The Bulls have reached the point in their resurgence where they’re grading victories.
“The important thing with the wins now is learning how to win close games,” coach Fred Hoiberg said. “Before the seven-game winning streak, we had a lot of heartbreaking losses that were very close and we didn’t finish off games. Seeing the growth in guys like Kris Dunn, who has hit huge shots for us, is big. It has given our guys the confidence to know they can close out those one-possession games after losing so many of them earlier. That’s an important part of the (rebuild) process.”
What rebuild process?
OK, so that’s a tongue-in-cheek remark to the Bulls’ ninth victory in 11 games, a 92-87 come-from-behind triumph over the Knicks on Wednesday night at the United Center.
Winning their second game in as many nights, the Bulls overcame a sluggish start in which they trailed by 15 in the first half and double digits still early in the third to rally behind Kris Dunn’s 17 points, five assists and five rebounds. The ugly affair featured both teams shooting 40.7 percent.
The Bulls pushed ahead for good when Dunn fed Lauri Markkanen with a gorgeous lead pass for a breakaway dunk with 39.2 seconds left after strong defense forced a Courtney Lee miss. The basket marked Markkanen’s only second-half points.
“We work on that throw-ahead to the rim runner every day (in practice),” Hoiberg said. “That’s the first thing that we do in our script offense. I’m glad we were able to complete it at a crucial time.”
Markkanen then stole the ball for a breakaway on which David Nwaba got fouled. But Nwaba missed both free throws with 24.9 seconds left.
Jarrett Jack split two free throws with 8.5 seconds left after drawing a foul from Nikola Mirotic, who scored a season-low four points. But Dunn calmly sank two free throws with 7.8 seconds left and the Knicks botched an inbounds play that led to Enes Kanter attempting a 3-pointer that missed badly.
Justin Holiday tacked on two free throws for the final margin. The Knicks’ last field goal came with 4 minutes, 24 seconds left.
“We just kept believing and fighting,” Markkanen said.
Kristaps Porzingis’ 23 points led the Knicks, but he shot just 9-for-22 as Markkanen played solid positional defense on him for the second straight meeting.
“Credit to Lauri. He was fantastic on Porzingis,” Dunn said. “To be able to take on the challenge and compete with his matchup was big. Porzingis is a good player. But Lauri didn’t back down. That made everybody else a little stronger and a little more together (defensively).”
The Knicks started former Bull Doug McDermott for the first time. He managed just three points on 1-for-6 shooting.
If you’re scoring for the draft lottery, fellow bottom feeders like the Mavericks and Hawks prevailed as well. But the Bulls now are tied for just the seventh-worst record in the league.
If you’re, ahem, dreaming playoffs, the Bulls are within six games of the East’s eighth seed.
“It started this summer. We believed in ourselves,” Dunn said. “We were working very hard as a unit, building that chemistry. I think chemistry is the biggest thing right now. We’re just clicking as a unit. Everybody is liking each other. Everybody is positive.
“And we’re listening to the coaching staff. They do a great job with the game plans. We joke about (our 3-20 start) all the time. We’re just trying to change it around.”
Twitter @kcjhoop
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