Bulls outlast Hornets for overtime victory |
CHARLOTTE - At some point, you knew the Chicago Bulls (17-21) would be faced with some tough decisions, and those decisions are about to come full circle. With Zach Lavine and Nikola Vucevic returning from injuries, Billy Donovan announced Monday that both would return to the starting lineup soon, with Wednesday as the most likely game.
No one will argue that this Bulls team is at its best when both of them are starting, but judging by how this team has played without them, especially without Lavine in the starting lineup, there are some questions as to whether or not this will disrupt the chemistry of the team. Not only are those two back, but Patrick Williams and Alex Caruso returned from minor injuries as the Bulls appear to be getting healthy at the perfect time and are one player (Torrey Craig) away from being as healthy as they have been all season. Facing off against the Charlotte Hornets (8-26) at the Spectrum Center on Monday, the Bulls were looking for their second win in 72 hours against a struggling Hornets team. Early on, the Bulls got off to a sluggish start as they trailed by one point after the first quarter. Then came the second quarter, where the Bulls began to take over. Led by their defense, Chicago outscored the Hornets 27-18 to grab an eight-point lead at the half. Charlotte began to chip away at that lead in the third, but in the fourth, things went south for the Bulls as they blew a big lead and were headed to Overtime. Fortunately, the Bulls managed to bounce back as they scored the first eight points of overOvertimeich proved to be the difference in the 119-112 overtime victory. The big story of the night was the play of the Bulls bigs as both came to play. Since being put into the starting lineup, Andre Drummond has been playing at an elite level and has shown he could be a starter on many teams. In what could be his final start in place of Vucevic, Drummond wanted to make the decision as tough as possible for Donovan, as he came away with 21 points and 15 rebounds. Vucevic, on the other hand, has looked as good as ever in his two games off the bench, and Monday saw him put together one of those games the Bulls have been waiting for as he matched Drummond with 21 points and hauled in 10 rebounds to give the Bulls two post players with double-doubles. Whether or not both of these guys remain in the starting lineup, one thing is clear: Donovan needs to find a way to get both of these men on the floor at the same time. Despite all of the changes potentially coming to the starting lineup, the two constants that will remain the same are Coby White and Demar DeRozan. Both have been the stabilizing force through thick and thin this season, but White's play the past month has made him the go-to guy offensively. Even after going through a mini-shooting slump, White continued to make plays, and you had to think that slump would end sooner or later. With 27 points and connecting for three more triples, it does appear that his shooting slump is behind him as he led the Bulls again. DeRozan rounded out the double-figure outputs for Chicago with a quiet 18 points, but with seven points and seven rebounds did a lot of the dirty work for this team. Chicago also received nine points from Lavine off the bench, with Williams adding eight in his first game back to give the Bulls another offensively balanced night. The Hornets struggles have been well documented this season, but when they are down LaMelo Ball for most of the season and Gordon Hayward missing time two of their better players are out of the lineup. That has forced other players to step up, and Terry Rozier more than held his own in this one by dropping a game-high 39 points and dishing out eight assists. 21 of his 39 points came off seven triples as he was a thorn in the Bulls side all game. Charlotte also received another massive game from Miles Bridges, who chipped in with 24 points and eight boards after putting up 27 against Chicago on Saturday. Those two were the focal points of the Hornets offense most of the night, but Charlotte did have two other players land in double figures with one coming from the bench. Nick Smith Jr was the leader of the bench as he chipped in with 15 points in 32 minutes. Nick Richards also got in on the fun with 10 points and eight rebounds in 39 minutes, while JT Thor picked up nine points and eight rebounds off the bench. Chicago will return on Wednesday when they welcome the Houston Rockets to the United Center. One of the more impressive teams this season, Houston will enter the game with the second-best defense in the league, so the Bulls will certainly have their work cut out for them.
