The Bulls already stole a game against Oklahoma City in thrilling fashion, and while they hung around in this morning’s game, there was never a sense that they were set to sweep the season series with a team that’s faced as many injuries as they have.
The first hour or so of action was par for the course of a Sunday morning contest, which is the NBA equivalent of Thursday Night Football. Combined, the two teams shot 0-14 from three in the first quarter. Pau Gasol was 6-10 in the opening quarter, with every other Bull combining to go 1-14. Chicago didn’t hit a three until midway through the second when Mike Dunleavy finally put one in.
All those misses provided ample opportunity for rebounding, and Enes Kanter gobbled up ten in the first, finishing with 18. Rebounding became a huge story, as the Bulls followed up getting demolished by a Charlotte team that was without Al Jefferson and Cody Zeller by losing the battle 52-33 in this game, despite OKC missing Serge Ibaka (and obviously Kevin Durant).
A flurry from Aaron Brooks and Nikola Mirotic earned the Bulls a tie going into the half. The third quarter was relatively even and the Bulls led by two with under ten minutes to play, but then Russell Westbrook returned and the game was effectively over. He shut the door on the Bulls with 14 points and three assists after re-entering, delivering the dagger on an assist where he found Anthony Morrow for an open triple, and for style points, rather than get intentionally fouled, he drove past every Bull coast to coast for a layup with such blazing speed that it looked like a slo-mo scene from The Flash. Continuing his amazing recent play, Westbrook finished with 36 points, 11 rebounds and six assists.
The loss was to be expected, so the story of the game turned into Tom Thibodeau’s quotes afterward, in which he again complained about minutes limits, this time about how it’s hard for him to manage minutes early for Joakim Noah while also wanting to use him to close the game. Noah’s minutes had been elevated, but now they are back in the low 30s, and to Thibs, a 32 minute restriction is like a 20 minute restriction.
The only real bright spot for the Bulls was Mirotic, who manages to score effectively even when his threes don’t fall thanks to his ability to get to the line. He was just 2-8 from beyond the arc but tallied 27 points on 8-18 shooting to lead the team.
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