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That one felt real. For all of the reasons to doubt the Chicago Bulls (13-18) after their win over the Miami Heat as anything other than a sign they could (and possibly were) turning things around, there is just as much reason to believe their 110-108 win over the Atlanta Hawks was the real deal.
And it came on a heady play from one of the players struggling most this season.
The Bulls were facing an Atlanta Hawks team that they are looking up at in the standings and came out firing, taking a 5-point lead after one quarter. Despite leading by 11 points at the break, the Bulls found themselves in a battle late as the Hawks – sparked by hot three-point shooting – tied the game in the closing seconds.
That’s when Ayo Dosunmu decided to take over.
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“I knew before the play I wanted to try and make an impact on the game,” Dosunmu said in his on-court postgame interview. “I knew DeMar was going to shoot it. Before we left the huddle, the coaching staff said just crash. I wanted to try and make a winning play.”
The moment is as big for the player as it was for his team.
Chicago lost just 10 days before to Atlanta in a very similar situation that saw Hawks rookie AJ Griffin hit a mid-air turnaround jump shot as time expired in overtime.
Dosunmu was coming off seeing a season-low five minutes and change in the Bulls’ 113-103 win over the Miami Heat, the first in their mini win streak. He noted after the game that you have to be “mentally strong” to survive the ups and downs of the NBA.
“Last night, I didn’t play the minutes I ideally want to being a competitor,” Dosunmu said. “But I can’t take that out on my teammates. I continue to cheer for them, continue to tell them what I saw. And then I knew that whenever my time did come, I’d be ready for it. That’s just my mentality.”
His teammates certainly appreciate his efforts in earning his first career buzzer-beater.
“I always say I don’t know how Ayo gets so many offensive rebounds,” said teammate Zach LaVine. “For him to inbound the ball and get down to the dunker spot, I don’t know how he did it. Right place, right time. He’s a winning player. I was happy for him. He sacrificed a lot for us. And it was a big-time win.”
Dosunmu had to beat two Hawks players to the spot to benefit from the ball ricocheting off John Collins’ chest.
It was the kind of instinctual play Dosunmu flashed as a rookie but has lacked at times this year.
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“How our season has been going so far, a lot of games like that this year went the other way,” Dosunmu said. “For us to pull through that game when we were down eight points in the fourth and we stayed together, this shows our growth and how we continue to get better. Especially because we had a lot of guys injured.”
The Bulls snapped their losing streak against Miami but the Heat was missing Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry in a game the Bulls won by 10 points, suggesting the missing duo could have made a difference.
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Atlanta was without starting center Clint Capela and the Bulls used the lack of an interior presence to their advantage outscoring the Hawks in the paint 44-34.
Dosunmu was 3-for-3 on his shots in the restricted area.
“It’s everything. It’s big, man,” said DeMar DeRozan with whom Dosunmu formed a noticeable bond last season as a rookie. “Just to go through moments like that, us being teammates, we’re together more than our own family at times. When moments like that happen, you want to embrace it. It’s fun.”
Winning certainly is fun.
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