchronous styles posed the same challenge of attempting to control the pace while slowing down their opponent on the break.
The result wasn’t a particularly pretty game for the Bulls, who turned the ball over 17 times in a hectic night of back-and-forth drives. The Raptors relentlessly hunted mismatches created by the height of Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby and Scottie Barnes, who combined for 66 points. The size disadvantage cut deepest on the offensive glass, where the Raptors outrebounded the Bulls 22-10.
“They’ve got a lot of length at all positions,” Vucevic said. “They play some big lineups. It’s difficult because they have guys that have a lot of length and agility. They move really well and they cover a lot of space and they throw different defenses at you throughout the game. They’ll press, they’ll double team, zone. They do a lot of different things. So we always have to be ready for that.”
The Bulls still managed to keep pace through the final quarter, when Vucevic and DeMar DeRozan hit clutch shots to force overtime. Vucevic's scoring was a necessity for the Bulls as the Raptors blanketed DeRozan, forcing the ball out of the hands of the team’s leading scorer. DeRozan still managed 28 points, 14 from the free-throw line.
Hours after being named an All-Star reserve, LaVine muscled through visible pain to add 15 points. LaVine nearly didn’t play after suffering back spasms Wednesday, earning clearance earlier Thursday and showing signs of discomfort throughout the night. He said this was his second game playing through back spasms, which flared up off and on during the game.
“It hurts,” LaVine said after the game. “That’s what happens when you play a 42-minute game with back spasms.”
After a slow start, the game changed for LaVine midway through the fourth quarter. The guard had attempted only six shots (making three), struggling to ignite his scoring as the Bulls traded punches with the Raptors.
After Dosunmu ran downcourt to swat away an attempted layup attempt from Dalano Banton, DeRozan provided the necessary spark. DeRozan gave up his wide-open path to the basket, dumping a pass to LaVine for a soaring, two-handed dunk — exactly what the high-flying guard needed. LaVine went on to score nine points to close out the fourth quarter and overtime but missed his final layup attempt that would have cut the Raptors’ lead to three.
LaVine will decide Friday morning if he can play through the back spasms against the Indiana Pacers. The Bulls will be even further depleted at the guard position if he is ruled out of the second game of the back-to-back trip.
Ever since guards Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso went down with injuries, coach Billy Donovan has approached their six- to eight-week recovery windows as an important growth period for Dosunmu as a point guard. The rookie rose to the challenge this week, recording 35 assists and only seven turnovers in a five-game stretch.
But two of those turnovers Thursday came in the final minute of overtime, gifting the Raptors two extra possessions to cement the win.
The game still highlighted Dosunmu’s growth, particularly when he contorted his body around a defender to scoop a pass to Vucevic for an easy bucket under the basket. But it also showcased that crunch-time minutes in college — of which Dosunmu had plenty — aren’t the same as NBA overtimes. But as the Bulls defend the top spot in the Eastern Conference — at 32-19 they’re in a virtual tie with the Miami Heat (33-20) for the No. 1 spot — Donovan believes those mistakes will help the Bulls build toward postseason success.
“He’s obviously played great basketball, played his heart out,” Donovan said of Dosunmu. “He had a couple of plays down the stretch (where) being in moments like that as a rookie, he’s going to have to go through some learning and growing pains. It doesn’t just happen overnight. He’s playing against a guy in (Fred) VanVleet that’s obviously done it for a long period of time. ...
“Ayo is one of those guys where the more information he gets, the better he performs and the better he plays. So with guys like Alex Caruso being out and Lonzo being out, this will hopefully make our team better once we do get whole.”
