CHICAGO (670 The Score) – The thunderous chant reverberated throughout the United Center with 6:51 left in the game late Wednesday night, and Bulls guard Coby White soaked it in.
“Coby, Coby, Coby,” roared the home crowd.
There was good reason for the chorus. White had just drilled another 3-pointer to stretch his team’s lead to 21 points and provide yet another highlight on a night the Bulls rolled to a 131-116 win against the Hawks in the 9/10 game of the play-in tournament in the East. The Bulls’ season remains alive with White as its beating heart after he went off for a career-best 42 points, a mark that nonetheless won’t be recorded as his career-high in the NBA history books because it occurred in the play-in round.
“It was a dope feeling, it was a dope moment for that to happen,” White said of the chants. “I’m thankful for it. Like I said, I’m thankful for the fans. It felt like a playoff vibe. The place was rocking. And I’m definitely counting it as my career-high. It’s in the stat sheet right here.”
White was uber efficient in playing one of the finest games of his career, as he shot 15-of-21 overall, including 3-of-7 from 3-point range, and was 9-of-10 at the free-throw line. He also added nine rebounds and six assists without committing a turnover.
White relentlessly attacked a weak Hawks defense, as he shot 9-of-10 in the restricted area. He had nine points in the first quarter as the Bulls took a 40-22 lead at the end of the opening period.
“He led us tonight,” said Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan, who added 22 points and nine assists. “We talked before the game, just coming out, being aggressive, trying to make a statement early on and not wait and that’s what we did.”
The Bulls dominated in the paint, where they scored 72 points on 70.6% shooting to the Hawks’ 44 points there.
“We just wanted to play with pace, get downhill,” White said. “Ayo (Dosunmu) does that every game, so that’s not really abnormal for him. We just wanted to get downhill, and we know that once we attack the paint, get the defense to collapse, we either got to finish or spray out and just make the right reads. Everybody played a total role in it.”
The Bulls will now turn their attention to the Heat, who lost 105-104 to the 76ers in the 7/8 game of the play-in tournament Wednesday. Chicago will play at Miami on Friday evening, with the winner earning the No. 8 seed in the East and a matchup against top-seeded Boston in the first round.
It will represent a rematch from a year ago, when the Heat rallied in the final minutes to beat the Bulls in the final play-in game and advance to the playoffs, where they made a run to the NBA Finals.
Both teams will bring injury concerns into the win-or-go-home game. Heat star Jimmy Butler suffered a knee injury Wednesday, while Bulls forward Alex Caruso tweaked his left ankle after teammate Andre Drummond accidentally ran over him at mid-court. Both players’ status is in doubt for Friday.
Either way, the Bulls feel they’ll be ready to deal with any adversity that finds them.
“Everything was on the table,” DeRozan said in reflecting on the Bulls’ current situation. “Man, we went through a lot this season with injuries, up-and-down season, a season that none of us expected. We used everything we went through this season for this moment here. We got to carry that over to the next game as well and give ourselves a chance to be in the playoffs.”
Cody Westerlund is an editor for 670TheScore.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund .
Local Chicago, IL
Most Popular
Comments / 0