ATLANTA – The report from back in Chicago was optimistic.

Then again, when discussing an injury and how quickly his return to the lineup will be, veteran guard Alex Caruso has been known to sell his coach some early false hope.

The Bulls’ Billy Donovan, however, spoke to Caruso about the sore tailbone suffered in Saturday’s win over the Mavericks, and was looking forward to having the do-it-all guard back sooner than later, especially with what’s on the schedule heading into Christmas.

Over the next six games, the Bulls play the New York Knicks three times, as well as a game in Miami. Two teams that thrive on physicality, but also pride themselves on paying attention to the details. Not exactly the overall strength of this Bulls roster, especially when Caruso’s not in it.

“There’s the perfect example of a guy that doesn’t need to score a lot of points to impact a stat sheet or impact a game,” Donovan said of Caruso and his importance. “It reminds me – obviously they’re different players – but when I had Andre Roberson in OKC, he was a great complement to Serge Ibaka, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, because he just never really scored, was an opportunistic cutter, occasionally took a couple corner threes, lockdown defender, impact a game with his activity, his offensive rebounds, his steals, covering up for guys, putting his body in plays.”

Basically, the daily job description that Caruso carries around for this Bulls team.

While Caruso entered Sunday 10th in team scoring with 5.2 points per game, he was the clear leader in plus/minus (plus-88), and wasn’t being pushed by anyone, with Goran Dragic second at a plus-59.

And it’s not like Caruso has built that plus/minus with the same group. He’s been a starter, played the role of sixth man, and has often been used to close games.

That’s why the hope was that the treatment he received at the Advocate Center on Sunday will lead to a quick recovery. According to Donovan, Tuesday will tell them a lot, with the team expected to have a full practice that day.

“[Caruso’s] an elite defender, he’s not afraid to put his body in plays,” Donovan said. “So yeah, he’s as good as anybody I’ve been around when you look at stat sheets and you look at points, shot attempts, and say, ‘Geez, this guy’s fingerprints are all over the game with the way he played.’

“And I think Alex is smart enough that when he looks at the group, he always looks at it through the lens of, ‘How can I help the group function well, and what can I do to impact the group positively?’ ”

Work in the lab

While some may have been surprised that Patrick Williams entered Sunday as one of the better three-point shooters on the roster so far this season, Williams wasn’t.

“Reps, reps,” Williams said of his 45.3% from beyond the three-point line this season. “I can’t say that I changed my shot too much. Just more so being ready [to shoot]. When you’ve got guys like Zach [LaVine] and DeMar [DeRozan], pick-and-roll genius like Goran [Dragic], and just the guys that can get downhill and create their own shot, you get a lot of closeouts where a shot-fake can go or just a catch-and-shoot. So just be poised in those situations to make the right decision.”

Then again, it’s easy to forget that while it was a small sample size last season – just nine games – Williams did shoot 51.7% from three.

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After the Blackhawks’ surprisingly hot start through their first eight games, general manager Kyle Davidson — asked if he’d alter his plans if the team’s success continued — essentially kicked that question down the road.

“I don’t think we’re going to change our course at all,” he said. “We’ll see where we’re at and go from there. How we handle it, we’ll see, but we’ll get there first.”

Well, the Hawks are now a few miles down the road, and Davidson’s lack of early concern about them potentially being better than planned has been completely justified. He has consistently insisted he does want them to win, but there’s no denying a top draft pick helps the organization long-term.

They’ve lost 17 of their last 20 games, falling to 7-15-4 on the season. They have a minus-32 goal differential. Their five-on-five ratios all sit around 40%, among the league’s worst.

They’re struggling to defend the slot defensively, struggling to stop conceding odd-man rushes and struggling to actually shoot during their offensive opportunities. Even their penalty kill, an October bright spot, no longer looks unique.

They’ve conceded the first goal in 12 of their last 13 games, and they don’t have the necessary neutral-zone speed and playmaking to break through a team protecting a lead. The past three losses — against the stout Islanders, Devils and Jets — in which they’ve scored just one goal (off an offensive-zone takeaway, not a rush or sustained possession) exemplify that.

