Nov 1, 2015; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls forward Pau Gasol (16) drives against Orlando Magic forward Jason Smith (14) during the second half at the United Center. Chicago won 92-87. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports
After suffering their first loss of the year this past Friday, the Chicago Bulls bounced back at home with a 92-87 win over the Orlando Magic on Sunday. Here’s the good, the bad and the ugly from Sunday’s victory.
When the Chicago Bulls lost in Detroit this past Friday, the loss came because of countless sloppy turnovers and the inability to keep the Pistons off the glass. The Bulls couldn’t put stops together when they needed to and it was one of the main reasons they fell to 2-1 on the young season.
48 hours later, the defense was a big reason why the Bulls improved to 3-1 with a five-point victory over former Bulls head coach Scott Skiles, former assistant Adrian Griffin and the Orlando Magic. Orlando pulled down 12 offensive rebounds to the Bulls’ 11, but the Bulls not only won the board battle (47-43), they held the Magic to just 63 points through the first three quarters of the game.
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Kirk Hinrich missed Sunday’s game with a toe issue, Bobby Portis failed to register any regular season minutes again, but Bulls head coach Fred Hoiberg utilized his rotation as well as he had in the previous four games. For the fourth time in four games so far this season, 10+ guys saw action. Jimmy Butler was the leading minute man with 32:51, while all five members of the Bulls who came off the bench played at least 15:41 on Sunday night.
There was some good, some bad, and some ugly despite the win for the Bulls on Sunday night. Having said that, let’s take a look at one of the main positives from Sunday’s win.
Next: The Good: Jimmy Butler and the Gasol-Noah combination