It remains the fourth-quarter tell the Bulls sit and wait for.
The blood in the water.
It could be a subtle deep breath with a long exhale, or it could be more obvious with a player hunched over, hands on knees and tugging on his shorts. That’s when the Eastern Conference leaders know they have you.
“Your shot starts coming up short, you see the legs go,” Bulls forward Isaac Okoro described recently. “You see the hands start going on the knees, and that’s what you want to see. You want to see the opponent tired because that’s when you start killing them.”
Through the first seven games, that’s been the most recurring pattern.
In chasing down Philadelphia with a 29-16 run in the final 12 minutes in Tuesday’s improbable comeback win, the Bulls run-and-gun offense has now outscored the opposing team in the fourth quarter in all but two games. Go ahead and throw the opener against the Pistons out because Detroit was so far behind after three, the fact that they beat the Bulls 32-21 in the fourth was meaningless.
Only Atlanta outscored the Bulls in the fourth and did that with a slim 31-30 margin.
Without the Detroit game, the Bulls were averaging 29 points in the fourth, while holding the opposition to 24 points. Twice — Orlando and Philadelphia — they locked down the opposition from even reaching 20 points.
That’s the other part of the secret sauce. It’s not just the offense that has been tiring the opposition out, but the combo punch is being delivered by the often-maligned defense.
The Bulls came out of the 76ers win sitting 11th overall in defensive rating (112.5). Not bad, considering they were 19th last season. In the fourth quarter of games through the early part of this 2025-26 campaign, however, only Minnesota (98.2 defensive rating) and the defending champs Oklahoma City (100.5) were better than the Bulls (101.7).
So Billy Donovan’s crew is not only trying to run the opposing team out of the gym but do so by putting handcuffs on them as well. A lethal combination that has the Bulls 6-1 for a reason.
Where the surprise comes, however, is the faces of those fourth-quarter players that are delivering in winning time.
Josh Giddey, who is legit MVP candidate if the season was wrapping up today, is the second-leading scorer in the fourth quarter, averaging 5.4 points, while also grabbing 2.3 rebounds and handing out 1.7 assists in that final stanza.
Giddey is also a total of plus-11 in plus/minus. Solid, but also fifth on the roster in the fourth. The four players ahead of him in plus/minus come winning time? Tre Jones is a plus-13, Nikola Vucevic a plus-20, Kevin Huerter is at plus-21, and the leader is Matas Buzelis with a plus-27.
Vucevic is also leading the group in fourth-quarter scoring (5.6 points per game) and rebounds (3.4).
Not bad for a guy who just turned 35 and was the blame of many Bulls fans through the years for the team’s shortcomings.
That’s why it might be time to plant a seed that falls under the category of “Way too early in the season.” This combo of high pace and defense when it matters looks sustainable, and if it proves to be, why not extend Vucevic? He loves Chicago, wants to play on a contender, and knows exactly what he’s getting with the Bulls rather than gamble on going elsewhere.
A one-year deal with a team option for a big that is essential for this team’s late-game success? Where does one sign up?
Definitely a topic for another day, but one that should be put on the agenda.
Until then, however, there’s more for this Bulls team to prove, more opposing players to leave gasping for air.
