CHICAGO (670 The Score) – As the Bulls trailed 110-106 against the Raptors while coming out of a timeout with 6.2 seconds left Friday, coach Billy Donovan’s thinking was simple.
He wanted his team to attempt a quick 3-pointer and then immediately foul on the inbounds pass if the shot was made. It was the only option left for the Bulls, who had no timeouts remaining. Guard Coby White understood the situation and long odds but also had an additional layer of thought. He wanted to draw a foul if he could.
That’s exactly what White did by hitting a tough 3-pointer as Raptors guard Immanuel Quickly invaded his space, leading to a whistle and a four-point play that erased the last of what had been a 16-point lead for Toronto early in the fourth quarter. The Bulls then blitzed the Raptors in the overtime session to earn an improbable 125-115 win in front of a raucous United Center crowd.
“When you know you have a little space, you know guys are going to try to recover quickly because they feel like they lost their man – ‘I can’t let him get this three up,’” White said of his four-point play. “They know we’re going for the three. So for me, it’s kind of feeling where the defender’s at. I knew I had some space and then I seen him run at me. So for me, it’s just shooting it in the way to where I can draw the foul but still get a good shot up. I kind of practice those during the summer too with my trainer and stuff, just trying to draw fouls off the shot.
“I seen Quickly kind of run at me. When he was running at me with that much force, I kind of jumped toward him a little bit and still shot it, and he kind of landed under me.”
For White, Friday also represented a measure of redemption. He felt like he “let the team down” when he missed a good look at a game-tying 3-point attempt late in the Bulls’ 122-117 loss to the Clippers on Wednesday. His disappointment regarding that miss was so obvious that Donovan made a point to encourage him in the aftermath of it.
“I just tried to explain to him that he’s got to move past that stuff quickly,” Donovan said. “And I got a lot of confidence in him. And I told him, listen, if I had him to shoot that shot against the Clippers 100 times, I’d pick him 100 times. I really believe that. I think that’s what makes him a great player, is he’s got an incredible will and drive to want to be great.”
This time, White made the key shot late as part of scoring a team-high 24 points. It was the biggest play of a wild comeback and came not long after the Raptors had led 109-104 with the ball and a full shot clock with 37 seconds left. Upon grabbing a rebound off a Bulls miss, Raptors wing RJ Barrett traveled in the backcourt. Bulls guard Josh Giddey followed with a driving layup, and Raptors guard Grady Dick then split a pair of free throws with 6.2 seconds left.
While White had the late heroics, Giddey was the Bulls’ driving force early. He had seven assists in the first eight minutes of the game. He finished with 19 points, eight rebounds and 12 assists. Bulls center Zach Collins added 15 points and 13 rebounds.
With their victory, the Bulls strengthened their grip on the 10th seed in the East, which represents the final play-in berth. They improved to 24-36 and now have a 2.5-game lead over the 11th-place Nets, who have shown no inclination to push for a play-in spot.
The Bulls hold a three-game lead over the 76ers, who announced earlier Friday that star center Joel Embiid will miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury. And the Bulls effectively ended any faint hope the Raptors – who have a really, really easy schedule in March – may have had to make a run at 10th place. Chicago is now six games ahead of Toronto and holds the tiebreaker.
“They want to play in the postseason,” Donovan said of his Bulls. “They’d love to be able to try to advance and do that. I think that that’s why these guys compete. Listen, I totally understand people’s perspective on long-term this. But when you’re dealing with players that have, in some cases, a very, very short window to play, and a year of basketball for a guy is a big deal.
“It’s really, really hard to ask a player to or give the impression to a player or a team that, ‘Eh, winning is not that important.’ These guys get paid to play the game of basketball and compete, and they want to win. We’re trying to do everything we can to do that. Do we have a championship-level team or one of the best records? No, but there is an opportunity to play after our last regular-season games, and these guys want to do that. And they’re competing for that. They take their job very serious. I think it’s terrible if you tell a player, ‘Listen, this season, this game, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t mean anything.’ It means a lot to these guys.”
Cody Westerlund is an editor for 670TheScore.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.