To close the second consecutive night, the Bulls beat the Rockets 125-120 at the United Center, opening a streak of two consecutive wins.
Because every game this season seems to demand a note like this: John Wall and Danuel House lost this one to Houston. The Bulls, on the other hand, played without Otto Porter Jr. (lower back) and Patrick Williams (hip bruise).
Here’s what stood out:
Sloppy start …
Without two of their strongest appearances on the sideline, reasonable observers may have been concerned about the defense of the Bulls, who came into play with 27th position in the NBA in this one.
But the Rockets made their lives easier from the start with a few sloppy moves. The visitors finished the first quarter with nine turns, a mark of 6 out of 18 pitches from the ground and just 16 points – a low point of the season for a Bulls opponent.
Don’t get it wrong: the Bulls weren’t great either. They coughed up six balls of their own in the initial frame and started to freeze from the floor. But a hit by Ryan Arcidiacono on the buzzer gave them a 12-point lead after one:
At the touch of the final bell, the teams that entered the night ranked 25th (Rockets) and 29th (Bulls) in combined turnovers per game for 34 of them – 17 each.
… followed by superfluous shooting
In the second, the Bulls’ lead increased to up to 17, but the Rockets responded by cutting their deficit to 12 in half, behind a 3-point red-hot shot (6 out of 10, although the Bulls had 7- to-13 in its own right).
The torrid kick from both sides continued into the second half. The Rockets repeated their 6 in 10 long distance performance in the third, while the Bulls fired 5 in 10. Entering the fourth, each side was above 44 percent of 3 in 65 combined attempts.
And at the end of the night, the Bulls (20 to 45, 44.4%) and Rockets (17 to 40, 42.5%) combined for 37 long balls. This is the second Bulls game this season with 20 or more 3s.
The Bulls, for the second time in the franchise’s history, also had five players in more than three trebles:
Add to that seven of your 10-player rotation scored two digits, and everyone except Adam Mokoka (who recorded just two minutes) scored seven or more, and it was a well-balanced attack for the hosts in this one.
Shooting stars
After the slow start, the said second quarter saw the stars wake up.
Victor Oladipo, on his debut at the Rockets after being replaced by Caris LeVert as part of James Harden’s wide-ranging exchange, started cooking, scoring 12 points from 5-in-7 shots.
And Zach LaVine, after struggling to get out of the gate with four points (all in free throws) and four turns in the first 18 minutes of the game, responded. He scored nine points (4 out of 5 shots) and an assist in the last five and a half minutes of the first half to clear the Rockets, which at one point reached a digit. Two Lauri Markkanen 3s in that quarter also helped.
LaVine added 14 more to help the Bulls out of the third quarter with 93-86, despite the Rockets scoring just three points. He only scored six in the fourth period, but a beautiful flight tray helped the Bulls extend their lead to 116-111 with less than two minutes to play, after an Oladipo 3 again pulled the Rockets into possession.
Oladipo closed the night with 32 points; LaVine led all the scorers with 33 in an efficient 11-to-16 (4-to-8 of 3), plus seven assists, two steals by block and 7-to-8 free-throw shots. Twenty of those points and five of those assists came in the second half, while his five turns look less ugly, considering how many of them came before.
Christian Wood also came in strongly as the game progressed. Between quarters two and four, he had 22 points from 10 out of 12 shots, ending with 25 out of 11 out of 16 (3 out of 5 out of 3) and a series of dominating dunks. He did not suffer another foul after being whistled for his third personal blow in the second half.
Riding the reserves
The day after a 61-point display against the short-handed Mavericks, the Bulls’ bench again provided a spark against a somewhat depleted Rocket rotation. The hosts won the battle of bench points 41-28.
For the second consecutive game, Daniel Gafford recorded impressive minutes, scoring seven points, two blocks and a steal. Donovan called his DNP in Markkanen’s first game back from the health and safety protocols a confrontational decision, and it looks like he will continue to have a stable role for this team.
With Williams and Porter out, Denzel Valentine returned to the rotation after not playing against the Mavericks. Frankly, it was the most Denzel Valentine game my young eyes have ever seen. He recorded a chaotic and undeniably valuable 24 minutes and scored 13 points, hit three 3s, grabbed eight rebounds and ended with a differential of another 14 individual points.
Thad Young (12 points, nine rebounds, three assists, time-high plus-15) and Arcidiacono (nine points, two assists) were again forces of balance, and Garrett Temple – running with the starters in place of Williams – continued his game strong with 13 points and three 3s.
Another notch in the belt of this growing unit.
Building momentum
Although the outcome of this was left open for parts of the fourth period, the Bulls resisted the Rockets and emerged victorious. A drained Markkanen 3 to push them forward 119-113 with 46.9 seconds to play froze and, notably, came out of an assist by LaVine.
Markkanen closed another close contest in the center, surrounded by Young, Temple, LaVine and White. This shot validated the call. Eleven of his 12 field goal attempts from a 3-point range is not ideal, but his 18 points and seven rebounds are based on a strong stretch of play.
And so, the Bulls have a winning streak in their hands. They won two in a row and moved to 6-8, right in the middle of a crowded group near the end of the Eastern Conference playoff / in dispute.
Next: On the road to face Charlotte Hornets on Friday.
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