Bulls bounce back from embarrassment to beat Cavaliers in double overtime

The Bulls remain an enigma.

They lose to the lowly Pistons on Tuesday, then come back to beat the Cavaliers, the second-best team in the Eastern Conference, on Wednesday in double overtime.

They went from embarrassing to downright heroic in 24 hours.

Thanks to 11 points by DeMar DeRozan in the second overtime, as well as a fabulous rebounding night from Andre Drummond (26 boards), the Bulls (28-31) outlasted their division rivals 132-123.

The victory helped the Bulls avoid a season sweep against the Cavs and kept them firmly locked into the No. 9 play-in spot.

“No disrespect to Detroit, but that’s a game we should have won,” DeRozan said. “I know I was [ticked] off. I was up till 6 o’clock this morning just [ticked] off about losing. Just eager to get back out there, and everybody showed it.”

Considering the Bulls had an eye-opening 74-39 rebounding advantage, you’d think it shouldn’t have taken two overtimes for them to prevail, but nothing seems to be easy for coach Billy Donovan’s team.

Besides Drummond’s huge rebounding total, Nikola Vucevic grabbed 13. They combined for 15 offensive boards.

“The math is very simple: You have two guys that are very good at rebounding, one of them historically being the best to ever do it, and the other is right behind me, so it makes it hard for teams,” Drummond said. “They’ve got to make a decision on who they are going to block out — either me or him — so you’ve got to pick your poison.”

How important was it for the Bulls to bounce back? There’s a reason Vucevic was caught on camera whipping a chair on the bench with a towel in anger after fouling out in the first overtime. With 23 regular-season games left, Vucevic knows all of this matters.

DeRozan, who had 35 points in over 48 minutes, shared Vucevic’s passion.

“We stayed with it,” DeRozan said. “Guys just kept saying stick with it. It was tough, but we stuck with it. Will. It’s all will. We got a team full of guys that are all will.”

Cleveland had won 11 consecutive overtime games.

Give the Bulls credit because the start of the game had “long night” written all over it, especially when former Bull turned Bulls killer Max Strus picked up where he left off against the Mavericks less than 24 hours earlier by hitting a three-pointer to get things rolling.

In just over four minutes, the Cavs’ lead was six. Within five minutes, it was 10.

By the time the first quarter came to an end, Cleveland was up 32-23, and it felt like the deficit could’ve been worse.

One major factor in why it wasn’t was because of the work Vucevic and Drummond had done on the boards.

The Bulls outrebounded Cleveland 16-7 in the first quarter, setting the tone for what was to come.

The Bulls outscored the Cavs 29-21 in the second quarter and also outrebounded them 23-11, including 12 offensive rebounds that led to 10 second-chance points.

The Bulls closed out the first half with 17 offensive rebounds, the most by the team since 1997, when they nabbed 21 in a half against the Clippers.

“It just speaks to this team,” Drummond said. “We continue to fight. We knew what we did wrong [against the Pistons].”