CHICAGO — Like many Chicago Bulls fans, Ayo Dosunmu is looking forward to seeing Zach LaVine on Wednesday when his former teammate returns to the United Center for the first time since being dealt to Sacramento last February.

“Yeah, I saw him last at (Alex) Caruso’s wedding,” Dosunmu said Monday of the August nuptials of the Oklahoma City Thunder star and former Bull. “So when he comes to town, that’ll be fun also.”

But instead of toasting Caruso together, Dosunmu will probably be guarding LaVine when they’re both on the court.

Is he also looking forward to trying to stop his old friend from doing Zach-like things?

“I take every matchup the same,” Dosunmu said matter-of-factly. “I try to stop whoever I’m in front of.”

It seems like yesterday that Dosunmu was the bright-eyed rookie learning the ropes from LaVine, Caruso, DeMar DeRozan and Lonzo Ball on that 2021-22 Bulls team that found itself atop the Eastern Conference standings in January until Ball’s season-ending knee injury led to a late fall and a first-round exit in the playoffs.

But things have changed dramatically since, and as the Bulls improved to 3-0 on Monday with a 128-123 win over the Atlanta Hawks at the United Center, Dosunmu was one of only four remaining players from that playoff team, along with Nikola Vučević, Patrick Williams and Coby White, who is sidelined by a right calf injury.

Eight Bulls players finished in double figures in the win, with Dosunmu leading the way with 21 points on 7-for-10 shooting, including four 3s.

The Bulls overcame a slow, turnover-laden start to hold off the Hawks, with Josh Giddey (18 points and 12 rebounds) and Vučević (17 and 17) getting double-doubles and nine different players hitting 3s.

“It’s up to us starters to get us off to a good start,” Giddey said. “But that second unit has come in and it didn’t drop off. A total team effort these first three games, and it has to be that way going forward.”

Vučević was one assist shy of a triple-double, but didn’t know how many he had in his career.

“I have no idea, honestly,” he said. “I wish somebody had told me tonight.”

The Bulls hit 16 of 25 shots and 7 of 10 3s in the 41-point third quarter, with seven different players scoring from beyond the arc. In a back-and-forth fourth quarter, Matas Buzelis’s 3-pointer with 2 1/2 minutes left gave the Bulls the lead for good at 121-118, and Kevin Huerter’s layup after a Vučević steal made it a five-point lead. A missed reverse layup attempt by Dyson Daniels was the Hawks’ last chance, and Tre Jones hit two free throws with 7.7 seconds left to seal it.

There are no big stars left on the Bulls, but it’s a collective unit that hopes to live up to what Dosunmu said was their motto: “Strength in numbers.” The bench scored 58 points Saturday in a win in Orlando, which could be a potential blueprint for success if coach Billy Donovan goes with a 10- or 11-man rotation, as he’s done so far.

Buzelis got in foul trouble in Orlando, forcing Donovan to react early, but the bench responded with strong play from Patrick Williams, Dosunmu and others.

“It was good to see them respond, but in different situations, we could have different guys in the starting lineup, different guys closing games,” Donovan said. “It’s really how the game is going, who is playing well.”

As the anchor of the second unit, Dosunmu has been tasked with keeping the pace intact, playing his usual solid defense and adding some offense when needed.

Dosunmu got off to a poor offensive start last year, shooting 18.6% from 3-point range (8-for-43) over his first nine games. Months later, an MRI revealed a fracture in his left shoulder that he said had been affecting him for about a year. The shoulder required surgery in March, ending his season and sending Dosunmu on a long and grueling rehab.

Dosunmu wound up playing only 46 games in 2024-25, but averaged career bests in points (12.3), rebounds (3.5) and assists (4.5). Still, his 3-point shooting was a subpar 32.8% following the rough start, and that was part of his game that Dosunmu knew needed to improve.

“He didn’t shoot the ball particularly well last year,” Donovan said after the win. “But the one thing about Ayo, he has an unbelievable internal belief in himself, and I always find it interesting when the road for guys to get to this level is a struggle, because they have to have a belief in themself and they have to overcome things.”

“I definitely had a lot of time to sit and think, going through my shoulder surgery,” Dosunmu said. “I thought about it, and when I was able to shoot I put a lot of work into it, just understanding what it takes, being able to space the floor and what that provides for the team, and also being able to balance that with getting downhill.”

In Saturday’s 110-98 win in Orlando, Dosumnu hit three fourth-quarter 3s, including two in the final 4:12 to help seal the deal. On Monday, it was more of the same, with 4 of 6 on 3-point shots.

With White gone for perhaps three more weeks, Dosunmu’s opportunity to be more than a defense-first guard will be tested. We saw what he could do as a focal point at Morgan Park and at the University of Illinois, but he’s never been in the spotlight on teams that included LaVine, DeRozan and White. That needs to change for the sake of the Bulls, even if he comes off the bench.

But when I asked him if he felt the need to pick up some of the offensive slack with White gone, Dosunmu hedged.

“I don’t really look at it like that,” he replied. “I just go out there and play my game. We definitely miss Coby. Knowing him my whole life, I’m excited when he’s going to be back. I’m just going out there and being aggressive, and when it’s my opportunity to shoot, shooting with confidence.”

Donovan said White is not feeling any pain and is able to shoot during practices. It’s the stopping and starting that still affects him, which Donovan called a “tricky” balance when it comes to the rehab process.

“If he plants the wrong way — that explosive step is what got him where he felt the tightness again,” Donovan said, adding: “Then you’ve got to pull back.”

The Bulls are quickly learning to play without White, their top 3-point threat, just as they eventually learned how to play without LaVine last winter following the trade. That’s when Buzelis began to step up, and Josh Giddey turned into their most consistent scorer, while White continued his best all-around season.

The strong finish to the season convinced executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas that only minor tinkering was necessary in the offseason, so the Bulls didn’t make any big moves last summer in what everyone conceded was a rebuilding year.

Of course, AK didn’t count on White being gone to start the season, which only increased the degree of difficulty for the Baby Bulls.

But a 2-0 start heading into Monday was something for them to build on, even as it’s going to take a lot more winning to convince Bulls fans this team is as good as they seem to think.

“We want to be a consistent team,” Dosunmu said. “We laid our groundwork down for what we want to be as an organization. The next step for us, as we do have success, like the first two games, is ‘How are we able to compound that by playing the same way, and even taking it higher?’”

Reaching higher ground is something few believed the Bulls were capable of heading into the season.

They’re learning on the fly how to play together, and where they land is going to be fun to watch.

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