John Paxson spoke to the media before Friday’s tilt against the Pacers and said that as Year 2 of the rebuild went on, he and the rest of the front office needed to see continued growth from their core, specifically the trio of Zach LaVine, Lauri Markkanen and Kris Dunn. As it so happened, a couple hours after Paxson spoke the Bulls’ young core posted their best game together, got timely and important contributions across the board and went toe-to-toe with the league’s hottest team.
The difference was a Victor Oladipo banked 3-pointer with 0.3 seconds remaining that ultimately gave Indiana their 13th victory in their last 15 tries.