CHICAGO — For a half-second, Coby White thought about pushing his luck.

It was deep in the fourth quarter of a 138-110 win over the Los Angeles Clippers. The Chicago Bulls held an unshakeable 31-point lead. White had knocked down 3-pointers on his last two trips down the court. There was nothing much to lose and plenty to gain as a crowd containing Bears star Caleb Williams and Cubs star Pete Crow-Armstrong rumbled excitedly for one more shot.

White pulled up in transition, tucking the ball up toward his chin in a pantomime of his shot. But a heartbeat later, he thought better of the heat check, dumping the ball back to a trailing teammate and grinning as if sharing a joke with himself.

After barely shooting above 31% for most of the season, White made 13 3-pointers in the last two wins, a welcome relief for a player whose game is typically elevated behind the arc.

“It’s only been two games,” White said with a laugh. “But I just want to take it game by game and hopefully just continue to stack games, God willing. … I think any shooter would tell you there’s going to be ebbs and flows, but it always evens out at the end of the day.”

Although he didn’t stretch himself too far with that final shot, White still pushed himself to punctuate the win by scoring five of his six 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. The Bulls tied a franchise record for total 3-pointers made in the game, sinking 25 as a collective. Matas Buzelis, Ayo Dosunmu and Kevin Huerter added four 3-pointers each.

Here are three takeaways from the win:

One shining quarter

The Bulls won the game by winning the second quarter.

Most of the game was relatively evenly matched. But that wasn’t true in the second quarter, when the Bulls outscored the Clippers 45-19 in a 12-minute sprint that defined the rest of the game. Despite taking more shots than the Bulls, the Clippers went 9 for 26 in this short span and missed all six of their attempts from behind the arc.

The Bulls, meanwhile, could not miss when they put the ball on the floor. They missed only one shot from inside the arc in the second quarter — and still managed to shoot 57.1% from 3-point range — as Ayo Dosunmu and Matas Buzelis racked up points at the rim in transition. Eight different players scored in the shooting onslaught.

Few deficits are truly insurmountable in the modern NBA. But a 21-point differential at the half gave the Bulls enough breathing room to live on through the second half. They matched the Clippers evenly in a 34-32 third quarter. On the second night of a back-to-back without Kawhi Leonard, Los Angeles could do nothing to chip away at the lead before crumbling in the fourth quarter.

Get to the rim

The 3-pointers stood out considerably, but balance was still key in Tuesday’s win. The Bulls scored only one 2-point basket in the first quarter, netting six of their 15 3-pointers in that frame. But once the Bulls began to crack open channels from the wings to the rim, the game opened up into a free-for-all of downhill movement. Nikola Vučević bounded past Ivica Zubac for a rare two-handed slam off the dribble. Buzelis threw down emphatic dunks in transition. The Bulls tallied a combined 40 points at the rim.

Buzelis offered a portrait of the ideal balance of scoring, logging half of his makes from 3-point range and the other half at the rim, with no attempts from outside the restricted area. This type of scoring is crucial to the identity of the Bulls, who still rank second overall in the NBA in total shot volume within the restricted area.

Josh Giddey nears a return

The Bulls could return to their preferred starting lineup as soon as Thursday’s game in Minnesota, as starting guard Josh Giddey prepares to return from a 10-game absence due to a hamstring strain.

Coach Billy Donovan said the guard is “trending in the right direction” after practicing Sunday with Windy City and Tuesday with the Bulls. He is expected to travel with the team for Thursday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, although Donovan did not guarantee that Giddey would be made available for that game.

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