Magic dominate Bulls in Lonzo Ball's return |
ORLANDO - It would be nice if the Chicago Bulls (8-12) could find a way to rip off a long winning streak. When you aren't a good team and are inconsistent at best, finding wins is going to be tough to come by, especially on the back end of a back-to-back. For the fourth time this month, the Bulls enjoyed playing back-to-back, with this one coming on the road.
When you look back at the other three instances of back-to-backs this month, Chicago is nothing more than a .500 team as they win one and lose one. Considering they beat the Washington Wizards on Tuesday, you had to think a loss was coming as the Bulls hit the road to take on a very good Orlando Magic (13-7) at Amway Arena. As has been the case most of the season, Chicago not only fires up a ton of threes, but they will live and die by the long ball, which hasn't been the case over the past few seasons. When this team hits its shots from deep, it is not only one of the better offenses in the NBA but can score at will. However, when they struggle to hit their shots from deep, as was the case in this one, with the team going 16-42 but under 35% for most of the game, the results are painful. The Bulls suffered another blowout defeat to the Magic 133-119. Considering how the first quarter went, the Bulls were fortunate enough to get this score where it was, but this game wasn't even that close. With most of the Bulls' starting five struggling to score, it was going to come down to who could step up their game. Ayo Dosunmu was the guy who picked it up. He came out strong with 11 first-quarter points and finished with a team-high 21 points on an efficient 10-12 shooting. Despite his overall strong first quarter, the Bulls' defense struggled to slow down the Magic, as they opened up a 38-25 lead after one and never looked back. Orlando continued to dominate the Bulls in the second quarter, opening a 19-point lead at the half before stretching it to more than 20 in the second half. As has been the case often this season, the Bulls have no trouble playing from behind. With the bench playing most of the fourth quarter, the Bulls managed to lose by just 14, playing practically even the rest of the way. Anytime Dosunmu is your leading scorer, the Bulls are happy, but that tends to mean the rest of their starting five was non-existent. That was the case as Coby White and Zach Lavine were held to single digits, and Josh Giddey tried to pick up the slack with 13 points. Although two of the Bulls big three struggled to get things going, Nikola Vucevic continued to go about his business as he added 19 points and 11 rebounds for another double-double. With the Bulls getting blown out for what seems like the hundredth time this season, it allowed the starters to get some rest and for the bench to get some run. Fans have seen the bench play much better in recent weeks, and it was the Talen Horton-Tucker show in this one, as he finished with a season-high 20 points. Tucker has been a solid addition for the Bulls this season, and he took over down the stretch to have his best game of the season. Chicago also saw the return of Lonzo Ball, who was playing his first game in over a month due to a wrist injury. Expected to continue playing his minutes limit, Ball picked up where he left off and finished with six points and four steals in 15 minutes. Despite sweeping the Bulls last season, Chicago did a great job of shutting Orlando down in their first meeting, as that was one of their better defensive showings of the season. Orlando wasn't going to let that happen again, as Jalen Suggs led all scorers with 31 points. Suggs was one of four starters and five total players in double figures, as the Magic got much better production across the board. Joining Suggs in having a solid game was Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who connected on six of his 10 triples to finish with 24 points. You also had Franz Wagner drop 21 points despite a rough shooting night, as the Magic had three players tally at least 20 points. While those three were Orlando's main scoring options, the Magic got some solid production off the bench, with former Bull Moritz Wagner leading the way with 15 points. Goga Bitadze added 11 points as part of the starting five and pulled down 11 boards as the Magic took it to the Bulls from the opening tip to the final whistle. After enjoying Thanksgiving off, the Bulls return to the court Friday as they will host the Boston Celtics for their final game of the Group Stage. A win for Chicago would advance them in the Emirates Tournament, while a loss would give Boston the group win.
