There’s something about the 2023-24 Chicago Bulls and clutch games.
Earning their league-best 24th clutch win of the season in Monday’s 110-107 defeat of the Portland Trail Blazers, the Bulls own the league’s fourth-best clutch net rating at +21.4, behind only the Denver Nuggets, Milwaukee Bucks, and New York Knicks.
“We’ve got experience with it, I think,” Alex Caruso said after the game. “Just from the last couple of years, you know, pretty much the same group plus or minus a few guys that haven’t been here for us. I think we just learn from the losses when we haven’t played well and find a way. We have that collective belief that at the end of the game, we’re gonna just find a way, find a play to make.”
That they did. Though it wasn’t a DeMar DeRozan dagger that iced the game this time, it was a signature swat from the first-team All-Defender.
“Once he really didn’t break for the ball in the backcourt, I knew that they were going to run some type of play where they threw it to somebody to try and get him on the run and hit him again,” Caruso detailed.
“So once they did that, I just tried to shadow him,” he went on. “Up three with that much time left, you look to foul. Came across half, I didn’t like the look to foul because he was squared to the basket and kind of looked like he was getting ready to shoot. And then just instincts took over, you know, once I saw he was shooting it. That’s a pretty routine play for me to be able to strip a guy as long as I’m within the right distance so instincts trying to just take over.”
The risks associated with that play are pretty hard to imagine. If he misses the swipe and fouls Anfernee Simons, not only is he putting a 91.8 percent foul shooter at the line for three shots to tie the game, he also would have fouled out.
“There are times where he’s just in compromising situations,” Billy Donovan said of Caruso’s ability to overcome difficult matchups. “I’m not talking about his health. I’m just talking about defensive positioning, and he has a way to get himself back into being in an advantageous situation. It’s just his smarts and his IQ.”
Caruso said he doesn’t necessarily emulate anyone with that swipe-down strip that has been such a useful tool in his arsenal of defensive ammunition. But he named Jrue Holiday and Andre Iguodala as some of the ones who have done it at a high level. Still, it’s taken a lot of work for him to sharpen that skill to the point it’s at now.
“I wasn’t very good at it when I first got in the league,” Caruso said. “I fouled a lot. So I think part of that is, you know, learning how to play defense without fouling. And then I tell Dalen (Terry) this before, when you move your feet, when you’re in position, now your hands can become weapons rather than defense mechanisms to try and guard people. So as long as I’m in the right position from there, I can think ahead and see what’s going to happen.”
The Bulls gave up a few key momentum plays that turned the tides for the Trail Blazers, who turned a 14-point deficit at the start of the fourth quarter into a three-point lead with 2:55 to play.
After slowing things down, DeRozan, who finished with 28 points on 10-of-17 shooting, was able to take control and make the right play. With 20 seconds left, he drew the switch he wanted on a screening action. Rather than rising up, he was able to find Nikola Vucevic in the post for a bucket.
DeRozan’s steady hand does not go unnoticed or unappreciated by those who share the locker room.
“Outsiders might, we definitely don’t,” Caruso said. “Really thankful he’s on our team. It’s sometimes more than just making a shot. It’s big rebounds tonight. It’s boxing out against their guys that are crashing hard, and then finding Vooch on the mismatch down low to hit the layup to keep us up three.”
The Bulls’ clutch performance has been a huge part of their success this season. Some of it boils down to luck — makes and misses — on any given night. But it helps to have someone who can take control over the pace, momentum, and tempo of the game to ensure the team gets a real chance to win.
“He just is a winner at heart,” Caruso said of DeRozan. “He’s a competitor. He goes out there every night and does his best to help us win the game. And a lot of times it’s making the right plays late in the game.”
