CHICAGO (670 The Score) – Bulls star DeMar DeRozan insists that he doesn’t ever need extra motivation to execute while playing a game he loves, but if he did need any, Bucks guard Grayson Allen provided it Wednesday at the United Center, where Chicago furiously rallied back late for a 119-113 win in overtime behind DeRozan’s 42 points.
After being pushed by Bulls forward Patrick Williams, Allen and his left elbow went flying into DeRozan’s back in the third quarter. The blow knocked DeRozan down, and he got back up angry, confronting Allen, who infamously sidelined Bulls guard Alex Caruso last January for weeks with a flagrant-2 foul that led to Caruso having wrist surgery.
This time, no one was hurt, and nothing more than a common foul on Williams was called after a review.
“I just felt the hit,” DeRozan said. “I just felt like I went across the middle in a football game and tried to catch a slot route and got hit.
“If it was Boban (Marjanović), I wouldn’t have did nothing. But who knows, I didn’t know if it was on purpose or what happened. I just felt the excessive hit. That’s all it was.”
Allen – who has a long track record of dirty plays – defended his actions as rather normal considering how the chain of events began.
"When you go get bumped into somebody, you put your arm out to stop yourself,” Allen told NBC Sports Chicago. “I didn't try to run him over.
"Tensions ran high because (DeRozan) got pushed in the side and he didn't see it. I think that's probably a normal reaction."
What was abnormal was what transpired in the final minutes. The Bulls looked well on their way to another loss as they trailed 104-93 after Allen hit a 3-pointer with 3:19 left. The Bulls still trailed by that margin with under 2:30 remaining, but they produced a furious late surge and sent the game to overtime when DeRozan stole an inbounds pass and found teammate Ayo Dosunmu streaking downcourt for a game-tying dunk with 7.8 seconds left.
“We kept fighting,” Bulls guard Zach LaVine said.
DeRozan had 20 points at the time of his minor skirmish with Allen. He would go on to score 22 more after that, and he dominated the overtime session, scoring 10 of the Bulls’ 13 points and assisting on a big late 3-pointer by center Nikola Vucevic.
DeRozan also hit the go-ahead shot, nailing a pullup 13-foot with 31 seconds left to give Chicago a 115-113 lead.
“His scoring, when he gets to his areas of the floor, he’s great,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said of DeRozan, who also had 10 rebounds and five assists. “And he just has a spirit about him that he just feels like he’s going to overcome whatever obstacle is in front of him or whatever challenge is in front of him. But I thought all the way around on both ends of the floor, I thought he played an unbelievable game. I get the 42 points, but there were so many other things he did to contribute to the win.”
With the victory, the Bulls improved to 5-1 against the East’s top three teams – the Celtics, Nets and Bucks. The Bulls are 15-19 overall and 4-9 against teams that were under .500 through play Wednesday night, including an ugly 133-118 loss to the Western Conference-worst Rockets two nights prior.
“We just got to play the way we’re supposed to consistently,” LaVine said. “Same mindset each and every game. You know, the record against the better teams shows it. And our record against teams under .500 shows it. If keep with the same mentality, I think we’ll be all right.”
Cody Westerlund is a sports editor for 670TheScore.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.
Listen live to 670 The Score via:
Audacy App | Online Stream | Smart Speaker