Chicago Bulls get healthy, go big: 4 observations from 3-game winning streak

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ATLANTA — Billy Donovan, a win in his pocket, found room to laugh about it afterward. If Chicago’s 152-150 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday was the Bulls’ best offensive game of the season, it was also their worst defensive outing, as guard Josh Giddey quipped for his postgame punchline.

The Bulls crafted what would’ve been an otherwise immaculate offensive performance out of context. They saw nine players score in double figures; they shot 47.6 percent on 42 3-point attempts; they dished a season-high 41 assists; their 11 turnovers were among the five lowest turnover games in a season infested with them; Matas Buzelis enjoyed his most efficient game as a pro; and Giddey found time for stand-up after his own grade-A game.

On that end? No notes. Sunday looked like the purest image of how this offense was imagined.

It still came within a breath of defeat, because the Hawks enjoyed Sunday’s track race nearly as much. They threw touchdown passes, kept Chicago in rotation, made nearly half their 3s and poured in the third-highest single-game point total of any team this season.

Including the Utah Jazz’s 150-147 double-overtime win over the Bulls in November, Chicago is now responsible for three of the largest single-game scoring outputs this season.

These teams played with chest-caving, hands-on-knees pace, this Bulls team’s intended design. But at best, it’s left them clinging to the margins.

To pull away in foot races like Sunday — even for a roster as healthy as can be — comes with exhausting caveats. The near-guarantee of a clutch game, the need for at least a handful of double-digit scorers and harmonious ball movement. A number of hurdles that might never lead to relaxation. Trae Young’s chance at the buzzer, born from a blown coverage, was the fitting spike of adrenaline that’s almost become customary in Chicago wins.

But the Bulls now own a three-game winning streak, two over the battered and dysfunctional Cleveland Cavaliers and one over the Hawks, who own their share of questions.

With Chicago’s roster at full strength, this is as complete a sample as Bulls fans can claim. Here are several observations from Chicago’s last few games:

Vučević’s place amid double-big surge

Nothing is shifting Donovan’s rotation on a night-to-night basis quite like his big-man rotation. Since Zach Collins’ return, the Bulls have joined the leaguewide double-big party. While the most frequent — and sensible — lineup for experimentation features Collins and tweener big Jalen Smith alongside each other, Nikola Vučević has inevitably been involved in the mix.

While Vučević hasn’t forfeited his spot among the starters, the completion of the Bulls’ frontcourt threatens the previous consistency of his minutes. In a recent win over the Charlotte Hornets, Vučević watched many of the winding moments from the sideline, finishing with his second-fewest minutes of any game this season. He’s also been quickly swapped from first quarters for Collins.

Zach Collins’ return has allowed the Bulls to experiment with two-big lineups. (Scott Galvin / Imagn Images)

Entering Sunday, Collins and Smith produced a plus-11.6 net rating in 35 minutes together since Collins’ return to the lineup Dec. 5. If nothing else, it’s provided lineup versatility to a team in desperate need of it. And it provides relief for a 35-year-old center who’s proven as undeniable as a floor-spacer as he is a liability as a rim protector.

Among the three: a bruising, screening, handoff man in Collins who fights for second chances; a grounded veteran in Vučević with significant touch that only seems to improve when the Bulls inevitably approach clutch time; and a lanky second big in Smith who, at his best, can space the floor like Vučević and dig into traffic like Collins but is better beside either of them.

Individually, they might not be starting-caliber centers at this stage. On the floor together, they’ll attempt to patch holes on a roster full of them.

Collins’ return came within weeks of the Bulls returning to full strength, his impact pushing over the first domino in a series of lineup configurations. As these Bulls decide what a fresh frontcourt can offer, their wings navigate the ripple effect.

Buzelis finding positional comfort

Buzelis delivered the kind of game Sunday that didn’t seem possible just weeks ago. Not because he can’t pop off for scoring outbursts that evoke his budding potential every now and then, but because within his current confines — typically relegated to the corner, granted permission to attack closeouts — Buzelis often seemed cramped.

He scored a season-high 28 points against Atlanta, connecting on all but one of his 11 attempts from the field, his lone miss coming from the 3-point line, where he made 7 of 8. He’s scored 52 points in his last two games, the highest-scoring two-game stretch of his young career. He shot 28.3 percent on 4.4 3-point attempts per game in the 21 games that preceded Sunday.

