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Teammates and coaches couldn't stop raving about what Alex Caruso did in Friday night's come-from-behind overtime victory over the Toronto Raptors.
"His IQ defensively, his instincts, it’s amazing to watch. It’s kind of like letting a Cheetah out of the cage and just running wild," DeMar DeRozan said. "He makes it look pretty."
Added Billy Donovan: "Alex guarded, like, four people on some possessions. He’s shutting off a drive and then the ball gets thrown over there and he cuts over there. It was unbelievable what he did physically."
Caruso came up with massive defensive play after defensive play and then, for good measure, sank the game-winning 3-pointer with 2.3 seconds left on a Zach LaVine feed in transition. Which followed Caruso's block on Pascal Siakam because . . . of course it did.
Chicago Bulls
"Alex is incredible," LaVine said. "He shows up when he’s not scoring. He shows up when he is scoring. A guy that you just love on your team."
Caruso finished with 13 points and a career-high 13 rebounds. Six came on the offensive end. Between that and Caruso's multiple defensive stops, the first-team All-Defensive player kept creating extra possessions in a back-and-forth game.
"Amazing and thank you. You bailed me out missing all those FTs. He bailed us out," joked DeRozan, who missed a potential winning free throw in regulation with 0.7 seconds left. "He made a helluva play. The effort that he played with shows why he is who he is. The sacrifice he makes throwing his body around."
It all led to a celebratory water shower as Caruso did a postgame interview on the court.
"It might be an innate thing that I just have this ability to see what stuff is going on," Caruso said. "It’s winning time. Doing all the little things to make sure you can steal possessions. For me late in games, it’s focusing on opportunities to steal possessions and create chaos."
Celebratory chaos certainly followed Caruso's game-winning 3-pointer.
"Pascal tried to big shoulder me and didn’t really get any separation. Put the ball out there got a good strip. I saw Zach boxing out. And then there was 8 seconds left so I’m just trying to space the floor," Caruso said. "Zach made a great read. He had the trust in me, hit me and I did what I’m supposed to do. Get to the corner and shot went in.
"I just tried to focus on going through the routine of how I shoot it and doing it in rhythm. Once it left my hand, I was pretty confident it was going in."