Chicago Bulls at Philadelphia 76ers Analysis: Bench Frenzy

Rajon Rondo sat out with a wrist injury as the Chicago Bulls bounced back from an underwhelming New York Knicks loss to an efficient victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. Shout out to the second unit.

First Quarter

Well, it was a pretty good opening quarter. I guess that’s expected when Philadelphia is missing nearly half of their roster.

Not much to say here except Jerian Grant played a perfect 2-for-2 quarter in his 26th start. He even added a couple of steals and a 3-pointer.

1-for-1 to start.

Jimmy Butler nearly flirted with a double-double in the first quarter just that quickly.

He and Robin Lopez played the entire 12-minute quarter.

Mood:

End of 1st:

Second Quarter

In his seven minutes of playing time, Bobby Portis scored eight points and grabbed six rebounds.

Nikola Mirotic went on a tear of his own, but the Sixers knew how to draw a foul. One and-one layup after another came into fruition for the Sixers offense.

However, the Sixers shot themselves out of the game.

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By the end of the quarter, they had already attempted 18 3-point bombs, converting on just three for a 16.7 percent tally.

The Bulls remembered who they were, and shot just 10 3-pointers.

They were outscored 30-26 in the quarter, but thankfully those bad guys missed 15 3-pointers to avoid another Bulls breakdown.

By the way, this was painful to watch:

Halftime:

Third Quarter

The Bulls quickly leaped to a game-high 16-point lead.

Thanks to their 10 made field goals, they outscored the wounded Sixers 27-20.

But here comes the real story.

Portis nailed a floater at the end of the quarter, and nearly took Butler’s hand off in the midst of the celebration:

This is all reminiscent of last season, Portis’ rookie year:

At this point, Portis was having a great game with 10 points and 10 rebounds while shooting 71.4 percent.

If he’s all in for the notion of making the playoffs, can we please avoid injuring the superstar player keeping us alive in the hunt? I believe we’ve felt enough pain and suffering this season.

End of 3rd:

Fourth Quarter

The Bulls kept up the pace and ran through the final quarter to blow out the lowly Philly squad.

Joffrey Lauvergne scored 14 points off the bench.

Mirotic scored 22 points (6-for-8 3s) on 72.7 percent shooting.

Portis scored 12 points on 75 percent shooting off the bench as well.

Grant scored 15 points with 8 rebounds and 5 assists. He deserves player of the game honors.

Butler finished with a triple-double on 19 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists. This is the fourth triple-double of his career.

If bench production can be like this consistently, it would take a huge load off Butler’s shoulders to trust his teammates more and not overexert himself. Maybe they actually do care at this point in the season.

The Bulls shot 8-for-25 on 3s. Sheesh.

But nonetheless,

FINAL:

Next Game

The Bulls tip off their 80th game of the year in Brooklyn against the Nets at 4:00pm CST.