SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Coby White saved his best crossover for after the game Monday night.
After scoring a career-high 37 points in the Bulls’ improbable 22-point comeback win over the Kings, the young guard sat at his locker as he was peppered with questions, seldom using the word “I.” For White, it was about forward DeMar DeRozan’s 19 points in the fourth quarter. It was a tipout by center Nikola Vucevic that kept a key possession alive. It was key minutes from rookie forward Julian Phillips. And it was about veteran guard Alex Caruso’s chaotic defense.
White’s evolution remains a joy to watch, with no obvious wall in sight.
“It’s amazing,” DeRozan said of White’s performance against the Kings. “We’ve all seen him have that in him, but now for him to know that he doesn’t have to worry about mistakes, missed shots, he can stay with it because at any given moment, he can get it going and win us a game.
“It feels good when those moments present itself, when he can carry us to victory, get us back in the game, especially when you play off a guy like that. He got a little tired [in the fourth], and I told him before we made the comeback that I’m right there with him.”
Even as others in the NBA and within the Bulls organization have struggled to see what White might become — the Bulls let him get to the brink of restricted free agency — DeRozan has long worked with White and praised his work ethic, stressing that the effort would pay off.
The Kings were the latest to feel those results. White scored 13 points in the second quarter as the game was slipping away, 16 in the third quarter and eight in the fourth, stepping in when the Kings decided to blitz and double-team DeRozan.
“It was cool. It was dope,” White said. “I think it was a team effort. I don’t really look at it as, ‘Oh, me and [DeRozan] were doing this and that.’ I look at it as a good, solid team win, and I’m proud of our team.
“I was just letting the game come to me, not force it. . . . I just wanted to play in the flow of the offense.”
If White can continue to develop a closer’s mentality, the Bulls might finally have a reliable 1-2 punch at the end of games. Guard Zach LaVine, out for the rest of the season after foot surgery, was supposed to be that guy alongside DeRozan but might not have it in him. For that reason, the Bulls were looking to get off of LaVine’s maximum contract just a year after it was signed — a process that’s expected to continue this offseason.
White, who has been getting more and more auditions to take LaVine’s role, gave his best performance Monday and sounded like a true co-star.
“The basketball court is easy, but [it’s about] a lot of the stuff these guys went through their entire lifetime and how they fought through it, get over it and run through that wall,” White said. “Just the care in this room, that’s what creates the resiliency of this basketball team.”
