Bulls dominate Hawks to advance in play-in tournament

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There were times when DeMar DeRozan felt like his words weren’t getting through this season.

That the lessons he was trying to teach weren’t being understood.

To his credit, the Bulls veteran didn’t stop his post-game media sessions that at times sounded like sermons.

The latest came last week, when he was insisting that this short-handed roster had to understand the moment and taking advantage of what was in front of them.

It was his “time to put the money on the table” talk.

Message heard.

Thanks to an offense that was running on all cylinders led by 42 points from Coby White, as well as DeRozan doing his part with 22, the Bulls dominated the first-round play-in game on Wednesday, beating the No. 10 seed Hawks and sending them home for the summer in the 131-116 victory.

What that meant was at least one more game, as DeRozan & Co. would now head down to South Beach to take on Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat. On the surface, not a good situation considering it was Butler that ended the Bulls’ postseason hopes in similar fashion last year around this time.

But that was a healthy Jimmy Butler. The star injured his knee in the second-half loss in Philadelphia before the Bulls game, and early reports had it as a possible MCL issue.

While “Heat Culture” is a real thing, Butler is its backbone. The winner of Bulls-Heat would earn the No. 8 seed and the right to take on top-seeded Boston, with Game 1 scheduled to start on Sunday.

“It sucks seeing anybody get hurt,” DeRozan said. “Hopefully (Butler is) alright. Definitely don’t want to see anybody with a major injury.”

First things first, there was taking care of a 36-47 Atlanta team that had closed the regular season out on a six-game losing streak and just got Trae Young back from a hand injury. The same Trae Young that they played better basketball without this season.

“Everything was on the table,” DeRozan said of the win. “We went through a lot this season. Up and down season, a season a lot of us weren’t expecting. Everything we went through this season was for this moment here. We gotta carry that over to the next game as well to give ourselves a chance to be in the playoffs.”

There’s a reason that the Bulls and coach Billy Donovan had to be feeling good about the game plan at the start of the game, making sure one of the league’s best defenders in Alex Caruso would get the first opportunity to put the handcuffs on Young and make sure he didn’t get going.

Mission accepted and mission accomplished.

By the time the opening quarter came to an end, Caruso and the Bulls had built a 40-22 lead, while Young was 0-for-3 with five turnovers.

“Different way of eating,” Caruso described of his mentality and why more players don’t play both ends of the floor with the effort that he does. “I had to work to get here.”

And while Caruso was handling Young, Atlanta had absolutely no answer for White. His 42 points would be a career high, but the play-in stats are not official stats for the books. That didn’t stop White.

“I’m definitely counting it as my career high,” Caruso said. “It’s on the stat sheet right here.

“I was trying to impact winning on both ends of the ball. I was aggressive and things were going my way.”

Young finished the game with just 22 points and was an eye-opening minus-27 in plus/minus with six turnovers.

“I remember that plane ride home (from Miami last year) vividly,” DeRozan added. “I know for me that’s one thing that was on my mind realizing we’re going back to Miami. Not to have that same feeling.”