of chicago bulls Officially streaking.
Saturday’s 126-118 win over the Utah Jazz gave the Bulls their third straight win, 19-21. for the season. After starting the 11-18 campaign, things are starting to turn around.
Here are 10 observations:
1. The Bulls got off to a fast start, leading 8–0 in the first four minutes of the first quarter before Will Hardy gave the time whistle. The Jazz had missed their first seven field goal attempts at that point, six of which were 3-pointers.
2. Out of that timeout, Lauri Markkanen threw back-to-back prestigious dunks to cut Utah’s deficit in half, catalyzing a back-and-forth contest from then on. threw an ambitious slam — poetic, given his nasty habit of framing poster attempts during his four seasons in Chicago.
Markkanen finished the game with 28 points on 20-12 shooting and a whopping eight dunks. Includes an earthquake poster by Nikola Vučević.
He finished 2-for-7 from a 3-point range, but made a consistent positive impact as a finisher and facilitator after attracting the attention of the defensive side. Whoever was to blame for Markkanen’s disrespectful end to the Bulls tenure, his last two seasons of his Chicago tenure saw less of that dynamic. This is a sign of his comprehensive and impressive improvement.
3. Zach LaVine barely kept his cool in the 25 hours between Saturday’s tipoff and his 41-point, 11-three-pointer outing with the 76ers. He scored his 11 points with his 5-for-7 shooting in the opening frame, achieved his 3-for-4 at the rim with some strong drives, and scored his first attempt from long distance. Went and clinched the Bulls first quarter lead.
He started his second throw, but in the final 28 seconds of the quarter, he scored six points on a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer and a free throw from a shooting foul on Kelly Olynyk near the buzzer, giving the Bulls the lead. 4 point lead at half.
He then caught fire again in the fourth, scoring 12 of his final 36 points and making 3 of his 4 3-point attempts. Overall, LaVine went 6-12 from distance on Saturday. Just like on Friday, he roamed off the ball, pulled away catches, and came up with big defensive plays in the stretch.
Four. DeMar DeRozan came out of his mini-funk — he scored just two points in the second half against Philadelphia and went scoreless in the first quarter of the game — when the Bulls extended the 4-point lead in the second. They put in six points early in the quarter, with an eight-point lead. But when he left, a brutal drought ensued. The Bulls did not register his goals on the field between 8:27 and 3:23 in the quarter. This he matched with a 12-2 Uttarán, leading 46-40.
Five. The Bulls pulled back 53-49 by the break, but the Jazz dominated the third quarter, leading by five points over the fourth quarter with a 40-31 scoring margin. A fault appeared in the Bulls’ ability to contain dribbling incursions and protect the rim in those 12 minutes as he allowed 24 paint points on 12-for-13 shooting.
In the game, Utah finished with 68 paint points and shooting lines at the rim 29 to 38 (76.3%). Alex Caruso and Javonte Green are still absent, and while they probably won’t solve all of these problems, their absence was certainly felt in the Boundary Containment Department.
6. Patrick Williams started the game 0-7 from the field. Coby White started his 0-4.
However, in a crucial stretch in the first half of the fourth quarter (less than two minutes), the two scored 11 straight points combined, turning a seven-point lead into a two-point lead. Williams hit back-to-back corner three-point shots and White hit a long ball from the top of the key, sneaking a contested floater to the inside.
For Williams, it continues a recent trend of bouncing back from in-game adversity, with a season-high 22 points in Wednesday’s win over the Nets following a late-game debacle in Monday’s loss to the Cavaliers, and a 16-point drop. Including a third. quarter against the Philadelphia 76ers after going scoreless in the first half.
And for White, it continued a season-wide trend of saving his shotmaking for big moments. I got into the play by shooting percent. He also closed the game, a sign of Billy Donovan’s trust.
7. The Bulls star took the reins from there. An onslaught from White and Williams pulled the Bulls down from his 99-92 down to a 103-101 lead. After Utah tied the game from timeouts, DeRozan (his jumper in midrange), Lavigne (three consecutive 3-pointers) and Vucevic (layup) combined to score his 13 points next to the Bulls and 10. Got the points lead. before a stretch run.
8. Overall, DeRozan scored 15 points on 5-for-7 shooting in the fourth and finished with 35. It’s the first time he and Lavigne have each scored his 30 or more points in the same game this season, and his two All-Stars with the Bulls incumbents are uniting once again. Add Vucevic’s under-noted but very important performance of his 15 points, 16 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks and the Bulls’ best player sets the standard in place.
9. Rookie Jazz wing Ochai Agbaj was the latest in a line of unprecedented sharp-shooting roll players that burned the back end of the Bulls’ rotation from across the arc. Acquired from Cleveland as part of a Donovan Mitchell trade, Agbaj, the 14th pick in the 2022 draft, entered the play shooting 29.6 percent from the 3-point range, but had four triples without a mistake. made and converted several strong drives on the way to 19 points with 7-for-7 shooting.
Ten. Bulls good vibes continue. They’re now on a three-game winning streak, all in impressive fashion: a comfortable home victory over the all-out Nets, a late rout of the 76ers sans Joel Embiid, and a final comeback win in a row against the hilarious Jazz. Since the meltdown in Minnesota, the Bulls are now 8-3 in 11 games and are very likely to turn their season around.
Next is the Boston Celtics on Monday.
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