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Mike Dunleavy probably put it best about the Bulls 113-106 double overtime victory Thursday over the Milwaukee Bucks that gave the Bulls a theoretically insurmountable 3-0 lead in their first round playoff series.

Dunleavy said it was a game the Bulls were fortunate to win—since they trailed by 18 points in the second quarter—while it was a game the Bulls had no business losing. Yet, the Bulls gave up a 10-point lead with 2:51 left in regulation and then withstood last shot Bucks chances to win at the end of regulation and in the first overtime.

And then the veteran Bulls stampeded the young Bucks in the second overtime with grueling defense, steals by Jimmy Butler, Derrick Rose and two by Joakim Noah leading to a 12-0 run to start the second overtime and leave the Bulls in position to close out the series 4:30 Saturday afternoon. No NBA team ever has won a series after trailing 3-0, and deliciously awaiting, though no one cares to mention it, is the dream matchup with the Cleveland Cavaliers, also ahead 3-0 in their first round series.

And that the Bulls for perhaps for the first time this season can feel confident about such a matchup came with a vintage game from Rose, a season most 34 points with eight assists, three steals and five of nine three pointers.

Rose and Butler starred again as Butler added 24 points and the steal and dunk to open the second overtime that launched the decisive run. Pau Gasol had 17 points and 14 rebounds, Tony Snell playing the primary role off the bench had 16 points and four three pointers, Dunleavy added four three pointers as the Bulls were an effective 14 of 33 on threes, and Noah had a dozen rebounds.

“Derrick, he’s a very special player,” said Noah. “His mentality is what separates him from everybody. He is as tough as they come on the court. There is nobody I’d rather go to battle with than him. It’s been that way forever.”

This Bulls season, as most of the last half dozen have been for better or worse, have been about Rose, his heights of brilliance and depths of despair. The team has risen and fallen with them, false hope at times displayed through determined effort that had no true chance to become supremacy without him. But the schedule and seasons waits for no one; they had to be played. And until you’ve been defeated all is not lost. But everyone always knew. There was no significant journey to be enjoyed without the joy and accomplishment Rose could provide.

But there it was again Thursday, not unlike the last time the Bulls saw it like this in the 2011 playoffs when Rose was voted the league’s MVP. He’s not quite that guy anymore, and he’s not much concerned whether he is or not.

“That theory of being all the way back, I can’t think about that,” Rose said when asked again as he often is in another way. “Every game is going to be different. All I’m doing is preparing myself for every game. Going out there and having confidence, believing in myself and believing in my craft to go out there and compete; it’s the playoffs. You’ve got to love it.”

Rose’s 34 points were his most since late in the 2011-12 season just before his ACL injury in the first game of the playoffs. It was his most in a playoff game since May 2011 and a playoff record for three pointers. Perhaps more significantly, Rose Thursday played more than 48 minutes, his most in a game since his MVP season four years ago when every game was a developing delight. This was just Rose’s seventh game since his third knee surgery, albeit the minor one for a second meniscus tear. Though nothing is minor when you are counting by threes.

So when Rose in a game which, according to ESPN stats he scored as many points on drives as the entire Bucks team, went hurtling toward the basket and was taken down and almost into the stands with 4.9 seconds left in regulation, there was sort of a hush again.

Perhaps not that much in the Bradley Center, which was as raucous as it’s been in years with sort of a faceoff between Bucks fans reacting to large contingents of Chicago fans coming for Bucks/Bulls game. But as Noah scampered over to the prone Rose, there was little movement. Was he hurt again? Oh no!

“I landed good,” Rose said with the sort of look that wonders why you keep asking. “Just getting a little bit of rest while you are down, a vet move. Jo told me to stay down. I was going to wait for the referee to come over, but I got up by myself. Missed a god damned free throw. But hopefully learn from my mistakes, work on my free throws a little more and be the best athlete I can be.”

Almost missed the second one, too, with the Bulls trailing 95-94. But it bounced and went in before Khris Middleton, who had scored eight points in the last 90 seconds to give the Bucks the lead, missed at the buzzer to set up the first of two overtimes.

