Zach LaVine was the first stone to roll.
Not usually his forte, but the Bulls guard and his teammates were desperate.
Following LaVine’s steal to start the fourth, it was Chandler Hutchison’s turn. By the time Lauri Markkanen joined the thievery party 22 seconds later, that first stone was turning into a full-blown rock slide.
Another Hutchison steal, another LaVine steal, and just like that a 15-point summit was reduced to a four-point hill to traverse.
Done all in less than five minutes.
“Played the numbers game,’’ guard Kris Dunn said of the improbable fourth-quarter comeback in Saturday’s win over the Cavaliers. “Started the fourth quarter and tried to get it to 10. Once you get it to 10 you’re in the ballgame.’’
By the time the smoke cleared in that final quarter and the comeback was complete in the 118-116 Bulls win, the home team had scored 16 points off of 10 Cleveland turnovers, holding the struggling Cavs to 14 points on 26.7 percent shooting from the field.
The kicker? The Bulls did it with a new-look lineup that hadn’t even seen time together in practice.
“We switched a little bit, changed it up on them,’’ Dunn said. “I love what the coaches did, gave them a different look. We were just locked in. You could see it in each guy’s face.’’
The faces it was seen in? Dunn and LaVine in the backcourt, Tomas Satoransky at the small forward spot, with Hutchison at the four for the first time this season. Finally, Markkanen anchored the five, which is a position he hasn’t had the most success at.
Markkanen, Satoransky and LaVine played all 12 minutes of the fourth, while Dunn and Hutchison played all but seven seconds of the final stanza.
Coach Jim Boylen had trouble figuring out which one of the five to credit first.
“[Dunn], we joke about a guy being a cephalopod, an extremely fast and agile being,’’ Boylen said. “I thought he was all over the place. We had six turnovers in the first seven possessions of the fourth. You gotta give our guys some credit. They found some juice. We were able to get a lineup there that could work.’’
But will it be sustainable moving forward?
That’s what Boylen will have to figure out.
The Warriors made their “Death Lineup’’ famous in their title runs the last five years, finishing games small but lethal. Boylen would settle for just somewhat dangerous.
There would be some collateral damage from that lineup, however, specifically it would take away more playing time from veteran Thaddeus Young, who was limited to just over 15 minutes of action anyway.
Young has been very public in his unhappiness with minutes, and there has been growing momentum that the Bulls will look to trade him by the Feb. 6 deadline.
The addition of Young as a free agent last offseason was solid in concept, with Young having a reputation as a tough-minded leader. What wasn’t well thought out, however, was getting him the minutes he expected, especially with Markkanen having consistency trouble at the five and Young slowing down a bit when it comes to playing the three.
But if the Bulls want to use this lineup more frequently, as well as keep Markkanen’s minutes up, something has to give. Expect that to be Young.
Either way, Dunn was all in on using a defensive-minded unit to try and tap opposing teams out.
“I just want to be on the floor,’’ Dunn said. “They told me early in the year, ‘We need you to be the defensive guy that we know you could be.’ I took it to heart. I take pride in it, and I can see how I can disrupt a game.’’
