De Rozan scored 29 as he continued to anchor the offense alongside LaVine (27), the pair finished with more than 20 points apiece for the second time this season.
Follow Us
Chicago Bulls beat Orlando Magic 102-98 in the NBA match at the United Center on Monday to extend their winning streak to eight games and climb to the top rung of the conference. Demar DeRozan was named Eastern Conference player of the Month. Only two players missed out due to COVID-19 protocols. Alex Caruso returned from a foot injury by the end of the week. And the Bulls are winning with regularity and they are on a clear path towards a postseason.
EIGHT WINS IN A ROW. pic.twitter.com/HFL48nsJhs
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) January 4, 2022
Despite playing with lots of hardships posed by the Coronavirus and injuries, the Magic fought hard and posed a threat to the Bulls. At 7-31, the Magic are second-to-last in the East, but they simply refused to fade away in chicago. Despite a narrow win coach Billy Donovan still saw it as a defensive improvement by holding the Magic under 100 points.
“You get on a winning streak and all of a sudden you don’t even think about any of these other things, (and) I didn’t think defensively we were going in the right direction,” Donovan said. “If you don’t defend and shoot it the way we did, we would not have had a chance to win. That, to me, was the encouraging part of it.
“Now, did we play great? No. By no stretch the imagination … but we talked a lot about defense this morning, and I think the guys came out and tried to do the best job as they possibly could have done.”
The Bulls missed their first seven shots before LaVine scored with a dunk in transition, and they shot under 39% in the first half. Lonzo Ball made only 1 of his 8 in his first game back from COVID-19 protocols and he looked rusty sometimes even missing the rim. LaVine didn’t hit the three point until the final play of the first half, although he scored three more 3s in the second half and finished with 27 points.
DeRozan scored 29 as he continued to anchor the offense alongside LaVine. The pair finished with more than 20 points apiece for the second time this season. Although DeRozan was his team’s leading scorer he didn’t have a great day with the free throws, shooting 1-for-13 and missing several key shots in the fourth quarter.
Wendell Carter was the best player of the Magic as he finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Meanwhile Bulls’ Vucuvic started slowly against his former team but finished with 13 points and 17 rebounds, his 18th double-double of the season. Role players Troy Brown Jr. and Derrick Jones stepped up and contributed pretty well. Jones scored seven points . Brown bulked up the Bulls defensive presence with a pair of steals and a block.
The winning streak is the Bulls’ longest since 2012, the nature of the last three games left the team with a hungry edge.
