On the night of Feb. 1, first-year head coach Billy Donovan and the Chicago Bulls finally snapped their losing skid in taking on their former head coach Tom Thibodeau and the improving New York Knicks. At home at the United Center coming out of the weekend, the Bulls were able to down the Knicks in a huge win, which came by the final score of 110-102.
It did take a late comeback in the second half from the Bulls on Feb. 1 to down the Knicks. But the eight-point victory was a welcome sight for the Bulls, after falling short in such tough fashion in their last game, which came at the hands of superstar point guard Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers by the close final score of 123-122.
What pushed the Bulls to get the win over the Knicks on Feb. 1 was a really nice outing from the duo that is fourth-year power forward Lauri Markkanen and star shooting guard Zach LaVine. On this night, the Bulls got an impressive 51 points combined between Markkanen and LaVine.
What the Chicago Bulls got from Lauri and Zach
Individually, Markkanen added five rebounds, two assists, one steal, and four turnovers, to his game-high 30 point mark. It was also the second straight game with at least 30 points for the streaking Markkanen. He also shot an efficient 11-of-18 from the field, 6-of-12 from beyond the arc, and a perfect 2-of-2 from the free-throw line. Although, Markkanen did cool down a good bit from downtown in the second half.
Moreover, LaVine provided the Bulls with five rebounds, three assists, one steal, and just one turnover, to add to his 21 points. He shot a solid 8-of-16 from the field, 3-of-6 from beyond the arc, and a perfect 2-of-2 from the free-throw line.
The only player that put up double digits scoring coming off the bench for the Bulls was once again the veteran forward Thaddeus Young. Continuing his hot streak of late in this game, Young registered 13 points, to go along with eight rebounds, eight assists, one steal, one block, and one turnover. He shot 6-of-10 from the field, 1-of-1 from beyond the arc, and 0-of-1 from the free-throw line.
The starting five for Donovan and the Bulls was pretty solid across the board. All five of the Bulls starters scored in double figures in this game. And none of the Bulls starters even shot worse than 40 percent from the field.
On the Knicks side, breakthrough big man Julius Randle, rookie guard Immanuel Quickley, and scoring guard Alec Burks were the powering force. Quickley and Burks scored well into double figures off the bench for the Knicks, and Randle came through with a triple-double.
Limiting turnovers in the second half and efficient shooting from the field (just shy of 48.0 percent as a team) was the driving force to get the win for the Bulls as a whole. They shot more than five percent better from the field than the Knicks, and turned the ball over less than them in the second half by a good margin.
After the win over the Knicks, the Bulls now hold a record of 8-11, while snapping their three-game losing streak in the process. Next up for LaVine, Markkanen, and the Bulls is a meeting with the Orlando Magic on the road on Feb. 5, with tip off time set for 6 p.m CT.