Bulls News: Surprise Guard Joins Michael Jordan on Exclusive Franchise List

Chicago Bulls point guard Coby White is extending his breakout 2023-24 season in style.

Over the course of 43 minutes and 18 seconds of Chicago's 131-116 play-in game demolition of the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night, the 6-foot-5 North Carolina product scored a career-high 42 points on an insane 15-of-21 shooting from the field (3-of-7 from three point land) and 9-of-10 shooting from the charity stripe. He also chipped in nine rebounds, three assists, and one steal, while notching a plus-6 rating, during a lopsided Eastern Conference play-in battle between the ninth-seeded Bulls (39-43) and the tenth-seeded Hawks (36-46).

Borderline unstoppable while cooking Hawks defenders all night, White looked like a fringe All-Star as the Bulls' clear offensive fulcrum, supplanting normal closer DeMar DeRozan.

DeRozan put up solid numbers, too, scoring 22 points on 10-of-19 shooting, passing for nine assists, and grabbing five rebounds while chipping in a game-high plus-27 rating. DeRozan's USC-turned-Chicago teammate Nikola Vucevic turned in a 24-point, 12-rebound double-double, while starting shooting guard Ayo Dosunmu (19 points on 8-of-12 shooting) and reserve forward Javonte Green (10 points on 4-of-7 shooting) were Chicago's only other double-digit scorers.

With the victory, the Bulls will advance to play the Miami Heat on Friday. On the line for both squads: the right to be a heavy underdog in a 1-8 first round playoff matchup with the 64-win Boston Celtics.

White struggled with a hip injury through the end of the regular season, which probably fatally ended his bid for Most Improved Player honors in 2024. But that hip sure didn't seem to impede any of his play tonight, which was loaded with signature stagger-step White drives, balletic finishes, heat-check triples and terrific ball control.

It's that ball control, in combination with his other sparkling stats, that sees White's superlative performance in a single-game elimination matchup elevated even further in the pages of Bulls history. That's because White is now the only Chicago Bull not named Michael Jordan to have submitted a game in which he scored 40 or more points, pulled down five or more rebounds, passed for five or more assists, and had zero turnovers:

For good measure, White thoroughly outplayed his All-Star Atlanta counterpart Trae Young, who scored 22 points on 4-of-12 shooting from the field, dished out 10 assists (against six turnovers), and logged a game-worst minus-27 while also chipping in his signature clueless defense.

White started in the stead of the seemingly forever-injured Lonzo Ball, who has played just 35 games in his three years with Chicago. He emerged as Chicago's second-best player when the most expensive Bull — shooting guard Zach LaVine — had to be shelved with a foot injury in late November. LaVine underwent a season-ending surgery on the pesky extremity in January.

All told, White averaged career highs of 19.1 points (on .447/.376/.838 shooting splits), 5.1 assists, and 4.5 rebounds a night this season. That's a titanic leap from probably his worst season ever, in 2022-23, when he looked like, at most, a streaky microwave reserve scoring option. That year, White notched a career-worst 9.7 points on .443/.372/.871 shooting splits, 2.9 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 0.7 steals in 23.4 minutes.

White carved up the competition in all manner of ways. Here's a masterful spin move driving down the center of the lane, where he managed to put both Young and fellow Atlanta guard Bogdan Bogdanovic in a blender:

Given that this is a guy who takes seven threes a game (and, again, makes 37.6% of them), it makes plenty of sense that he got cooking from long range against an apathetic Hawks defense, too. Here he is nailing a trey off the catch with plenty of room, and time, to operate:

White also made the time to show off his versatility as a distributor and floor general, for good measure. Check out this impressive passing package, spearheaded by the ascendant young creator, as the Bulls put on a clinic against Atlanta midway through the second quarter. The game was getting somewhat close again after Chicago had galloped to an early 18-point lead at the end of the opening frame.

Per K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago, the 42 points technically do not "count" towards White's career high. Because that tally was achieved in a play-in game, it occupies a strange statistical limbo between the regular season and the actual playoffs.

"...I'm definitely counting it as my career-high," White declared, per Johnson. "It's on the stat sheet right here."

As seems to have been a recurring theme for both underperforming Eastern Conference clubs all year, Miami and Chicago both lost a critical contributor in their respective games tonight due to injury.

The Heat's best player, All-NBA swingman Jimmy Butler (who was drafted by Chicago with the No. 30 pick out of Marquette in 2011, incidentally), appears to have hurt his MCL in the first quarter of the Heat's eventual 105-104 heartbreaker against the Philadelphia 76ers in the 7-8 East play-in matchup, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who adds that the 6-foot-7 small forward could miss several weeks with the ailment.

Although Butler played through the ailment after a brief respite, he was clearly hobbled as the game clock ticked down, to the point where Erik Spoelstra finally removed him from Miami's lineup in the game's closing moments. He'll undergo further imaging Thursday, Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald reveals. Starting Heat point guard Terry Rozier remains out with neck spasms.

Chicago will most likely be without its best defender, wing Alex Caruso, who sprained his ankle when reserve center Andre Drummond crashed into him at midcourt, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

But it will have Coby White. And maybe, against a very banged-up Heat team likely missing its most important player, that's all the Bulls will need to move on.