Patrick Kane, with 20 points in 26 games, entered Sunday tied for 109th in the NHL in scoring and on track for the least productive full season of his career — and he’s still the Hawks’ leading scorer this season. Every other team’s leading scorer has more points; the Stars have six players with more points.

Jonathan Toews, with just four points in his last 12 games, has cooled off after his strong start. Max Domi and Andreas Athanasiou have been fine, but aren’t significantly altering the course of the season (and the forward depth chart will look even uglier once they’re traded). The Hawks still haven’t had a defenseman score a power-play goal since May 2021.

Indeed, the tank appears right on track after all.

The biggest obstacle at the moment appears to — strangely enough — be the Ducks, who have managed to be even more disastrous than the Hawks.

The Ducks are 7-18-3, earning 17 points in 28 games, the only team worse than the Hawks’ 18 points through 26 games. They have, somehow, won only once in regulation. They have a minus-50 goal differential and an abysmal .892 team save percentage.

The Hawks are on pace for 57 points this season, which wouldn’t have been bad enough to finish in last place last season (the Canadiens finished with 55) but would have been three of the previous four full seasons.

Finishing in last place gives them only a 25.5% chance of winning the No. 1 pick in the draft lottery, but it does guarantee a top-three pick. They’re definitely exhibiting the necessary incompetence to wind up in that conversation.

The Ducks, however, are on pace for just 50 points, which would make them the NHL’s second-worst team since the 2005 lockout. They might be historically awful.

The Coyotes, the preseason favorite to finish in last place, are barely ahead of the Hawks at the moment — with 20 points in 25 games entering Sunday. The Sharks and Flyers, the preseason dark horses to slip into the tanking competition, aren’t far off pace with 23 and 24 points, respectively, entering Sunday. The Blue Jackets have also been surprisingly poor, with 20 points in 26 games and a minus-32 goal differential of their own.

Regardless, there’s still two-thirds of the season left to play.

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The Chicago Bulls just put together two of their best quarters in franchise history.

On Saturday night, the opening game of a back-to-back, the Chicago Bulls easily defeated the Dallas Mavericks 144-115. The Bulls improved their record to 11-14 and currently hold the 11th spot in the Eastern Conference.

On their approach to setting a franchise record for first-half scoring with 82 points, the Chicago Bulls got off to a hot start, scoring a season-high 40 points in the opening quarter. They had a first-half field goal percentage of 58.8% and a total of 65.9%. An early 18-point deficit was reduced by the Mavericks to five points in the first quarter. But by the conclusion of the first half, the Bulls had completely taken control of the contest and led 82-53 at the break.

DeMar DeRozan was the top scorer with 17 points on a flawless 9-9 shooting effort from the free throw line. Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic combined for 29 points on 12-17 shooting from the field in the meanwhile. They dominated the Mavericks with selfless passing, fastbreak opportunities, and some of their finest 3-point shooting of the year, dishing out 21 assists on 29 made field goals.

Halftime: Bulls 82, Mavs 53.

Franchise record for scoring in the first half by Chicago.

— Darnell Mayberry (@DarnellMayberry) December 11, 2022

Per Xavier Santos “The second quarter was the DeRozan show. On three occasions, he pump-faked a Mavericks defender and was able to get to the line. It was during this stretch that Jason Kidd waved the white flag. With DeRozan clearly feeling it, the Mavericks deployed a lineup with Frank Ntilikina, Jaden Hardy, Kemba Walker, Davis Bertans, and JaVale McGee. He didn’t bring a credible wing defender or Dinwiddie into the game until the Mavericks were once again down 20 and the Bulls never looked back”.

All things considered, it was precisely what you expected from a team that is trying its hardest to salvage its season. Not to mention, it should allow them to rest their starters before their game, which is in less than a day in Atlanta.

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The Chicago Bulls just put together two of their best quarters in franchise history.

On Saturday night, the opening game of a back-to-back, the Chicago Bulls easily defeated the Dallas Mavericks 144-115. The Bulls improved their record to 11-14 and currently hold the 11th spot in the Eastern Conference.

