A History of the TNT Bulls

Game 11: E’Twaun Moore steps up

Basketball-Reference box score.

Four seconds were left. The game was on the line. A Russell Westbrook air ball had left the door open, and everyone in the arena knew who Chicago would look for to capitalize.

E’Twaun Moore? Oh … well, alright.

Moore sunk a 3-pointer after Gasol dished him the ball, icing the victory for Chicago and ending Westbrook’s streak of consecutive triple-doubles at four. Westbrook had recorded six triple-doubles on the season and four in a row, and it was one of the biggest stories around the league at the time. Isn’t that cute? For context, Russ has rattled off four in a row on two separate occasions this season, and it isn’t even his longest streak of the year.

Nikola Mirotic was crucial down the stretch of this one as well. His 26 points off the bench included a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws that cut the lead to a single point. This performance from Niko was just one of many in a red-hot March that helped secure his second place Rookie of the Year finish. While there are still a proud few who claim that Mirotic still has that kind of game hidden inside him somewhere, we haven’t seen it for quite some time outside the month of March.

The game was Hinrich’s 697th as a Bull, which meant he passed Jerry Sloan for the third most games played in franchise history. I think this is the last time that I’ll be mentioning Kirk moving into third place in some Bulls record, but I make no guarantees.