Bulls limp into All-Star break with loss against Pistonis

Matt Marton - USA Today Sports

Dustin Riese - Senior Writer - Thu Feb 13 08:34:22 GMT-05:00 2025

CHICAGO - If the past two days have taught us anything, the Chicago Bulls (22-33) desperately need a rebuild. The fans deserve it; the city deserves it, and most importantly, the organization deserves it, as this has been a long overdue task. If the Bulls are planning to rebuild this offseason, the Detroit Pistons (29-26) are the perfect team to follow as they have laid out the blueprint the Bulls should attempt to follow.

Yes, there will be bumps and struggles along the way, but this team has needed to blow things up and, for whatever reason, failed to do it. One night, after suffering a 40-point loss at the United Center to these same Pistons, these two teams were at it again, and this was the final game until after the all-star break.

Despite the Bulls showing tons more fight, especially in the first half, the results remained the same as the Pistons pulled away down the stretch for the 128-110 to complete the back-to-back sweep. The win also closed out the season series between these teams, with the Pistons going 3-1 for their first winning record against the Bulls in six years.

That goes to show how bad things have gotten in Chicago and how far this team has fallen in the past few years. While the loss was disappointing, several players who will play huge roles with this team in the future stepped up, including Ayo Dosunmu. Expected to be part of this team beyond this season, Dosnumu has been playing better as of late, and with a team-high 23 points, this was one of his better games of the season.

They needed that production as Coby White struggled for a second straight night to finish with seven points, with Patrick Williams adding just three off the bench before leaving with an injury. With White struggling again, the Bulls needed to find ways to generate some offense, and that came from Nikola Vucevic.

One day after playing one of his worst games of the season, Vooch looked like a different person out there as he finished with 21 points and 14 rebounds. Chicago also benefitted from another solid game from Josh Giddey, who finished with 17 points, as they need him to elevate his game down the stretch.

Lonzo Ball was expected for this game, but he remains out with an illness as the Bulls have changed things around in the rotation. Tre Jones benefitted the most from this, as he exploded off the bench for 15 points and led Chicago's second unit. He was joined by Jalen Smith and his 11 points, as they were responsible for all but six of the Bulls bench points. Rounding out the night for the Bulls was the rookie Matas Buzelis, who dropped 11 points and will now head to all-star weekend to participate in the dunk contest.

As is the case, more often than not, the Pistons go as Cade Cunningham goes; he was the engine that made them go in this one. Coming off a good game on Tuesday, Cunningham upped the ante on Wednesday and led all scorers with 29 points and seven assists. He was one of four starters and six players to drop double figures, as scoring wasn't an issue for Detroit.

Joining Cunningham in having a big game was the play of Tobias Harris and Ausar Thompson as they finished with 19 points. Throw in Jalen Duran and his 16-point, 14-rebound double-double, and the Pistons had plenty of options to choose from in an overall balanced attack.

Not only was the starting five the key to the Pistons success, but so was a very strong bench as two players nearly outscored the entire Bulls bench. That isn't saying much when two players accounted for all but five of the Bulls bench points, but you have to give credit where credit is due, and the Pistons bench deserves plenty of credit for the job they have done all week.

After setting the franchise record for most threes in a single season on Tuesday, Malik Beasley was at it again as he connected for four more triples to finish with 14 points. Isaiah Stewart chipped in with 12 points in the winning effort as the Pistons continued their impressive season with another win. The Bulls will now enjoy eight days off before returning to the court next Thursday against the New York Knicks.