NBA schedule put Mavs against the ropes, but Bulls knocked them out

Every NBA team has a few schedule losses in a season.

Whether it’s the back end of a back-to-back or a long flight with an early tip time, there’s just those instances where the schedule stares down at an organization and says, “It’s not happening tonight.”

All the ingredients were in place for Dallas to experience one of those on Saturday.

A late 9 p.m. tip in a home loss to Milwaukee on ESPN Friday, a 4 a.m. arrival into Chicago, and on top of it no Luka Doncic (quad strain) available?

The Bulls, however, had something different in mind. Forget handing the visiting team a schedule loss. This was a full schedule 144-115 beat down.

“We wish this was baseball at spring training so we could have a split squad and send half the squad up to Chicago,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “They got to look at this because this isn’t right. I understand TV comes first. They pay the bills. But we could have played [the Bucks] at 7, 7:30.

“We got a doubleheader. Somebody thought it was a great idea. So that’s why we’re playing it.”

“Playing it” was a bit strong.

They showed up, but the actual playing part seemed to never make it out of baggage claim.

Credit the Bulls (11-14) for that, and credit them for taking care of business right away, rather than sleepwalking into the opening quarter like the starting group had done far too often this season.

If the game plan was to run the lethargic Mavs right from the tip, Billy Donovan’s bunch got that message loud and clear.

After a Dwight Powell alley oop dunk to start the game, the Bulls quickly made it feel like a varsity vs JV scrimmage, thanks to Zach LaVine. Patrick Williams and Nikola Vucevic each hit threes to start the Bulls scoring, but LaVine then made his presence felt, scoring 11 of the next 22 points, allowing the home team to jump out to a 28-10 lead.

The offense was just getting started.

When the first quarter ended, the Bulls lead was 40-30, and they were just getting warmed up.

Veterans DeMar DeRozan and Andre Drummond then got it going, leading the second unit out to an even bigger margin.

By the time the two teams headed off to the halftime locker rooms, the Bulls held a 29-point lead, and the Mavs could start warming up the bus.

“I think it was important that we just focused on us,” Williams said. “We wanted to come out how we needed to come out.”

Not only was the 82 points the most the franchise had scored in a first half since they put up 81 in an April 14, 2007 game in Milwaukee, but it was a new record for the most points the franchise had ever scored in a first half. The most points the Bulls ever scored in a half was still 86.

And this latest display was well distributed.

DeRozan had 17 points, Nikola Vucevic 16, LaVine 13 and Patrick Williams 12. Even more impressive, the 29-of-44 shooting (65.9%) also came on 21 assists.

A basketball clinic not seen by this core, and done on both ends.

“Clearly they had a tough game against Milwaukee and then a tough time getting here,” Donovan said of the win. “For us, I thought we generated good shots, moved the ball … I think there’s always things you can take from these games.”

When the final horn sounded and the smoke cleared, seven Bulls finished in double figures, led by DeRozan’s 28, and the team hit a season-high in three-pointers with 19, as well as a season-high in assists with 35.

Dallas sending a split-squad might have been a good idea after all.

Read More