“It’s playoff basketball,” repeated Rose. “I’m still trying to catch a rhythm. This is, what, my sixth, seventh game back. Just trying to push myself; sometimes I get winded. I can’t think about that. I’m just playing. No expectations. I’m having fun; I love competing.”

That’s really what Game 3 was about, the joy of competing in the playoffs, when there is nothing better in sport. There’s nothing like it for the fulfillment of seeing players succeed with great shot after great shot, demands for production against the greatest of obstacles. These Bucks led by Giannis Antetokounmpo with 25 points and 12 rebounds and Michael Carter-Williams with 19 points and nine assists never backed away.

Milwaukee actually won most of the statistical battles, even on rebounding at 50 each against the bigger Bulls while leading in fast breaks 21-11, in points in the paint 46-38, in second chance points 21-15, forcing 18 Bulls turnovers and putting up 13 more shots.

But it was something of a seven-player ironman Bulls rotation without injured Nikola Mirotic that never gave in against furious Bucks defensive play. It’s just that the Bucks don’t have enough offensive players.

“We could have folded and said, ‘You know what, the game got ugly, let’s think about Game 4,’” said Gasol about that huge second quarter deficit. “The team really reacted well and came out and said, ‘We are going to turn this around, there’s still a lot of game to be played. And we’re going to make it happen right now.’ It was great to see because it was great reaction to get us from 18 down to four at the end of the half and then we built on it in the second half.”

It was no coincidence that second quarter surge/save came with Rose and Gasol returning to the game after a rough patch from the reserves, who didn’t get much time thereafter other than Taj Gibson with a big fourth quarter effort on the boards and Snell with back to back fourth quarter threes that looked like it would be enough for a regulation win.

“My mindset is if I’m wide open shoot the ball,” said Snell, who seems to be evolving into the Kirk Hinrich guard role as Hinrich played six minutes in his return from knee issues. “I was open; they were blitzing Derrick, Pau and Jimmy. So they skipped it to me and I was open. I shot it with confidence. No hesitation.”

That’s the sort of attitude that will keep Snell in the games, and that second one with 2:51 left looked like the clincher. But the Bulls went cautious again, a not unfamiliar offensive trait that enabled the Bucks to send the game into overtime.

It’s an interesting dynamic about this Bulls team.

Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau is known to call the most set plays of any coach in the NBA. The result can be these episodes of stagnant, isolation play the Bulls fall into at times. That was evident early in the game when the Bulls took that first half hit after a fast 10-4 start. But at the same time because of that style of play, the Bulls are perhaps the most prepared team for precise play, which is a premium in the playoffs, that they’ll execute their offense well in stressful times because they are familiar with the deliberate play. Rose isn’t objecting.

“I’m just doing what the game tells me to do; that’s what’s great about our offense,” said Rose. “The way we run it you don’t know who will get the shot. I had a lot of walk in threes. I missed a lot of them in the previous games, but that’s not going to stop me from shooting them. It’s something I work on every day and tonight they just fell.”

Yes, sometimes with a lead the Bulls look like one of those NFL teams in a prevent defense that routinely enables opponents to mount comebacks. Yet, when challenged these Bulls also have the ability, especially now with Butler standing up as such a valuable partner with Rose, to overcome the greatest of hurdles.

“I just try to play my role and do whatever I can to help us win,” said Butler after his third consecutive 20-plus playoff game. “Playing with Derrick, he makes everything easier for everybody. DunDun (Dunleavy) and Tony can really shoot the ball. They space the floor and give myself and Derrick driving lanes. They came through clutch tonight. Tony hit shot after shot to put us ahead; Tony’s ready. Mike’s Mike, he’s a vet, he’s been through it.”

And so the Bulls close in on moving on, though nothing has come easy against this Bucks team and likely won’t in Game 4. Their defensive schemes with pressuring, closing down the lane and Thursday going smaller to get more offense into their game has seemed often to catch the Bulls unaware. In the end, the Bulls’ talent has exceeded their effort, though mostly just barely.