On their approach to setting a franchise record for first-half scoring with 82 points, the Chicago Bulls got off to a hot start, scoring a season-high 40 points in the opening quarter. They had a first-half field goal percentage of 58.8% and a total of 65.9%. An early 18-point deficit was reduced by the Mavericks to five points in the first quarter. But by the conclusion of the first half, the Bulls had completely taken control of the contest and led 82-53 at the break.

DeMar DeRozan was the top scorer with 17 points on a flawless 9-9 shooting effort from the free throw line. Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic combined for 29 points on 12-17 shooting from the field in the meanwhile. They dominated the Mavericks with selfless passing, fastbreak opportunities, and some of their finest 3-point shooting of the year, dishing out 21 assists on 29 made field goals.

Halftime: Bulls 82, Mavs 53.

Franchise record for scoring in the first half by Chicago.

— Darnell Mayberry (@DarnellMayberry) December 11, 2022

Per Xavier Santos “The second quarter was the DeRozan show. On three occasions, he pump-faked a Mavericks defender and was able to get to the line. It was during this stretch that Jason Kidd waved the white flag. With DeRozan clearly feeling it, the Mavericks deployed a lineup with Frank Ntilikina, Jaden Hardy, Kemba Walker, Davis Bertans, and JaVale McGee. He didn’t bring a credible wing defender or Dinwiddie into the game until the Mavericks were once again down 20 and the Bulls never looked back”.

All things considered, it was precisely what you expected from a team that is trying its hardest to salvage its season. Not to mention, it should allow them to rest their starters before their game, which is in less than a day in Atlanta.

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The Hydra-like power of social media is emphasized early in “Dear Evan Hansen.” The high school teens at the epicenter of the musical running through New Year’s Eve at the Nederlander Theatre are often framed (engulfed, more like) by an ever-scrolling onslaught of hashtags, texts, photos and emojis, perhaps never so poignantly as in the second number, when the socially awkward title character unleashes “Waving Through a Window.”

The song (score and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul) is a sonic high point in the six-time Tony-winning musical. The melody is as soaring, wistful and lonesome as a Roy Orbison ballad. It’s impossible not to relate to Anthony Norman’s emotive Evan Hansen, singing about isolation, surrounded by relentlessly curated pix of his smiling peers. The yearning disaffection in the lyrics foreshadow the first-act suicide that sets the musical’s plot into motion.

“Dear Evan Hansen” is an irresistibly upbeat, insistent testimony to the belief that no one is alone. The tunefully arcing optimism of “You Will Be Found” hits like a blast of sunshine. But despite the euphoria that informs much of the score and the sense of well-being that concludes Steven Levenson’s book, “Dear Evan Hansen” also shows the irrecoverable losses that occur when feelings of alienation shut out all the light.

Finally, its pointed commentary on the self-serving impulse at (or near) the heart of so many supposedly selfless social media campaigns remains as timely as it was when the show premiered in 2015. Directed by Michael Grief, the musical still runs like clockwork — or a late-model phone — and hits all the right notes.

The somewhat convoluted story hinges on the first act (offstage) suicide. Evan (Jeffrey Cornelius at some performances) winds up posing as the dead student’s best friend, even though they barely knew each other. The ruse starts accidentally, but Evan eventually becomes a willing participant in a tangled, elaborate email scheme that draws in the entire family of the deceased. When Evan’s memorial speech goes viral, he’s forced to take the deception to ever-deeper levels.

He’s aided and abetted by his comic sidekick pal Jared Kleinman (Pablo David Laucerica, giving bad advice with hilariously fearless conviction), who agrees to create a trove of “backdated” electronic records that will “prove” how close Evan was to the suicide victim.

Meanwhile, chronic high school overachiever Alana Beck (Micaela Lamas) laments to anyone in earshot that she’s lost her “closest acquaintance,” and appoints herself co-president of a campaign to raise $50,000 for a memorial grove.

Teenagers not being masterminds and social media being the searchable trove of receipts that it is, the skein of exaggerations, lies, omissions and underlying agendas comes to light, resulting in humiliation and emotional devastation on all sides.

