MILWAUKEE – It’s not the usual type of talk from a 20-year-old rookie in the NBA.
Then again, who said Caleb Wilson was usual?
He wasn’t usual in knocking down four free throws in crunch time to help ice the Bulls’ 132-125 win over Milwaukee on Friday. He wasn’t usual in then grabbing a huge defensive rebound, and a possession later nabbing a steal on a Tyler Herro pass.
Usual talk? No, not for Wilson. He’s proving to be walking to the beat of his own drum and making sure opposing teams understand exactly who is conducting that music.
“I always feel like near the end of the game I’m going to do the right thing, and I love those moments because it shows who you really are,” Wilson said of the victory. “The thing for me is just proving myself right, like if I want to be the guy I’ve got to show up and make free throws, do clutch things in the final minutes, so just having the opportunity to do that is big.”
Especially since 19 of his 21 points came in the second half.
“I feel like in the first half I didn’t get the ball as much,” Wilson said very matter-of-factly. “One thing about the NBA is the games are long. You might not touch it in the first half but once I get my chance I’m going to go out there and do what I can. And that’s all I did. It’s a long game, your teammates have to find you, and honestly, I’m one of the focal points of our team defensively, most teams focus on me. So just having that patience and knowing it’s eventually going to come.”
That it did, as his 21 points, six rebounds, two blocks and one steal were somewhat historic as the follow up to his 15 points, one block and one steal in his debut on Wednesday. Wilson joined Michael Jordan as the only rookies in Bulls history and ninth in NBA history to have stat lines with those minimums within his first two games.
“He’s fearless, he’s a competitor, he’s a winner at the end of the day,” veteran Tre Jones said of Wilson’s efforts against Milwaukee. “He does whatever the team asks of him, he does things that the team doesn’t even ask from him, and at the end of the day he’s trying to make winning plays down the stretch and he did that.”
So did Jones, however, as coach Tiago Splitter showed his hand a bit, closing the game with the hot hands rather than the usual starting five.
Considering the embarrassment suffered in the blowout in Toronto on Wednesday, it was all hands-on deck in Splitter’s mind.
“Nobody liked the way we played,” Splitter said of that opener. “We know that, the players know that. I think we hit bottom there and it was bad.”
It was up to Splitter to make sure Game 2 of the season wasn’t, as he watched his starting unit again start off slowly, before the likes of Jones, Leonard Miller, Isaac Okoro and Buddy Hield helped right the ship.
Hield scored a quick seven points in just over four minutes of work in the second quarter, while Miller and Okoro combined for 18 points and were both a plus-12 in plus/minus.
That second group would again be called on in the fourth, as the Bulls (1-1) held a two-point lead with 8:45 left.
Come closing time it was Smith, Jones, Okoro, Norman Powell and of course Wilson, as he rode in the white horse to finish it.
“I expected to make the free throws, I expected to get the win,” Wilson added. “So nothing I didn’t expect.”
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Chicago Sun-TimesChicago Bulls reporter