CHICAGO — Imagine leaving the United Center early Thursday night, getting into your car and turning on The Score to listen to the postgame show on the ride home.
You were satisfied with a competitive effort from the Chicago Bulls and a chance to watch Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Dončić do his thing. Perhaps you were there to witness LeBron James one last time, convincing yourself once again that he’s great — but not nearly as great as you know who.
Then you turned on the radio and heard Chuck Swirsky screaming in delight after the Bulls overcame a five-point deficit in the final 12 seconds, winning on a half-court buzzer-beater by Josh Giddey. Suddenly you were hitting yourself in the forehead with your palm, having missed one of the greatest regular-season endings in the 30-year history of the United Center to avoid the inevitable postgame traffic jam on Madison Street.
If only the Bulls had taken the advice of all the experts and purposely tanked after the Zach LaVine trade, you wouldn’t have ticket buyer’s remorse for missing out on a piece of history.
With eight games left entering Giddey’s homecoming Monday night in Oklahoma City, it’s time to give credit where credit is due to coach Billy Donovan. Not only for refusing to let his team tank down the stretch for the possibility of a slightly better percentage in the draft lottery, but also for making it fun to watch.
And while we’re at it, we have to acknowledge that vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas made the right call in dumping LaVine for three guys who’ve fit in well in the Bulls’ high-tempo offense: Kevin Huerter, Zach Collins and the since-injured Tre Jones. None of them likely will become a star, but they’ve all done enough to deserve a closer look when Karnišovas plots his offseason moves.
Even if the Bulls make it out of the play-in tournament from the No. 9 or 10 spot, most fans realize they couldn’t hang with the Cleveland Cavaliers in a likely first-round Eastern Conference playoff matchup.
The regular season is almost over, and since the Bulls have been treading water the last three years after the promising 2021-22 season sparked by the arrival of DeMar DeRozan, Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso, 2024-25 will be considered a failure. No one should be satisfied with another sub-.500 season and a third straight play-in berth. The idea is to win.
But if the Bulls go out the way they’ve played the last month, with max effort and signs of growth in the young core — from Coby White to Giddey to Matas Buzelis — there’s reason to believe this Bulls team has a real future, assuming Giddey re-signs and Donovan’s offense can succeed with the right pieces in place, leading to a contending team from the outset of next season.
“That’s the challenge for us, to be able to put the consistency together,” Donovan said Saturday before a 120-119 loss to the Dallas Mavericks. “I do feel like the way we’re playing is sustainable. The shooting part of it is going to come and go, but we do have opportunities to push the ball on misses and makes.
“Every game you’re going to have opportunities to defend and block out and rebound, play defense without fouling and take care of the ball. Those are going to be constants, night in and night out. But the way we’re trying to play for us has been pretty sustainable all year.”
While going 9-3 heading into the matchup with the Thunder, the Bulls were fourth in scoring (121.9 ppg), rebounding (46.3) and assists (29.7) over that 12-game stretch. White was averaging 25.2 points over his last 20 games, while Giddey was averaging 21.4 points, 9.7 rebounds and 8.5 assists over his last 15.
Buzelis, a rookie who played sparingly the first half of the season, has made the most drastic improvement since his minutes increased the last two months. He was ...