One of the flaws in “Dear Evan Hansen” is that it glosses over the fallout from the viral mendacity. Instead of dealing with it, the plot leaps from crisis point to many months later. The strife has apparently evaporated off stage. The set (projection design by Peter Nigrini, set by David Korins) is no longer dominated by a barrage of social media posts but by a romantically lit orchard.

The other problem lies in Evan’s memorial speech, a remembrance supposedly so powerful that it makes him an insta-celebrity. We never actually hear most of that speech. What we do hear is about as viral as an office breakroom poster.

That said, the cast here is terrific. As Evan, Norman captures the contradictions and messiness of being a flawed human teenager. As badboy Connor Murphy, Nikhil Saboo channels a long line of them, shades of James Dean, Judd Nelson and Fezco merging with a puckish charisma.

As Evan and Connor’s respective moms, Coleen Sexton and Lili Thomas duet with fiery maternal attitude in the parental lament “Anybody Have a Map?” Lamas’ delivery of a single line turns Alana 180 degrees from craven to empathetic. And as Connor’s sister Zoe, Alaina Anderson finds layers in a poker-faced character with a nearly ironclad shell.

There are no big boffo dance numbers here. “Dear Evan Hansen” is a chamber musical powerfully grounded in emotion. As its protagonists struggle to navigate its extremes on- and offline, you’ll feel for them.

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The Hydra-like power of social media is emphasized early in “Dear Evan Hansen.” The high school teens at the epicenter of the musical running through New Year’s Eve at the Nederlander Theatre are often framed (engulfed, more like) by an ever-scrolling onslaught of hashtags, texts, photos and emojis, perhaps never so poignantly as in the second number, when the socially awkward title character unleashes “Waving Through a Window.”

The song (score and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul) is a sonic high point in the six-time Tony-winning musical. The melody is as soaring, wistful and lonesome as a Roy Orbison ballad. It’s impossible not to relate to Anthony Norman’s emotive Evan Hansen, singing about isolation, surrounded by relentlessly curated pix of his smiling peers. The yearning disaffection in the lyrics foreshadow the first-act suicide that sets the musical’s plot into motion.

“Dear Evan Hansen” is an irresistibly upbeat, insistent testimony to the belief that no one is alone. The tunefully arcing optimism of “You Will Be Found” hits like a blast of sunshine. But despite the euphoria that informs much of the score and the sense of well-being that concludes Steven Levenson’s book, “Dear Evan Hansen” also shows the irrecoverable losses that occur when feelings of alienation shut out all the light.

Finally, its pointed commentary on the self-serving impulse at (or near) the heart of so many supposedly selfless social media campaigns remains as timely as it was when the show premiered in 2015. Directed by Michael Grief, the musical still runs like clockwork — or a late-model phone — and hits all the right notes.

The somewhat convoluted story hinges on the first act (offstage) suicide. Evan (Jeffrey Cornelius at some performances) winds up posing as the dead student’s best friend, even though they barely knew each other. The ruse starts accidentally, but Evan eventually becomes a willing participant in a tangled, elaborate email scheme that draws in the entire family of the deceased. When Evan’s memorial speech goes viral, he’s forced to take the deception to ever-deeper levels.

He’s aided and abetted by his comic sidekick pal Jared Kleinman (Pablo David Laucerica, giving bad advice with hilariously fearless conviction), who agrees to create a trove of “backdated” electronic records that will “prove” how close Evan was to the suicide victim.

Meanwhile, chronic high school overachiever Alana Beck (Micaela Lamas) laments to anyone in earshot that she’s lost her “closest acquaintance,” and appoints herself co-president of a campaign to raise $50,000 for a memorial grove.

Teenagers not being masterminds and social media being the searchable trove of receipts that it is, the skein of exaggerations, lies, omissions and underlying agendas comes to light, resulting in humiliation and emotional devastation on all sides.

One of the flaws in “Dear Evan Hansen” is that it glosses over the fallout from the viral mendacity. Instead of dealing with it, the plot leaps from crisis point to many months later. The strife has apparently evaporated off stage. The set (projection design by Peter Nigrini, set by David Korins) is no longer dominated by a barrage of social media posts but by a romantically lit orchard.

The other problem lies in Evan’s memorial speech, a remembrance supposedly so powerful that it makes him an insta-celebrity. We never actually hear most of that speech. What we do hear is about as viral as an office breakroom poster.

