For months, Chicago Bulls guard Coby White has been waiting for a game like Sunday night’s 109-103 win over the New York Knicks.
For White, it wasn’t about the win or even his 14-point performance. It was about confidence, the only true antidote to the uncertainty that follows recovery from a major injury like the torn labrum White suffered in the offseason.
In his first three games on the road last week, White struggled to score from anywhere on the court — behind the 3-point arc, pull-up jumpers, even layups with his defender bumped off him by a screen.
So when White hit his first 3-pointer of the season to regain the Bulls’ lead in the fourth quarter against the Knicks, he met the roar from the crowd at the United Center with a bounce in his step, clapping his hands with visible joy.
White went on to score 12 points in the second half to help the foul-laden Bulls (12-5) fend off the Knicks, clawing their way to the top of the Eastern Conference. Zach LaVine drenched White with a cup of water during his postgame broadcast interview on the court, and White was greeted in the locker room by a deluge of cheers from his teammates.
“For me to have a game like I had tonight, everybody was basically like, ‘I told you so,'” White said. “I feel like every teammate has told me, ‘It’s coming, bro. Just stay patient, your time is coming.'”
DeMar DeRozan snapped back into his standard form after a pair of slow shooting nights on the road, dropping 31 points to lead the Bulls in scoring. DeRozan struggled with his midrange shot against the Denver Nuggets and Portland Trail Blazers. The Bulls needed him to return to his prior shooting form as LaVine went cold after scoring a combined 66 points in the previous two games.
LaVine missed all four of his chances from behind the arc in the first half, finishing 7-for-20 from the field without making a single 3-pointer. Although LaVine’s offense was diminished, he showed up in the critical moments. He made two baskets in the fourth quarter and knocked down four free throws in the final 30 seconds.
“I thought Zach played exceptionally well in the fourth quarter,” coach Billy Donovan said. “It wasn’t probably one of his normal, typical nights through the first three quarters. … But to be able to win a game where it wasn’t smooth sailing every possession or every quarter, (they) found a way to battle and fight and compete.”
The night also served as a celebration of Bulls history. Joakim Noah and Toni Kukoc were recognized during the game and received cheers as they greeted the crowd from their box seats. Former Bull and Chicago native Derrick Rose received a thunderous standing ovation the moment he entered the game for the Knicks.
The Bulls never held more than a seven-point advantage. In the third quarter, fouls nearly betrayed a team accustomed to overpowering teams with handsy, speedy defense.
Alex Caruso notched his fourth foul with 7:45 left in the third quarter, forcing Donovan to burn a timeout to swap out the team’s leading defender for rookie Ayo Dosunmu. Julius Randle baited Lonzo Ball into an and-one foul on the ensuing play, sinking the free throw to put the Knicks ahead by one for the first time. Within two minutes, Ball picked up his fourth foul as well.
Randle was a thorn in the Bulls’ side all night, scoring 34 points to almost single-handedly buoy the Knicks. The 6-foot-8, 250-pound power forward held a mighty size advantage over Ball and Caruso, who struggled with Randle’s physicality in the absence of center Nikola Vucevic.
Sunday marked the Bulls’ sixth game without Vucevic, who was cleared from isolation over the weekend after testing positive for COVID-19 on Nov. 11. Vucevic could return as early as Monday night against the Pacers, but he had not passed cardiovascular tests in time for Sunday’s game.
Caruso gambled to take a charge with five fouls in the fourth quarter with his signature caginess, but he ultimately fouled out with 1:38 left. Despite being one of the smallest players on the court, Caruso managed to slow Randle most effectively.
“I give those guys a lot of credit,” Donovan said. “They scrambled, they scrapped. I thought they were incredibly physical today. It was a game where I don’t know if anybody really necessarily gained any rhythm offensively in the game, but it was just a hard-fought game.”
