It’s that breaking point that Kevin Huerter looks forward to.
That moment in the game where wave after wave of Bulls players have the opposing team bent over at the foul line, hands grasping the bottom of their shorts, and doing what they can to try and fill the lungs.
In the opening night win against the Pistons, it was the first quarter, Saturday in Orlando it came in the fourth, and Monday against Atlanta it didn’t come until the final few minutes.
Different faces for the Bulls (3-0), different spots in the rotation, but the same results through three games, as they remained unbeaten thanks to Monday’s 128-123 win over the visiting Hawks.
“We keep playing at this pace, have the fresh bodies going in and out, I think we can wear teams down,” Huerter, who played key closing minutes in the latest win, said. “(Coach Billy Donovan has) talked about our identity in the preseason to us, and everyone in the room believed that we not only had depth, but believed in that depth.”
The rest of the Eastern Conference just might want to take note.
“And we don’t even have (injured players) Coby (White) and Zach (Collins) back yet,” Huerter said with a smirk.
What they did have against Atlanta was eight players in double-figures, and another 50-point-plus outburst from the bench. The same bench that scored 58 points in the Magic win.
Ayo Dosunmu led the Bulls – and the new-look “Bench Mob” – in scoring, while Huerter had 15 and Patrick Williams added 12.
The same Patrick Williams that played almost 30 minutes against Orlando on Saturday, helping the bench outscore the home team 58-35.
“I think he’s starting to recognize things, even on some switches in the game down in Orlando, he had guards on him and got down in the post,” Donovan said of Williams starting to figure it out. “Those are recognition things that come with experience, and sometimes in the heat of the moment early in his career when those decisions needed to be made quickly, he struggled with that. It’s good to see him get a better understanding of what’s going on and reacting to it.”
The Bulls made all the right reads late in this one, from Huerter’s layup with 2:17 left to put them up five and then Josh Giddey hitting a clutch three with 1:05 left to stretch the lead to six.
But what again seemed to be the difference in the game was the wave of players off the bench that Donovan is tossing at teams. It’s not only a group of guys that understand their role, but players like Huerter, Williams and Dosunmu have all each been starters and have a certain chip on their shoulders.
“We also have a lot of guys going into the last year of a contract,” Donovan said. “I do think the group likes each other, and I think they are competitive guys. Like any player at this level, they certainly want to prove themselves. Sometimes different situations create different opportunities for guys, but I sense there’s a level that these guys feel like maybe they really need to step up and prove themselves and we really need to keep that because we have to do that. That’s important.”
Important enough to put the Bulls at 3-0 to start a season for the first time since the 2021-22 campaign.
Almost lost in the win was starter Nikola Vucevic scoring 17 points, grabbing 17 rebounds and just missing the triple-double with nine assists.
“I think the biggest thing Vooch is doing is he’s really defensive rebounding,” Donovan added. “He’s putting his body in there. He’s a great force with the ball in his hands.”