After returning from the All-Star Game in Utah, DeMar DeRozan told his Chicago Bulls teammates they need to treat every game the rest of the way like it’s Game 7.
While Sunday’s 102-82 win over the Washington Wizards at the United Center wasn’t exactly a playoff-caliber performance, it nonetheless pulled the Bulls within a half-game of the Wizards for the final Eastern Conference play-in spot.
So if you’re keeping score at home, that’s two Game 7 wins down and 21 to go.
The Bulls have two lopsided wins since bringing in veteran Patrick Beverley, but the fact of the matter is their hopes of going anywhere this season once again rest on the shoulders of DeRozan and Zach LaVine.
Both stars were in vintage form Sunday before a crowd of 21,106 on the West Side.
DeRozan led the Bulls with 29 points, while LaVine added 27. Though the Bulls shot a paltry 26.7% (8-for-30) from 3-point range, the Wizards were even worse at 21.4% (6-for-28) and missed 11 of 23 free throws.
In other words, it looked like a matchup of two teams good enough to compete for a play-in spot but unlikely to go any further.
Still, a win is a win, and Bulls coach Billy Donovan summed it up by saying: “We have to find ugly ways to win games.”
Everything has a caveat. The Brooklyn Nets just traded away two future Hall of Famers, and the Wizards will always be the Wizards. But the Bulls played the kind of sticky-notes defense that emulated their start to last season.
LaVine credited “effort and energy (and) holding people accountable” for their play. Donovan admitted the Bulls “fell off a cliff” defensively in the second half of 2021-22, so hopefully this blast from the past wasn’t just a blip.
Coming off a 44-point win over the depleted Nets, their third-biggest winning margin in the last 15 years, the Bulls were engaged in a dogfight into the third quarter with the Wizards, who were dressed in their finest prom outfits, wearing cherry-blossom-themed, fuchsia uniforms.
The Bulls led 64-60 with 3½ minutes left in the third when Beverley blocked a pull-up jumper by former Simeon star Kendrick Nunn before yelling in Nunn’s face. Nunn simply tapped Beverley on the side, a show of respect from one former Chicago high school star to another.
It was another example of the Rodmanesque quality of Beverley, who is a show unto himself.
The Bulls were 4-for-25 from 3-point range with a little under nine minutes left when Coby White hit back-to-back 3s in a 30-second span, increasing their lead to 84-72. White, who scored 17 points, hit another 3 in garbage time and the Bulls pulled away in the fourth quarter.
“He’s like a microwave,” DeRozan said of White. “He gets it going, he’s going to warm up. That’s Coby. He affects the game in many ways. When he gets going, it makes our job easier.”
Beverley was held scoreless in 26 minutes but pulled down four rebounds and ran the offense like he was conducting the Chicago Symphony. He even used some of the same moves, albeit without a conductor’s baton.
With the defensive-minded Beverley and Alex Caruso in the starting lineup, the Bulls give up size but make up for it with a handsy defense. LaVine said Beverley and Caruso “are so damn tough, they have a lot more heart than size,” and it paid off Sunday.
“It was a burst of energy, obviously, what Pat and AC do on the defensive end,” LaVine said. “It’s huge, and I think the challenge that Pat (Williams) and Ayo (Dosunmu) have done coming off the bench and responding has been great too.”
The Bulls can’t get too excited over the two-game winning streak. But at least they’ve stopped the bleeding from the six-game losing streak that led some fans to jump off the bandwagon.
“We knew coming out of the break we were going to play with a sense of urgency,” DeRozan said. “Pat (Beverley) definitely brings a lot of that, but for the most part it’s just being consistent, locked in and communicating. That’s been our main priority.
“We just go play together, help each other, no matter who is out there. We don’t go out there thinking of the size.”
DeRozan’s postgame interview was then interrupted by rookie Dalen Terry, who asked him to sign an autographed etching of DeRozan for his “son.”
“Don’t get a whupping tonight,” DeRozan told Terry before acquiescing to the request.
The losing streak was in the rearview mirror, and the Bulls at least were having fun again.
After beating the Wizards, the Bulls travel to Toronto on Tuesday to take on another Eastern Conference play-in contender.
“With the situation we’re in, it doesn’t really make a difference who we are playing,” Donovan said. “All these games are very important and critical for us.”
Nikola Vučević, who turned in his 39th double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds, echoed DeRozan’s mantra about turning up the intensity on a nightly basis.
“Obviously our margin for error is pretty much none,” Vučević said. “From the place we are, to climb back into a play-in spot, we have to approach every game like it’s a Game 7. Not saying we’re going to go win 20 in a row, but we can’t give away games like we have before, can’t get a big lead and blow it.
“We know the situation we’re in, and we have to deal with it.”
The Bulls have 21 more Game 7s in their quest to rewrite the script for the 2022-23 season.
They know how they got themselves into this mess. Now they believe they know the way out.
