CHICAGO (670 The Score) – After turning heads with a strong start, the Bulls on Tuesday posted a signature win of sorts early in their season.
Trailing by as many as 24 points and having been lit up by the 76ers in the first half, the Bulls rallied for a 113-111 win in front of a frenzied United Center crowd to improve to an Eastern Conference-best 6-1. The rally, which included the Bulls winning the fourth quarter by a 29-16 margin, was capped by center Nikola Vucevic drilling a 3-pointer from the right corner with 3.2 seconds left, marking the first time all evening that Chicago led. 76ers guard Quentin Grimes missed a 3-pointer in the waning seconds that would’ve won the game for Philadelphia (5-2).
“Whenever you come back from down 20-some and win the game, it’s big – especially against a team like Philly that’s been playing great so far,” Vucevic said. “I think it just showed the resilience we have, the belief we have, the togetherness we have.”
Trailing by one, the Bulls got a stop and called a timeout with 14.0 seconds remaining. Head coach Billy Donovan put the ball in Giddey’s hands on a play that called for wing Kevin Huerter to show a screen but instead slip out. When Huerter did, Giddey attacked the hoop from the left wing. The 76ers collapsed on him and took away forward Matas Buzelis’ cut to the lane, but Vucevic had space in the right corner.
Giddey contorted his body around 76ers center Joel Embiid and fired a perfectly placed left-handed pass to Vucevic. He made the pass look easy, though it wasn’t.
“You’ve got to make quick reads,” Giddey said. “I had a similar play 30 seconds earlier where I turned it over and I had tried to throw it through a gap. As I said, I got downhill left-handed. I saw Embiid collapse in the paint and left Vooch wide open in the corner. He spaced the floor well. You trust him to make that play, and I gave it to him and he hit a big shot.”
Giddey had another terrific game amid his strong start to the season, scoring 29 points while shooting 10-of-19 and adding a game-high 15 rebounds and game-high 12 assists. It marked the second straight game he had a triple-double, making him the first Bull to record such a feat since the legendary Michael Jordan in 1989, according to the team’s public relations department.
Giddey is averaging 23.1 points, 10.0 rebounds and 9.1 assists in the first seven games while shooting 49.2% overall and 41.9% on 3-pointers.
“He played great again,” Vucevic said. “He had another triple-double. He just makes a lot of plays for us – his scoring, his playmaking, even just getting downhill and creating inside-out action for us. His rebounding has been huge as well. He has that size, so it helps us a lot. He’s also one of the guys when we get down, he’s always staying positive, always pushing us to continue, tries to initiate fast-break points, pushing the ball … He was really good again for us tonight. When he plays that way, it opens up so much for everybody.”
In explaining how the Bulls maintained belief despite their big deficit, Vucevic noted the team knew it played “really, really bad basketball in that first quarter, especially defensively.” The Bulls felt if they cleaned up their mistakes and “controllables” while competing harder on the defensive end, they could get back in the game.
They did that and then some, holding the 76ers scoreless for the final 4:26 and without a field goal for the final 6:26.
“We just got back to playing our game – defending, being aggressive and running,” Vucevic said. “That was the big difference from the first half.
“Again, I think it’s also important we understand this is not how you become a good team, by getting down 20 and then waking up and starting to finally play. So we have to play better from the beginning.”
The stern tests will keep coming for the Bulls, who will visit the Bucks on Friday and Cavaliers on Saturday.
“Tonight was one of the best wins I’ve ever been a part of, just in terms how bad we were down – early in the third, we were down (22) points,” Giddey said. “To gut that one out and to dig ourselves out of the hole that we did was unbelievable.”
Cody Westerlund is an editor for 670TheScore.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.