Recapping this Week in Chicago Bulls Basketball

After going a woeful 0-4 since Nikola Vucevic made his Bulls debut back on March 27 against the San Antonio Spurs, the Chicago Bulls picked up two impressive victories against the Brooklyn Nets and the Indiana Pacers this, week. On Easter Sunday the Bulls took on the short-handed Brooklyn Nets, who were playing without Kevin Durant and James Harden. The Nets would lead for the majority of the first quarter and would lead 28-25 going into the second quarter. Lamarcus Aldridge would score 7 points in the first quarter with Kyrie Irving and Blake Griffin chipping in with 6 a piece. The second quarter would really be the difference maker in this game as the Bulls outscored the Nets 32-18 to build a 57-46 lead going into halftime. Chicago closed the half on a 16-5 run, with point guard Tomas Satoransky scoring 9 of the points. The dynamic duo of Zach Lavine and Nikola Vucevic also chipped in 10 points combined, as they were finally in-sync with each other for the first time since the trade. 

The Bulls only increased their lead in a very impressive 3rd quarter. They used a mini 9-2 spurt with 10:47 , that started with a Lavine layup and was capped off by a Thaddeus Young jumper, to stretch the lead 17 and make it 69-52. The Nets would respond with their own 8-0 run late in the quarter to cut the lead to single digits at 76-67, but Troy Brown would answer with a triple on the Bulls next possession and Vucevic would follow with a basket of his own and just like that Chicago was back out in front by 14 points. The score going into the 4th quarter was 89-72 and the Nets were going to need a big performance from Kyrie Irving to get them back into this one. They would immediately make things interesting as the 4th quarter kicked off starting out on an 8-0 run to cut the deficit back within single digits with plenty of time left to play. Things started to look in the Bulls favor when Thaddeus Young scored in close to make it 100-84 with 7:52 remaining. But this Nets team is a title contender for a reason and they responded with a 9-2 run to get as close as 7 with a little over 5 minutes left to play. All credit goes to the Bulls here who would put on a great closing performance and when Zach Lavine nailed a 3-pointer with 1:22 left on the clock the game was all but over at that point. 6 Chicago Bulls scored in double figures but they were lead by Zach Lavine's 25 and Vucevic's 22 point double double. In the losing effort Brooklyn had 7 players score in double figures including a team high 24 points and 15 assists from Kyrie Irving and 21 points off the bench from Jeff Green. 

The second victory this week was an important one against the Indiana Pacers, who sit directly above the Bulls in the Eastern Conference standings. The Pacers came into this game short-handed with All-Star Domantas Sabonis and Malcom Brogdon both out with injury. Despite that they found themselves in control for most of the first quarter building a 21-16 lead on a Caris LeVert floater with 3:42 remaining. Thaddeus Young would get the last laugh though flipping in a 12 footer to send Chicago into the second quarter leading 30-28. The second quarter would be all Bulls as they would start on a 15-5 run to quickly stretch the lead to 12 and from that point on it never felt like they were going to lose. Chicago would go into halftime leading 62-49 thanks to a well balanced scoring effort that outscored Indiana 32-21 in that quarter.

Right out of the halftime break the Bulls would go on a 7-0 run to push the lead to 20 with 10:58 left to play in the game and wouldn't come close to trailing the rest of the game. Zach Lavine hit a 3-pointer with 2.2 seconds left in the 3rd quarter that would put the Bulls up 97-74 which was their largest lead of the game. The 4th quarter was mostly garbage time minutes in a game that wasn't really close especially since Indiana also lost center Myles Turner, who is a very good shot blocker, to injury in the 4th quarter. This was a stand out game for Nikola Vucevic though, the big man poured in 32 points, grabbed 17 rebounds, and drilled 4 triples. He ate and undersized Indiana alive the entire game and finished a very efficient 14-29. Zach Lavine had another great game for the Bulls scoring 19 points, grabbing 8 rebounds, and dishing out 6 assists showcasing his overall talent. Chicago hit 14 3-pointers in the game including 4 from Vucevic, 4 from Lavine and 3 off the bench from Lauri Markkanen. The Bulls bench played terrific in this game Makkanen chipped in 15 points with 6 rebounds and Coby White dished out 6 assists and scored 13 points. The 2 game winning streak snapped a 6 game losing streak and brought the Bulls overall record back to 21-28. They currently sit 10th in the Eastern Conference standings but they are a game back of 9th placed Indiana and three games back of 8th placed Boston with 33 games left in the season. The Bulls will be back in action Thursday April 8th on the road taking on the 20-31 Toronto Raptors.