Bulls vs. Pistons final score: a merely ALMOST collapse, as Bulls hang on to win

What we had here was the difference between a team that just isn’t very good and a team trying to lose.

Yes, the Bulls are bad, and particularly bad at holding leads and playing in 4th quarters (not because of any un-clutchness, but because competition rises at these times), and they technically did blow a 21-point second half lead to the hapless Detroit Pistons. But the Pistons are hapless for a reason, they are very young and don’t have guys who can make plays, and so they never took the lead and ultimately lost by 117-115 score.

Detroit had a chance to tie the game with under ten seconds remaining down two points, but rookie Jaden Ivey couldn’t inbound the ball and called a timeout that the team didn’t have.

Until that point, it was the Bulls who were crapping themselves in the final period. They missed 13 of their first 14 shots, with several turnovers as well, and that’s a good recipe to lose a game where you scored 71 in the first half.

But they didn’t lose! On the second night of a back-to-back, on the road, and you’re not any good...that still counts as a win.

Zach LaVine led with 41, as he and the Bulls were on fire for those first three quarters with Zach hitting 6 threes and the team shooting 12-27 (44%) from beyond the arc.

Some of the Bulls patented Witchcraft Defense wore off here, as the Pistons went 40% (14-35) from three on their own, led by Bojan Bogdanovic going 8-12 from beyond the arc to net 34 points to lead the Pistons. Billy Donovan went away from his closing lineup as he finally realized they had nobody over 6’3” to guard Bogdanovic, and Patrick Williams got the assignment for the final few minutes of this one. Williams did much better than Caruso at this, and also had a decent offensive game off the bench with 11 points in 28 minutes.

The deeper bench was really terrible for the Bulls here, as Andre Drummond answered the boos from his former fans to have 3 turnovers, 4 fouls, and 1 point in 13 minutes. He was merely a -9 in that time, as Ayo Dosunmu was -14 in 15 minutes and it was evident watching the game that the team was just way more stable with Patrick Beverley (10 assists and 10 boards).

That stability was just enough to keep the Bulls from losing here. I suppose one could question why DeMar DeRozan was the first option in the fourth in a game where LaVine was on fire, but we know why LaVine can’t be trusted in these situations. DeRozan was not very good in this game, but got just enough in those final couple minutes to get the Bulls the win.

Standings-watch for these two teams goals, as both got out of tonight what they needed to: the Bulls win and stay very much alive being a game behind Washington for tenth place (lol), and the Pistons lose their 6th in a row, leaping San Antonio for 2nd in the Tankathon.