As was mostly the case for the Bulls on Tuesday night, the ball was in Josh Giddey’s hands with seconds to go.
After trailing the 76ers by 24 points at the United Center, the Bulls clawed back with a spirited defensive performance in the second half to get within one. Giddey, who had orchestrated much of the offense, received a ghost screen from guard Kevin Huerter and drove toward the basket, gaining a step on 76ers forward Kelly Oubre Jr. and drawing the attention of center Joel Embiid, which left teammate Nikola Vucevic open in the corner for a leaping, left-handed pass.
Vucevic, who had been 0-for-4 from three-point range until this moment, nailed the three to give the Bulls not just their first lead of the game but the deciding basket in a 113-111 victory that moved them to 6-1 overall this season and 5-0 at home.
It was their largest comeback win since Feb. 17, 2021, when they trailed the Pistons by 25 before surging back.
Afterward, despite the excitement, the Bulls faced the sobering reality that wild turnarounds like this aren’t sustainable.
“Big win . . . but we can’t rely on making these comebacks,” said Vucevic who scored 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. “We can’t have those starts, especially against a team like Philly.”
For as stifling as the Bulls were in the second half, they were just as discombobulated in the first, allowing 45 points in the first quarter.
“We don’t have the luxury to not invest for the full 48 minutes on the physicality things,” coach Billy Donovan said.
With a renewed defensive focus after halftime, they shut down the Sixers’ attack just enough for Giddey to carry them across the finish line. He finished with a team-high 29 points, 15 rebounds and 12 assists, becoming the first Bulls player since Michael Jordan in 1988-89 to have back-to-back triple-doubles.
“That’s cool,” Giddey said. “I’m not going to sit here and say it’s not cool. But I think all the individual stuff comes as a byproduct of winning.”
Without guards Coby White (calf) and Ayo Dosunmu (quadriceps), the Bulls could have thrown in the towel as they fell so far behind.
“It was a great test tonight to see how we responded after our first loss in New York [on Sunday],” Giddey said. “This was an awesome test and unbelievable resilience by the group to come out in the second half the way we did.”
There’s a litany of items — starting with intensity and physicality in the first half — to improve upon before their next game Friday night in Milwaukee.
“We’re not going to be a very good team if we just try to rely on running up and down the floor, shooting the ball and trying to get downhill and just [spraying] it around,” Donovan said. “That’s part of the iteration, I think, for this group, is [that] we’ve got to be more physical.”
Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey finished with a game-high 39 points. Embiid scored 20, including just two in the second half.
