50-point fourth leads Hawks to comeback win over Bulls |
ATLANTA - Leave it to the Chicago Bulls (13-18) to take the prize for the worst loss of the night for Chicago Sports teams. Coming off the holiday break, where the Bulls were given some extra rest, they returned to the hardwood on Thursday as they took on the Atlanta Hawks (16-15) at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta.
Atlanta is one of those teams similar in talent to the Bulls, and over the past few seasons, these teams have battled it out for one of the final play-in tournament spots. With wins being tough to come by in recent games, being without Lonzo Ball (illness) and Ayo Dosunmu (Achilles) wasn't going to help their cause, as the Bulls are starting to play a lot of their games short-handed. The same can be said for many teams in the league right now, but the Bulls simply don't have the manpower to make up for the key pieces missing from time to time. This was one of those games that went from looking like a blowout win to a painful loss. The Bulls opened up a massive 33-17 lead after the first quarter before pushing their lead to 21 points late in the third. That helped set up a situation where the Bulls had a 99.2% chance to win this game entering the fourth, as they dominated things up to that point. Well, there is a reason why basketball is a four-quarter game, and the Bulls forgot how to play basketball in the fourth as the Hawks not only put up 50 points in the final 12 minutes, but did so by doubling up Chicago on the score column to cap off an improbable comeback as the Hawks knocked off the Bulls 141-133. With Dosunmu out of the lineup, the Bulls were down another key piece as he filled in for the injured Josh Giddey. That meant other players would have to step up, and Jevon Carter took that to heart. Despite coming off the bench in the first quarter, Carter went through the sheer definition of a heater as he connected on six first-quarter triples to finish with 19 points in the quarter and single-handedly had the Bulls in front by double digits. Carter went on to have the best night of his Bulls career, knocking down seven triples in the game to finish with 26 points in 36 minutes off the bench. With Dalen Terry getting the start for Dosunmu and only seeing nine minutes of action, Carter played more like a starter, and the Bulls were happy to see that type of production out of him. While he put forth his best showing of the season, the Bulls offense again went through Zach Lavine as the veteran guard continued to have his way with the Hawks. Like Carter, Lavine played in a team-high 36 minutes and did so by dropping 37 points, dishing out seven assists, and hauling in five boards. These are the games that have been lacking him this season, but he is more than capable of putting those numbers up on a nightly basis. Carter and Lavine did most of the heavy lifting in the losing effort, but it was nice to see Coby White break out of a lengthy shooting slump, even if it was only for one game. Not only was his 8-13 night from the field a step in the right direction, but going 5-8 from distance was also tremendous as Chicago knocked down 22 triples on 43 attempts. White would finish with 23 points to give the Bulls three 20-point scorers, as Chicago needs him to return to the 2023-24 version of himself. Those weren't the only three guys having good nights for the Bulls. Nikola Vucevic had another solid night, scoring 19 points and eight boards, and Patrick Williams continued his recent surge, completing the double-figure scorers for Chicago with 11 points. Jalen Smith (8 points) and Torrey Craig (7 Points) also had strong nights off the bench as the Bulls offense was dialed in. Typically, when a team scores 133 points, it's more than good enough to pick up the win. However, the Bulls aren't your typical team. They play with the fastest pace in the game offensively but struggle to stop the ball on defense. That wasn't the case most of the night, but once the fourth quarter began, the Bulls' defense failed to do much of anything as they let the Hawks battle back to steal the win. Leave it to Jalen Johnson for that, as the budding PF continues to put up monster numbers this season. After struggling to carve out a role last season, Johnson has emerged as one of the Hawks' best players. With 30 points to lead Atlanta, he continued to prove his worth on the court. Johnson also pulled down 15 rebounds and is starting to look like the Clint Capela and John Collins of old during the Hawks' most recent success years. It was going to take more than one player scoring 30 points for the Hawks to mount this type of comeback, and the Hawks got the production they were looking for across the board. Look further than Trae Young, who has made a living dominating the Bulls. While his 27 points were a bit down from his career numbers against Chicago, his 13 assists were right on par as he continued to do what he wanted against this Bulls defense. Those were just two of the three players to score more than 20 points for the Hawks, with D'Andre Hunter coming in strong to drop 25 points to go with six boards. Unlike the previous two mentioned, Hunter's production came off the bench, and he did so playing in just 28 minutes. Those three gave the Bulls fits all night. Atlanta also benefitted from their rookie Zaccharie Risacher putting up 16 points and Dyson Daniels adding 15 as Atlanta also had four of their five starters in double figures. Former Cleveland Cavaliers Forward Larry Nance Jr rounded out the strong showings for the Hawks as he came off the bench to drop 12 points in the massive comeback win.
