LaVine drops 36 points in comeback win over Blazers |
CHICAGO - With the NBA Trade Deadline set for Thursday, things will get interesting across the league. One of the teams to keep an eye on as we inch closer to that deadline is the Chicago Bulls (25-27), as they are still determining their plan for the deadline. On paper, this is a team hovering around .500, but is still in the playoff hunt in the Eastern Conference.
You also have a team that has floated several names out there, like Coby White, Alex Caruso, and others, as possible trade deadline pieces while also stating that they want to compete and plan to add to this roster in some regard. Now you are hearing rumors about Kyrie Irving being a possible target for the Bulls, and it makes you wonder what direction this team will take. With five days until the deadline, the Bulls still have some work to do on the court, and that continued with the visiting Portland Trail Blazers (26-27) on Saturday. Like the Bulls, Portland is hovering right around .500 and are trying to play their way into the playoffs. This was an interesting game that saw the Bulls start strong, fall behind big, and then rally to come from behind to win. What began with the Bulls leading 34-27 after the first quarter, turned into an 11-point halftime deficit as the Blazers not only dropped 43 points on the Bulls in the second half, but held them to just 25. A big reason for that was the play of Damian Lillard, as he led all scorers with 40 points in the contest. Hoping to battle back in the second half, the Bulls flipped the script in the third quarter, which is ironic when you think about it. The third quarter has been a struggle for the Bulls for months now, but they came out to set the tone and nearly doubled up the Blazers 33-17 in that quarter to take a six-point lead into the half. Credit their near 50% shooting from distance (12-26) as a reason why the Bulls were back in front with one quarter to go and managed to win that fourth quarter and picked up another big win 129-121 to help improve their playoff positioning. While Lillard may have led all scorers, the Bulls had plenty of production from their big three, including a massive game from Zach Lavine. After struggling to shoot the ball his past few games, Lavine came out on fire and connected on better than 50% of his shot attempts, including 5-10 from distance as he led the Bulls with 36 points. Throw in 50 combined points from DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic, and the Bulls big three delivered 86 points in the winning effort, which is an outstanding showing across the board. DeRozan and Vucevic each shot the ball better than 50% in their own right, with DeRozan adding 27 points and seven rebounds and Vucevic coming away with 23 points and 11 rebounds. After all the talks about trading away Vucevic this season, you could argue that he needs to be extended, as he has played great this season. Those three carried the load for Chicago, but the Bulls were getting plenty of production across the board. Ayo Dosunmu was fresh off his best showing of the season and picked up 13 more points to give the Bulls four starters in double figures. You also saw Coby White add 10 points off the bench as the Bulls continue to get balanced scoring across the board. Another player starting to see more minutes as of late is Andre Drummond, which has been a massive success for the Bulls. Drummond only had seven points in this one, but with five rebounds and a block, he continues to make the most of his time on the floor. When it comes to the Blazers, they, too, had plenty of offensive balance, but outside of the 40 points from Lillard, Portland only had two players crack the 20-point threshold. Rising star Anfernee Simmons continues to have a breakout season as he connected on five triples and dropped 27 points to give Lillard an excellent scoring duo. Apart from those two, the Bulls did a great job keeping some of the Blazers scorers in check, but that doesn't mean they were held entirely in check. Both Josh Hart and Jeremi Grant picked up 13 points giving the Blazers four starters with double figures also. Grant added four assists and five boards, while Hart picked up 12 rebounds in the loss. Portland also had a fair amount of production from their bench, with Trendon Watford leading the way with 11. These are the types of wins the Bulls need if they plan to continue their climb in the Eastern Conference. With the win, the Bulls not only moved into third place in the Central Division, but also moved into ninth place in the East and are just three games out of the sixth seed. The Bulls will be back on the court Monday when they welcome the San Antonio Spurs to the United Center.
