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Alex Caruso shares that trying to stay ahead is tougher than trying to come back from a deficit

These days, keeping a lead is tougher than reclaiming it for the Bulls, says Alex Caruso.

Stephen Beslic

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These days, a Chicago Bulls game wouldn’t feel the same if it didn’t go down to the wire. Although they’d rather win comfortably than have to scratch and claw in clutch minutes, the Bulls seemingly can’t help it, leading defensive ace Alex Caruso to comment that for them, it may be easier coming back from a huge deficit than maintaining a big lead.

Have to sharpen their focus

In their recent matchup against the Portland Trail Blazers, the Bulls held a 15-point lead early in the fourth. However, they let their guard down, allowing the Blazers to mount a furious comeback and take a 105-102 lead. Fortunately for the Bulls, they had Caruso, Nikola Vucevic, and DeMar DeRozan to bail them out down the stretch.

“We’ve learned how to come back from down 20,” Caruso said.

“We’ve got a little more room to learn how to play when we’re up 15, 20, which is probably harder than playing down 20 just because it’s human instinct to take your foot off the gas and relax a little bit. So just keeping everybody focused and making sure that we know how much time we have left in the game.”

Gutting it out

The Bulls have a habit of gutting out wins, and leading the charge is Caruso. In fact, the All-Defensive First Team member was listed as questionable to play with a left toe injury. Adding to his woes, Caruso tweaked his ankle in the first quarter. However, he just went to the locker room and had it taped tight before returning to the game.

“I came back (to the locker room) and got re-taped, moved around a little, and just tried to help the team in any way that I could tonight, which was a little more defense and communication than it was offensive aggressiveness,” Caruso said.

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Stephen Beslic
STEPHEN BESLIC

Stephen Beslic is a writer on Sports Illustrated's FanNation Network. Stephen played basketball from the age of 10 and graduated from Faculty of Economic and Business in Zagreb, Croatia, majoring in Marketing.

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