That said, the cast here is terrific. As Evan, Norman captures the contradictions and messiness of being a flawed human teenager. As badboy Connor Murphy, Nikhil Saboo channels a long line of them, shades of James Dean, Judd Nelson and Fezco merging with a puckish charisma.

As Evan and Connor’s respective moms, Coleen Sexton and Lili Thomas duet with fiery maternal attitude in the parental lament “Anybody Have a Map?” Lamas’ delivery of a single line turns Alana 180 degrees from craven to empathetic. And as Connor’s sister Zoe, Alaina Anderson finds layers in a poker-faced character with a nearly ironclad shell.

There are no big boffo dance numbers here. “Dear Evan Hansen” is a chamber musical powerfully grounded in emotion. As its protagonists struggle to navigate its extremes on- and offline, you’ll feel for them.

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All eyes will be on quarterback Justin Fields as the 3-10 Bears try to finish a rebuilding season with the arrow pointing up heading into the 2023 season.

Fields, perhaps modestly, has fulfilled the most important requirement of the Bears’ first season under general manager Ryan Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus. He’s established himself as the quarterback the Bears will build around in 2023. More progress in the passing game over the final four games would be nice. But at this point, if Fields is still standing when it’s over, the Bears will head into the offseason with more hope than doubt. At Halas Hall, that’s progress.

Beyond Fields, there will be other key players to watch as potential foundation pieces:

Can rookie safety Jaquan Brisker and rookie cornerback Kyler Gordon return after missing two games in concussion protocol to build upon promising first seasons and provide hope for a disappointing defense? Is linebacker Jack Sanborn — with 54 tackles in five starts since the Roquan Smith trade — the real deal? Are rookie left tackle Braxton Jones and second-year right guard Teven Jenkins locked in as building blocks on the offensive line? Will former first-round draft pick Alex Leatherwood get a chance to prove he can be a starting tackle on a playoff team — and is four games enough to do that?

But after Fields, wide receiver Chase Claypool stands above the rest as a focal point of the final month of the season. The Bears gave up their own second-round draft pick in 2023 to acquire Claypool from the Steelers in Week 9 — currently No. 34 overall (and really No. 33, because the Dolphins forfeited their first-round pick this season as punishment for tampering).

By giving the Steelers their own second-round pick instead of the one they acquired from the Ravens for Roquan Smith, the Bears currently have dropped 23 spots in the second round to get him — from No. 34 to No. 57.

The benefit is that Claypool is here now. In theory, Claypool is using his nine games with the Bears to get acclimated to Luke Getsy’s offense and develop a rapport with Fields that will allow the pair to hit the ground running in 2023 — instead of the usual learning/chemistry process with a draft pick. (Packers receiver Christian Watson was the 34th overall pick in last year’s draft.)

Claypool’s production so far has been modest — 12 receptions for 111 yards (9.3 average) and no touchdowns in 22 targets in five games (145 snaps). Getsy’s offense isn’t built for even a big and fast receiver like Claypool to make an immediate impact, the Bears say.

“Coming from where he came from, there’s still routes he’s never run before,” Bears wide receivers coach Tyke Tolbert said prior to the Packers game. “But he’s a very smart guy and he’s taking coaching — in-between periods when the defense is out there doing some stuff.

“Is he where we want him to be? No. But no one is. No one’s ever where you want them to be. But I like coaching him. He’s a coachable guy. He’s a smart guy. He’s got size and hands. He’s got speed. He can do a lot of things. I think it’s just to continue to build off what he’s done so far and hopefully it’ll turn into some production.”

Tolbert said he expects Claypool having full participation in the offseason program to accelerate that progress.

“Absolutely,” Tolbert said. “Because in the offseason you can work with a guy day-in and day-out; work with the quarterback on-campus and off-campus. He’s coming in in the middle of the season. We’re teaching him the game plan, but not necessarily the genesis of the offense — how it began, this is why we call it this or that. We don’t have time to go through all that part of it. [It’s] ‘This is where you line up. This is what you run.’ Once we get to the offseason, I think it’ll be much better.”

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