Cavs continue to roll in blowout win over Bulls

Matt Marton - USA Today Sports

Dustin Riese - Senior Writer - 1 day ago

CHICAGO - Leave it to the Chicago Bulls (24-38) to take another player out of the starting lineup only to look better. This time, it was the red-hot Josh Giddey being a pre-game scratch as he, too, is dealing with some nagging injuries. With his name out of the lineup, Chicago came into the United Center down Lonzo Ball, Giddey, Ayo Dosunmu, Kevin Huerter, and Nikola Vucevic, among others.

It's hard to win any game with that many players out, but facing the best team in the league, the Cleveland Cavaliers (51-10), makes things near impossible. Yet, the Bulls gave the Cavs all they could handle and more most of the night and managed to keep things close from start to finish.

A big reason for that was the surprise performance from Talen Horton-Tucker off the bench as he finished with 22 points, 14 coming in the first half as Chicago led by one at the break. The terrific play from the Bulls continued into the second half as Coby White was starting to heat up as part of his 25-point night. Thrown in another 20-point, 12-rebound outing from Zach Collins, and it's no surprise that the Bulls were within three after three.

Then came the fourth quarter, when the Bulls continued to battle back and even found a way to tie things up at 107 with under six minutes to go, courtesy of Matas Buzelis and his play on both ends of the floor. Ever since moving to the starting lineup, Buzelis has emerged as the Bulls most complete and arguably the future cornerstone of this organization, and that continued with a strong 17-point effort in this one.

Going into the week, everyone knew the Bulls would be facing some challenging teams, but all they wanted to see was how Buzelis held up against the top competition. He proved he could do that and more, which is huge for this organization. With Ball and Giddey both out of the lineup, Dalen Terry and Tre Jones were forced to take on a more prominent role, but with 13 combined points, they didn't make the impact they needed. At the very least, Jones had a solid overall game with nine points, eight boards, and seven assists, but Terry continued to flounder.

Even with the Bulls playing better than anyone anticipated for 42 minutes, it was the last six minutes that did the Bulls in as the Cavaliers ended the game on a 32-10 run to push their winning streak to 11 games, 139-117. A 14-0 run anchored that run after the Bulls tied it up, and just like that, this one was over in the blink of an eye.

As has been the case every time he faces the Bulls, Donovan Mitchell continued to have his way with the Bulls defense as he led all scorers with 28 points. However, Jarrett Allen deserves the Player of the Game honors as he not only put the Cavs in front for good late, but also took the game over on both ends of the floor late. Allen finished with 25 points and 17 boards, as Chicago had no answers for him on the inside.

Chicago also had to contend with Darius Garland, who, despite only having 19 points, came up with several clutch buckets. That included two big buckets during that late run, one being the knockout blow from distance as the Cavs knocked down 17 triples in the game. Cleveland also received 11-point efforts from Max Strus, Sam Merrill, and former Bull Javonte Green, with Ty Jerome adding 16 points off the bench.

Although this was another loss for the Bulls, it was a promising loss for the team, especially when you look at how tough they played and who stepped up for this team. There is no doubt that the Bulls will struggle to win games the rest of the way if the injuries keep piling up, but that is ok as long as the young guys continue to develop.

They have done that in recent weeks, especially Huerter, Buzelis, and Collins, leading many to believe those three could be the potential long-term building blocks for this team. Jalen Smith also has to be put in that category on a short-term basis, as he added 13 points and 11 boards off the bench.