Déjà vu

The Bulls lost to a good Cleveland team Saturday, so I wondered how they’d respond last night facing Atlanta at home. The Hawks have a bunch of players greater than their sum, starting with guard Trae Young. That man can score, and pass when he wants to. Lo and behold, the Bulls won even though they were without center Nikola Vucevic. They may have won because they were without Vucevic, who suffered a groin injury against the Cavs. Andre Drumond started at center, and, wow, did he deliver. Drummond pulled down twenty-five rebounds to go with twenty-four points in a 118-113 win. Alex Caruso and Ayo Dosunmu did a nice Jerry Sloan/Norm Van Lier imitation while DeMar DeRozan was his reliable self with the game winding down. Drummond’s twenty-five boards reminded me of Tom Boerwinkle, who holds the team record with thirty-seven against the Suns back in January of 1970. I won’t say DeRozan is the second coming of Chet Walker or Bob Love, though. He reminds me more of ex-White Sox Jermaine Dye. I never realized how good Dye was until he came to the Sox. Ditto DeRozan. These retro-Bulls are still four games under .500, but the arrow definitely seems to be pointing up. I hope so. It’ll help make January go a little faster.