The score was tight at Delta Center on Wednesday night — and then tensions ran high.
With the Bulls leading the Jazz by one point and just over nine seconds left on the clock in the fourth quarter, the teams got into a heated scuffle, with Utah’s John Collins and Chicago assistant coach Chris Fleming in the middle of things.
Things started innocuous enough as the Bulls inbounded the ball to DeMar DeRozan, who was then immediately fouled along the sideline by Collin Sexton.
But that’s when the proceedings started to get chippy, as the Bulls’ Torrey Craig — who was not playing in the game — seemingly took exception to the way the Sexton hit DeRozan in the face as he went for the intentional foul.
Fleming then stepped as the two teams converged near the Bulls’ bench and appeared to try to keep Collins from coming closer.
But then Collins shoved Fleming up high, and both teams started going at each other before they were both separated.
After all was said and done, Collins and Craig were both issued technical fouls with nine seconds left.
Jordan Clarkson tied the game by hitting the technical free throws to tie the game at 117 apiece. and the Bulls wound up pulling away with a 119-117 win.
But DeRozan stepped to the line and ultimately secured the win with a pair of free throws on the other end.
“Chris Fleming I think was trying to hold everybody off to kind of separate,” Bulls head coach Billy Donovan said after the clash. “And then from there, it just kind of escalated. … At that point, I stepped in, to kind of break it up a little bit.
“We’ve got to be better in those moments,” Donovan added. “Not only do we lose a point on a technical foul, we also iced our free throw shooter. I give DeMar a lot of credit for being mentally tough enough.”
DeRozan finished with a game-high 29 points, seven assists and six rebounds.