He’s stomached what one might consider a sophomore slump, tasked with defending large forwards and making smart decisions for a coach trying to win. But his past few games have suggested a revelation: Chicago might’ve stumbled into Buzelis’ most comfortable position.

While the Bulls unleash twin bigs, Buzelis is being slotted at shooting guard in the occasionally gargantuan lineup, with small forward becoming more frequent. With those units come different assignments and, perhaps, more realistic expectations.

“Yeah, I do feel more comfortable out there,” Buzelis said Friday, asked if small forward might be his natural position. “It’s a little tougher for me to play in the corner, but I’m not really bothered by it at all. But wherever (Donovan) puts me, I know I’m gonna make something happen.”

Buzelis embraced the corner Sunday. He dealt out of it to keep the Bulls afloat in a game they required all 152 of their points.

Over the past couple of weeks, he’s spoken with acceptance, not only of his role but of the results that might come with it. Chicago’s health might’ve pushed Buzelis closer to small forward — and with it, closer to comfort.

Williams, other rotational changes with healthy Bulls

It’s unclear if it’ll last, but Patrick Williams seems like an early casualty of the combination of Chicago’s health and experimentation with double-big lineups. During Friday’s win in Cleveland, Williams entered the game as the 11th man. On Sunday, Donovan inserted him as the 10th man.

The sixth-year forward hasn’t played more than 10:32 in any of his last three outings, and he logged nine minutes Sunday. He entered Sunday averaging career lows in points (7.1), minutes (20.2) and field-goal percentage (38.4) before scoring only four points on 2-of-7 shooting against the Hawks.

Donovan said that he wouldn’t call any rotational changes concrete, but that “at some point, there’s gonna be a level of sacrifice by everybody.” He noted that Chicago trying its hand at playing two bigs would “bleed into some things.”

Since Williams’ spotty flashes between the preseason and the Bulls’ surprise start to the season, Donovan has formed a sturdier stance on Williams’ expectations.

“There’s been moments where he’s really, really been effective,” Donovan said. “And then there’s maybe some moments he hasn’t.

“It’s not like I’ve just resigned myself to the fact that he can’t get better. I resign myself to the fact (that) here are the things he does well that can impact our team, and I’m gonna count on those things and demand those things out of him. But if I want him to put the ball on the floor and create, make a play, go finish, step through and do all this — that may not be him.”

Dalen Terry, Chicago’s 2022 first-round selection, and Julian Phillips, acquired on draft night in 2023, have also seemingly been pushed further down the pecking order. Terry’s last appearance came in the blowout win over Cleveland that kick-started this streak, playing the final 1:04. Phillips hasn’t checked in since playing 3:14 in the Bulls’ 129-126 win in Charlotte on Dec. 12.

Still searching for a defensive identity

Think about how difficult it is to curate a sufficient NBA defense. The Bulls somehow make it look even tougher.

After declaring this summer’s acquisition of Isaac Okoro one small step toward a defensive identity, Chicago doesn’t appear any closer than it was as the NBA’s 19th-best defense a year ago. Its defense ranks 25th after Sunday’s win, slipping further with each passing week, even as it grows to full strength.

The 150 points forfeited Sunday were the second-most yielded points in a Bulls win in the last 40 seasons. It also marked the first time they allowed multiple 35-point scorers in the same game since Dec. 12, 2014, against the Portland Trail Blazers.

The on-off numbers despise Okoro — it’s difficult to rationalize beyond his dreadful early-season presence on offense and the fact that he slots into a starting lineup that frequently loses its minutes — but his alleviation of the team’s defensive burden feels undeniable when watching. He scales up and down in the shadow of Alex Caruso (the mention of his name next to this defense feels sacrilegious).

Tre Jones feels similarly important. While targeted at times versus sizable lineups, he’s as hard-nosed a ball hawk as any on this roster. As a turnover generator, he has no peers in the locker room; his 1.7 steals per game lead the Bulls by a wide margin.

Ayo Dosunmu deserves a salute on the short list of Chicago’s impact defenders.

But the capable personnel, so few and far between, leave Donovan begging for connected lineups that patch each other’s miscues.

Sunday only amplified what’s long kept this team on its toes and beneath the conference’s powerhouses.

This news was originally published on this post .

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