TONIGHT IS ABOUT AYO DOSUNMU!
The second-year guard’s biggest shot of his young career gave the Chicago Bulls some sweet revenge. After losing Alex Caruso to a hard collision in the 2nd quarter and failing to hold onto an 18-point lead, history felt like it was about to repeat itself for the Bulls.
Not only was Atlanta able to take its first lead with 9:30 to go in the 4th quarter, but it was rookie AJ Griffin – who hit the buzzer-beater against Chicago 10 days ago – who knocked down back-to-back 3s to give his team the advantage.
To the Bulls’ credit, however, they didn’t let those big shots break their back. Instead, Patrick Williams hit a massive and confident bucket with 1:15 to go to put the Bulls within one score. Zach LaVine then looked like his former self with back-to-back smooth mid-range jumpers to give Chicago the lead with 44 seconds on the clock.
Unfortunately, the Hawks were able to answer with an easy pick-and-roll bucket, and they did so again after DeRozan went down the floor to sink his own clutch mid-range jumper. It really did feel like we were headed for another gut-wrenching OT affair … but Ayo freakin’ Dosunmu said otherwise.
The Bulls have now won two games in a row after their locker room blow-up in Minnesota. While I’m not ready to trust that things have changed for the better, I also can’t deny that moments like these can go a long way in restoring the positive vibes inside a locker room.
Anyway, we’ll talk more about it tomorrow. Sweet dreams of Ayo!
Check out the full box score here.