In a game between two shorthanded teams, Chicago did what they’ve done so often in the past few years and took care of business. A November win at home against a lottery team won’t make anybody anoint the Bulls any more than they had before, but tonight was a solid showcase for the new additions to the team.
Pau Gasol struggled defending Nikola Vucevic down low, and with his own shot on the other end, but held up despite playing over 34 minutes…in the first three quarters alone. That won’t (and can’t) be the norm, but on a night where Joakim Noah sat with an illness and Taj Gibson battled foul trouble, Pau answered the bell and withstood the heavy minutes Thibs required of him. It certainly helped that Vucevic had half a dozen turnovers and missed some easy shots, but Gasol had 16 points (on 7-16 shooting), 13 boards and a pair of blocks. If he has a poor stretch in this four-games-in-five-nights slog, he’ll definitely have an alibi.
As for the other first-year Bulls, Nikola Mirotic and Aaron Brooks had their best games yet. Mirotic committed a couple of silly fouls in his nearly 23 minutes of court time, though his pair of three pointers were what pushed the Bulls ahead for good in the final frame. Up by two, he hit one with less than eight minutes to go to make it 82-77 and the other a minute later for an 87-79 lead, one they would not relinquish. Brooks assisted on the latter, one of eight dimes on the night for him, and he knocked down both of his triples. He had an emphatic block of Vucevic, who had beaten Gasol to the rim, and delivered the final blow to Orlando by reversing a spin at the top of the key to shake his defender and then blew by Vucevic, scooping the ball off the glass to put the game out of reach at 98-88 with less than a minute remaining. Doug McDermott chipped in too in the first half, mostly by aggressively cutting to the basket. He finished with 12 points in less than 12 minutes.
Orlando’s attack was led by Tobias Harris (21 points on 9-15 shooting to go with nine boards) and Vucevic, who had 19 and 13, but was just 9-22 from the floor. Channing Frye did his usual damage against the Bulls, hitting three of four triples, though thankfully for the Bulls those were his only attempts in 36 minutes. He and Harris were the only Magic (Magicians?) to shoot over 50%. Evan Fournier’s 13 points and 2-5 shooting from distance was marred by going 5-14 overall, just as rookie Elfrid Payton’s seven assists were dampened by a paltry 3-14 line. Ex-Bull Ben Gordon chipped in with six points on six shots in 17 minutes off the bench.
Chicago continues their run of Eastern Conference bottom-feeders tomorrow night in Milwaukee. It remains to be seen if they will get Noah or Derrick Rose back, reinforcements they’ll likely need if they are to keep their encouraging start going.
The Bulls are a much better team than the Magic and were expected to win the game.
Sure, but take the two best players off of any team and the disparity suddenly becomes much, much smaller.