“I don’t think they want to go home, to have their season end,” said Butler, who played just over 53 minutes. “If we play the way we are supposed to play we have a real great shot at winning. But they are a great team; they guard, they rebound and are athletic enough to get a lot of steals and deflections. If we cut our turnovers down like we’ve been saying, why can’t we win on Saturday?”

The Bucks likely will have yet another change of pace, like they did once again, this time starting by pushing the ball behind Antetokounmpo after the Bucks opted for a defensive grind-it-out game in Game 2. Bucks’ coach Jason Kidd has proven inventive, if not with enough troop strength. The Bucks in Game 3 moved away from their traditional size with less Zaza Pachilia and Ersan Ilyasova and used more shooting with O.J. Mayo and Jared Dudley. They were typically aggressive, though again catching the Bulls in their paint-by-numbers sets. The teams were tied at 27 after one thanks to 15 points from Rose and Butler and a pair of Rose threes.

But the Bucks exploded on a 22-4 run to open the second quarter with their smaller team, taking a 49-31 lead that had the Bucks turning the tables on the hunters. Though Rose attacking and shooting, Dunleavy shooting as well and Gibson powering around the boards enabled the Bulls to get back within 53-49 at halftime and essentially save the game.

“It shows the type of team we are,” said Rose. “Offensively we can get things clicking very quickly. We definitely don’t want to be in that type situation early in the game, giving them the momentum like we did. But thank God we got it back quickly before the half. In the locker room, we were saying we had to tighten up things, make it harder for them and contest shots more. It worked.”

The Bulls took a 74-71 lead after three with Rose controlling the close of the quarter finding Dunleavy for scores and with two beautiful drives of his own, whizzing through a double team and weaving through several defenders and going behind his back on the way to a score. Rose again with the ball was a magical mystery tour.

“He’s playing really well,” added Gasol of Rose. “I’m glad he’s playing at this level with this confidence and this level of aggressiveness inside and out; he’s shooting the ball extremely well from the three. He’s in a great groove. He’s the initiator of our offense. He sets the tone. He’s doing a very good job on Carter-Williams as well, not allowing him to get post up position and deep touches. So he’s just playing excellent at this point.”

It looked like the Bulls’ game after a Rose pull up three on the run and those Snell fourth quarter threes. Though the Bulls defense, so clever at times, backfired as it does at times. The Bulls have taken to switching pick and rolls early in the shot clock, which has become fashionable in the NBA. It works reasonably well when Noah and Gibson are playing, though Noah and Gasol have had difficulties. And when Middleton got those back to back scores to get the Bucks back in late, he was open both times on switches that left the Bulls uncertain of their assignments. It’s one of the reasons the Bulls’ defense has not been as good this season. But again, as has been the situation, the offense was enough.

“We weren’t playing defense,” said Butler. “When we got back to guarding we got stops; we are going to score. That’s the thing we get lost in sometimes, how well we can score the ball. And don’t guard. Coming out in that second overtime was all about getting some stops and getting out in the open floor.”

Butler provided that with a steal and breakaway after a first overtime when neither team scored in the last 2:31 and the Bulls survived a pair of late turnovers, stagnant offense and a Mayo shot. Then, remarkably, with four of the starters heading above 40 minutes, the Bulls defense was at it best and Rose showed the emotion and elation after a powerful drive that made it 109-101 about two minutes into the second overtime.

“We had some good stretches throughout the game where we were great defensively,” said Dunleavy. “We got in our offense, got into a good flow and then had some major lulls, but that second overtime was huge; guys just dug in. In some ways we were fortunate to win and in other ways there was no way we should have lost; we’ll take it.

“All series long they’ve put two (defenders) on the ball in different situations whether pick and rolls or post ups,” noted Dunleavy. “If we move the ball right and find the open man and have the proper spacing we are going to get good looks. Some possessions we do that and it’s beautiful and some it’s ‘What are we doing?” Derrick got into his rhythm, got into his flow, was attacking and when he started making those threes I don’t know how you guard him.”

It was a delight for everyone to see. Even Bucks, fans, c’mon. They had to enjoy that show.