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.
76ers are without Embiid, Okafor, Simmons, Covington, Bayless and Rodriguez and Saric is on 24-minute limit.
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) April 6, 2017
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.
Grant has shot 40.6% from 3 in 25 starts. Hits his first.
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) April 6, 2017
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:
#Bulls in control after one.
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) April 6, 2017
Butler: 8pts/5rb
Mirotic: 6pts/3rb
Grant: 5pts/2ast pic.twitter.com/Vvrx46foaM
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:
#Bulls lead 53-47 at half.
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) April 7, 2017
Mirotic: 11pts/4rb/2ast
Butler: 10pts/6rb/4ast
Portis: 8pts/6rb pic.twitter.com/QtXngU6WvT
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:
#Bulls take an 82-67 lead heading into the 4th. 12 minutes left to get this W.
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) April 7, 2017
Niko: 16pts/7rb
Butler: 16pts/8rb/6ast
Grant: 13pts/8rb/5ast pic.twitter.com/I5UIvKjJ45
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:
#BullsWin #BullsNation pic.twitter.com/oVCKU3BvNa
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) April 7, 2017
Next Game
The Bulls tip off their 80th game of the year in Brooklyn against the Nets at 4:00pm CST.